Tiropitas and Greek Salad

Today, there will be a special guest appearance on my blog, from my younger sister, Amber, making a typical Greek snack, and to go with it, a salad, here is what she says: Tiropita is a traditional Greek snack that you would find in a typical Greek restaurant. The salad is also Greek and can be served with pita bread or seeded bread. The pastry snack is filled with a mix of cheeses.

What you will need for the Tiropitas

Puff pastry (1 sheet)

Cottage cheese (150g)

Cream cheese (150g)

Crumbled feta cheese (150g)

Egg (1, room temperature)

Optional:

Vegetables e.g beetroot

These ingredients are enough to make 12 treats.

How you make the Tiropitas

Preheat the oven to 195 degrees C (180 degrees C for a fan oven) before you start. Put the cottage cheese, cream cheese, and feta cheese into a bowl large enough to fit it all in. Stir it all together until it is spread evenly and there are no clumps of cheese.

Roll out the puff pastry and cut it into roughly equal sized squares. With a spoon scoop out some of the filling and put it on one half of the pastry leaving about 1cm from the edges.

Fold the pastry over so it is a rectangle now and pinch the edges so it tightly sealed. Repeat this for all the other squares of pastry. If you’re putting in a vegetable, lay a slice down before putting the cheese filling on top.

Once you’ve finished all the squares, crack the egg into a small bowl and whisk with a fork. Brush the some of the egg on the top of the uncooked tiropitas. Put them in the oven for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown. Whilst they’re in the oven start the salad.

Once they’re done, take them off the trays and serve them with the salad. Eat them hot or cold, but within two days.

What you will need for the Greek Salad

Olives (15-20 0lives. Not stuffed)

Tomatoes (15-20 cherry tomatoes)

Cucumber (1/3 of a cucumber)

Beetroot (3 small beetroots or 2 large)

Avocado (1/2 an avocado)

Feta cheese (as much as you like, but not too cheesy)

Lemon (1/2 a lemon)

Olive oil (1 ½ tablespoon)

This will go nicely with the tiropitas

How you make the Greek Salad

For the Greek salad, chop the tomatoes and in half and put them into the bowl. Cut ½ cm thick slices of cucumber and chop them into quarters.

Chop the avocado and beetroot into small squares and put them into the bowl. Crumble the feta cheese over the salad and put a squeeze of lemon into the salad. Drizzle with olive oil, cut the olives in half and put them in. With a metal spoon mix all the ingredients together trying not to mush up most of the avocado. If you don't want any mushy avocado at all, add it on top once you've mixed all the other ingredients together. Serve with or on pita or seeded bread.