Melpomeni’s Kreatopita – Greek Meat Fillo Pie Recipe

Course
Main Course
Cuisine
Greek
Melpomeni’s Kreatopita – Greek Meat Fillo Pie Recipe

Ingredients

  • For the dough you will need…
  • 300 ml lukewarm water
  • ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)
  • 1 tbsp vinegar
  • 1 pinch salt
  • Plain flour
  • ¼ cup melted butter (to be used to assemble the pie)
  • For the filling you will need…
  • 2 kg leg lamb diced into 1cm cubes (fat and sinew removed)
  • 1 cup red wine
  • ¼ cup olive oil
  • 1 large carrot, diced
  • 2 medium onions, diced
  • 3 medium potatoes, diced
  • 1 cup pumpkin, diced
  • 4 cloves garlic, finely diced
  • 1 whole red chilli (optional)
  • 500 ml tomato passata
  • 1 small bunch parsley, finely chopped
  • 1 cup medium grain rice
  • 1 cup stock (preferably stock made using the lamb leg bone, optional)
  • 1 cup EVOO
  • 2 eggs, beaten
  • Salt and pepper to season

Method

  1. Preparing the dough
  2. Prepare your fillo dough by beginning with the wet ingredients. Stir and slowly add enough flour until you have a soft, pliable dough, knead for 10 minutes and set aside to rest at room temperature around 30 minutes
  3. Preparing the filling
  4. If you have time to prepare your own stock, use the lamb bones removed from the lamb leg with a chopped onion, a carrot and the stalks from a bunch of parsley. Season with salt and pepper and simmer for a couple of hours.
  5. Trim off any lamb fat and remove any sinew, dice the lamb into 1-2cm cubes. In a large bowl add the lamb, wine and ¼ cup of EVOO, mix and set aside
  6. Prepare your vegetables and add them to the lamb
  7. Add passata, parsley, rice, oil, eggs and stock
  8. Season the mixture well with salt and pepper and mix to combine
  9. Preparing the kreatopita
  10. Baste a large, deep, round, metal baking pan with EVOO
  11. Roll out 2/3 of the dough so that it is bigger than the base of the pan; the fillo should overhang the pan and it must not have any holes
  12. Prepare you pie top by rolling out the remaining dough into a thin round fillo, the thinner the better
  13. Brush the entire piece with melted butter
  14. Using a knife cute fillo sheet to resemble a sun; beginning with a circle in the centre and then straight lines from this circle to the outer edge of your fillo.
  15. Fold over the “sunrays” onto the centre circle, to create the fillo layers, then set aside
  16. Carefully place the pie filling into the pan
  17. Roll out your top-fillo again into a circle big enough to just overhang over the pan
  18. Place it on top of the pan
  19. Trim both the upper and lower fillo sheets, leaving enough to press the two fillo layers together and twist them to form a braid
  20. Brush with any remaining butter
  21. Bake at 180°C for at least an hour or until the upper crust is crisp and well coloured
  22. Serving the kreatopita
  23. Allow the kreatopita to coolfor 20-30 minutes before serving with a nice garden salad
  24. Kali Orexi!

Key Points

"> Key Points • Use one large rectangular pan – approximately 34L x 38W x 7.5D – or divide all the quantities and processes and make two round pites in baking pans 25cm in diameter and 5cm in depth

• You can freeze the pites uncooked and then defrost them overnight in the fridge before popping them in the oven to bake

Download the recipe (PDF)