Hirotiropita-Inspired Wraps

Goodness Wrapped in Phyllo Dough

I love Spanikopita. Josh hates spinach. What’s a girl to do? We stumbled upon Hirotiropita, a variation of Spanikopita but made with shredded pork and veggies… that got me thinking. So what did I do? Take a great dish, tear it all apart and make it my own of course!

We started out with some essential ingredients - Red Peppers, Zucchini, Yellow Squash, Onion, Garlic. The staples in our house.

Starring....

Then we had some fun stuff - Feta Cheese and Garlic Stuffed Olives from the antipesto bar at Central Market. Good stuff!

Delicious Things

We started out by chopping up some chicken into small chunks and sautéing them in some olive oil. Then we added the chopped veggies into the pans and threw in some herbs (more staples like thyme, oregano, and sage) and freshly ground salt and pepper. We got the chicken cooked thoroughly and the veggies a bit soft. Then we mixed in the Feta and chopped Olives and we were ready for the next step.

Nothing Like a Cast Iron Wok on a Gas Stove!

I love the whole wheat phyllo dough at Central Market - it’s inexpensive and so easy to use. It has the nutritional benefits of being whole wheat, but really, you can’t tell the difference. It tastes just as light and flakey as regular phyllo dough. If you’ve never cooked with phyllo, it’s really quite simple once you get the hang of it. It dries out easily, so what I do is let it thaw for about an hour or so while I’m prepping everything else, then carefully unfold. I usually cut it in half or in thirds, and then cover the other sections I’m not using yet with damp paper towels to keep it soft and flexible. I’ve learned to not stress if the sheets start to stick together and tear - really, no one will notice and it will all taste the same in the end! I also used to follow the recommendation of brushing olive oil or butter between each sheet. But that is so much extra fat that’s really not necessary. If I’m making Baklava, I’ll splurge and use butter, but for everything else, often I’ll just wrap it up without the oil and it still tastes amazing. Just experiment and find out what works best for you!

So we started out by laying out our phyllo dough, and using a slotted scoop to put generous piles of filling at the ends…

Starting to Fold the Wraps

Then, using about 5 or so sheets of phyllo, I carefully started folding the strips end over end to create a triangle shape…

Folding End Over End

And the first one’s complete!

One Down!

Keep wrapping till you’re either out of phyllo or out of good filling, and bake on a wax-covered cookie sheet.

Ready To Go In The Oven

I baked them at about 350° until the tops were golden brown. Serve with a batch of tzatziki sauce (easiest and most delicious, nutritious sauce in the world - nonfat plain yogurt, chopped cucumber, chopped garlic, salt and pepper. Essential with any Mediterranean food… or most anything else for that matter!) and you’ve got an incredible dinner! Especially with a good glass of red wine!

Delicious Dinner!

We actually ended up only baking half of them (four of them - more then enough for two people!) and saving the other four unbaked in the freezer. They’ll be a quick and delicious dinner, straight from the freezer to the oven. I had a good portion of filling left over, and the next day tossed it in a pot with a box of organic chicken broth from Trader Joe’s - it was the most delicious and easiest soups I’ve made in a long time! So we ended up getting three really good dinners out of one cooking session. Not bad! 

Tags: Chicken, Comfort Food, Greek, Mediterranean, Tzatziki, Veggies

This entry was posted on October 09th, 2008 and is filed under Recipes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or Trackback from your own site.