Stuffed Shirts (Spinach Pie)

Join me as I make Stuffed Shirts (Spinach Pie) – From Tika’s Cookbook for the first time! This is a recipe from Leaves from the Inn of the Last Home sourcebook, originally released in 1987. The recipes are compiled by Tika Waylan Majere. You can buy Leaves from the Inn of the Last Home here: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/309152/Leaves-from-the-Inn-of-the-Last-Home?term=leaves+from+the+inn+of+the+last?affiliate_id=50797

From Tika’s Cookbook

Stuffed Shirts (Spinach Pie)

Stuffing:

1 10-ounce package frozen chopped spinach
⅓ cup grated feta cheese
1 tablespoon parsley flakes
1 small clove garlic, minced
3 tablespoons fresh onion, finely chopped
1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Pastry crust:

¾ cup flour
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ cup vegetable shortening
2 ½ tablespoons cold water

Cook spinach according to package directions, then strain water from spinach by pressing it to the side of a sieve (spinach must not be drippy). Feta should be crumbly and grate easily; if it is moist and soft, it may be spoiled. Mix feta, parsley, and spinach in a bowl. Saute onion and garlic in vegetable oil until onion is clear, but do not let it brown. Add onion and garlic to spinach and mix well.

Sift flour and salt together. Cut shortening into flour with a pastry cutter until pea-size lumps are formed. Add cold water all at once. Stir mixture with a fork until it lumps together, add a little more cold water and stir again. Avoid squeezing dough into a ball with hands since too much contact makes dough tough.

Split dough into two halves. Using a floured board and rolling pin, roll each half into squares roughly ⅛ to ¼ inch thick. Place half of spinach mixture into center of each dough square. Fold square over at corners, envelope style. Transfer to ungreased cookie sheet, Bake at 425 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes, until crust is golden brown in several spots.

Serve immediately. This recipe makes two pastries, suitable for a light meal, but the crust and stuffing can be quartered to make four small pies to be served as a side dish.

Transcript

Cold Open

There are a number of problems with this recipe, first of which is that I am the one reading it.

Intro

Today I am making Stuffed Shirts (Spinach Pie) from Tika’s Cookbook in Leaves from the Inn of the Last Home. If you have made this recipe, share your thoughts in the comments below!

Discussion

There are two steps to this recipe, making the stuffing and then the crust. This is intimidating, especially when you realize how much filling you have for the tiny amount of crust. I always opt for fresh over frozen or dried ingredients, so for the Stuffing, I collected ten ounces of baby spinach, one-third cup grated feta cheese, one tablespoon parsley, one clove of garlic, three tablespoons onions, one tablespoon vegetable oil. And for the pastry crust, we have three-fourths cup flour, one-fourth teaspoon sale, one-fourth cup vegetable shortening, and two and one-half tablespoons cold water.

I started by rough chopping the spinach. I transferred it to my cast iron pan and cooked it thoroughly. Then I did my best to squeeze out all of the excess liquid, knowing this was going into a pastry, I did not want a soggy bottom! I chopped the parsley from my yard and added it to the spinach and added one-third cup of feta cheese, mixing it all together as best as I could. This part confused me, as it directed me to saute the garlic and onions, after and separate from cooking the spinach. In the future I would saute them, and then add the spinach to cook with it. I crushed and minced the garlic, then took a quarter of an onion, and finely chopped it, adding both and the vegetable oil to the cast iron pan, sauteing them until the onions were translucent, but not brown. I then transferred them to the spinach mixture and mixed them all together thoroughly. Setting that aside I turned to the pastry crust.

I mixed the flour and salt together, then cut the shortening into the flour. I mixed it with a fork, until it was binding into small crumbling balls, then added the cold water, and stirred it all into dough consistency. I was doing my best not to use my hands with the first half of the dough as directed but it didn’t roll out well or large enough to seal the spinach in. However looking at recipe images online, not all spinach pies are supposed to, so it was my misunderstanding. I rolled it out to about one-eight inch thick. Then I added half of the spinach mixture. It told me to make a square out of the pastry and fold the corners up and over like an envelope. I did my best, but as you can see, it looks like garbage. The second dough ball, I did use my hand and it worked much better, though there was still not enough dough to seal the pie entirely.

I put them in the oven at 425 degrees for fifteen minutes, or until brown and mine took nearly 25 minutes to brown in any degree. After letting it cool, I tried a third of each pie and I have to say they were delicious if not attractive. In the future, I will double the dough so it can seal it perfectly and look infinitely better. Remember we eat with our eyes too! I’ll also cook the onions and spinach together.