Can you overdose on Feta Cheese and survive?

We had a small change of plans in our Albanian meal last night.  Well, actually, several changes.  First, we moved the meal from Friday night to Saturday night, so that our friends Wayne and Peg could join us.  Wayne's family is originally from Greece, and I thought it would be a nice touch to have him sit down for the Albanian meal with us, since Albanian cuisine is so heavily influenced by the Greek.  Secondly, Peg is essentially a vegetarian, so that meant the chicken with walnuts was out.  So we switched to the Albanian version of Spanakopita, which is Greek Spinach Pie.  Here is the recipe:

Spinach Pie (Byrek me spinaq)

Ingredients:

1 cup oil, preferably olive oil
1 1/2 packets (or about 30) pastry leaves (Filo Dough)
1 1/2 pounds spinach, chopped
1 cup diced feta cheese
1/2 cup chopped green onions
2 eggs
salt, half teaspoon
(NOTE: A medium-sized, round baking pan is recommended because it's more authentic but any medium-sized baking pan will do).

Cooking Instructions:

Brush the baking pan with some of the oil, and start laying the pastry leaves inside. First, lay two leaves, sprinkle or brush with oil, then lay two other leaves, and repeat the procedure until half of the leaves are laid. Make sure that they cover the pan by hanging them about one inch over the edges of the pan.
Sprinkle spinach with salt, then mix well by hand. Add the feta cheese, oil, onions, eggs and salt, and spread this mixture over the already laid pastry leaves. Finish by covering the spinach with the rest of the pastry leaves repeating the first-half procedure and then roll the hanging edges of the bottom leaves over the pie (think of a pizza crust), sprinkle top with oil and bake moderately at 350F for about 45 minutes, or until golden brown. Serve hot, accompanied with buttermilk, or beaten yogurt, thinned down in cold water or with chilled stewed prunes.


We coupled this with the Vegetable dish we were originally planning on.  Many, many thanks go out to Marian, who actually prepared the meal, as I had a guiding engagement that took me away for most of the afternoon.  In the words of a Maine redneck, "She dun good".  Unfortunately, there are no pictures this week, as it looked too good to wait...


So how was it?  The vegetable dish was fanastic!  We used bell pepper, potato, and summer squash for the vegetables, and it was a wonderful variety of flavor in one dish.  In fact, Wayne had four helpings of this, and the rest of us were convinced that he would soon grab the pot and lick it out.  The Spinach Pie received mixed reviews.  Wayne and Peg loved it, Wayne giving the entire meal a "9.75" out of a possible "10".  Both Marian and I felt that the feta cheese was a bit too much.  It was hard to swallow several chunks of Feta at once.  I think that if we make this dish again, we might decide to shred the Feta instead of dicing it as the recipe dictates.


Next up: Algeria.  Headed for some Saharan dishes!

---