Bitter Greens and Sucuk Pie by Anh Nguyen

Hello! I hope you are all doing good. I am home and slowly settling down, absorbing the sunshine and the love.

Today I have Anh from A Food Lover’s Journey. I do not remember how and when I came across her wonderful blog, but ever since the first time I keep going back to her space ever so often to soak myself into her really inspiring photographs and a cuisine quite unknown to me; and I am learning!  Anh’s blog is like a beautiful poetry – deep, meaningful, passionate, inspiring and the little anecdotes of  life defined with meaning and beauty.  Born and raised in Vietnam, Anh now lives in Australia and not only have she created an enticing blog, she writes for a Vietnamese Food and Travel magazine too.

This wonderful lady is a seasoned blogger and has a treasury of recipes in her archives which are a perfect balance of the authentic Vietnamese recipes and the heartwarming stories to complement them.  Besides there are also the international cuisine and the beautiful desserts that she explores with love and zest. I am so glad and thankful to her that she took time out of her chaotic schedule and doing this post for  recipeforlove today!  And I am happy that life offers us these wonderful opportunities to connect with people in another part of the world in such surprising ways, allowing us to know them more and fall in love with their personalities. She is such a dear person to know.

Now go ahead and enjoy her recipe today and visit her at A Food Lover’s Journey – which is a journey really worth taking!

I have been a fan of Soma’s blog ever since my first time here. I love her work, her warmth and especially her dedication and love to family life and Indian cooking. It feels like home around here, and that is why I always come back for more.

I was unsure what to feature in this post. A lot of ideas crossed my mind, but I settled with something I love doing in autumn – making a savoury pie. This is the rustic kind that you can only find at home. The outer layer isn’t puff pastry or the like, it is a simple flour dough made of salt, water and a bit of oil.

The filling though, is marvelous. Forget the dull frozen spinach. I want my pie to be full of flavours and texture, so a mixture of the freshest silverbeet, frisée and chicory is used. I just love my greens. Using fresh greens make the pie way better. I can actually “feel” that I am eating veggies, not a soft mush of overcooked spinach like in those commercial varieties.

In terms of flavours, I have chosen to pair those lovely greens with fresh ricotta, feta and a Turkish sausage called sucuk. Sucuk is smoky, spicy and rather addictive. My local butcher makes really good sucuk which comes in mild and spicy ranges. Of course I have chosen the spicy one here ;). Together with the creamy cheeses, sucuk gives the pie a salty and spicy kick. Love it!

So you have it. My bitter greens and sucuk pie . If you want to make a vegetarian version, simply omit the sucuk, and add in some lemon zest and cumin. It will be delicious.

Bitter Greens and Sucuk Pie

(Loosely based on recipe from Australian Gourmet Traveller)

Ingredients:

For the dough (make 2 small 8-inch swallow pies)

1. 500 gm plain flour
2. 50 ml olive oil, plus extra for brushing
3. 250ml warm water
4. 1 tsp salt

Filling

1. 1 onion, finely chopped
2. olive oil to fry the onion
3. 1.2 kg greens such as silverbeet, cavolo nero and frisée, trimmed and washed thoroughly
4. 100g feta cheese, crumbled
5. 1 egg
6. 200g sucuk (Turkish spicy sausage), case removed and thickly sliced

Method:

1) Prepare the dough first: combine flour and a large pinch of salt on a work surface, form a well in centre, add half the olive oil and 250ml lukewarm water, then knead until a smooth dough forms, adding a little more water if necessary. Divide dough into 10 balls, cover with a damp tea towel and set aside to rest (1 hour).

2) Heat some olive oil in a frying pan over medium heat, add onion, sauté until tender (6-8 minutes), season to taste, set aside to cool. In the same pan, adding the sucuk without additional oil. Briefly fry the sausage then set aside.

3) Cook greens in boiling salted water until tender (1-2 minutes), drain, refresh in cold water, drain well, coarsely chop and combine in a bowl with onion, cheeses, sucuk and egg. Season to taste, stir to combine.

4) Preheat oven to 190C. Oil and flour a 2x 8inch-diameter cake tin. Roll out half the balls on a lightly floured surface to 1mm thick (remember to cover the dough to prevent it from drying out). Use three circles to line base and sides of tin, brushing with oil between each layer. Fill with greens mixture. Fold in pastry edges, layer two pastry circles on top of pie, brushing between each with oil. Trim edges, brush top with oil (I didn’t do this). Repeat with the other 5 balls to complete the second pie.

5) Bake until golden and cooked though (40-45 minutes). Cool in tin until cool enough to touch, turn out, cool to room temperature and serve.