If you like artichokes, this is the pie for you! It is light, fresh and tasty! It can be a very nice dish for lent and can be turned into a vegetarian dish in a jiffy! When making the dough you can use water instead of milk and you can omit the egg. If you don’t feel like making your own dough, you can use any kind of bought dough, philo, puff pastry or anything else you like.
Ingredients for the pastry: 1/2 cup margarine 1 sachet dry yeast 1 cup lukewarm milk (or water) ½ teaspoon salt ½ teaspoon sugar 2 tablespoonfuls vinegar 1 egg lightly beaten (or you can omit it) About 300 gr. all purpose flour (it depends on the flour)
Directions:
Put the flour in a basin together with the margarine which must be cold. Rub the margarine in the flour, until it resembles coarse crumbs. Refrigerate the flour with the butter for about half an hour. At the end of that time, add the yeast, the salt and the sugar and mix everything well. Add the lightly beaten eggs and the milk (or just water). Knead the pastry until you have a firm and elastic dough. If it is sticky, add a little flour at a time, until you get the right consistency.
Wrap the dough in cling film, and refrigerate until needed.
Ingredients for the filling: 700 gr. artichokes (frozen) 1 cup green peas (frozen) 1 carrot finely sliced 4 green onions Salt, pepper Juice of ½ lemon (it depends on its size) 4 – 5 tablespoons finely chopped dill 3 tablespoonfuls olive oilDirections:
Put the oil in a pan and sauté the onion for about 5 minutes. Cut the artichokes in cubes and add them together with the peas and the carrot to the pan and sauté them for another 5 minutes. Add a cup of water, the lemon juice, place the lid on the pan and simmer the vegetables until the artichokes are tender and no liquid remains in the pan. Test the artichokes with a fork and if they are not soft enough, add a little more water and continue simmering. When soft add salt,pepper and the dill and stir well. Remove it from the fire and let the filling cool almost completely.
Prepare the baking tin (for better results use an aluminum tin. I used a round one 24cm) by brushing some oil on the bottom and sides. If you use ready made dough, line the baking tin with the dough and keep the remainder for the top. If on the other hand you have made your own dough, take out of the fridge and cut it in two pieces, the one larger than the other. Sprinkle some flour on your work top and roll out the larger piece of dough until it is quite thin and cover the bottom and sides of the baking tin. If the dough is a bit sticky while rolling, sprinkle a little flour over it. When the filling is cool enough, pour it into the pan. Cut the overhanging dough and fold in the bit that is left, over the filling. Roll out the smaller piece of dough, and place it on top of the filling. If you have a lot of overhanging dough, cut it and tuck in the left over dough. Brush the top with a little oil (or egg wash), and cut 3 – 4 slits to enable the steam to escape.
Bake at 180oC for about 40 – 45 minutes. It can be eaten lukewarm or even cold.