Real African Dishes: [MC-AllEthnic-Recipes] Roumeli Corn Bread with Leeks and Cheese - Lahanopsomo or Plasto ; 29g Carbohydrate; 3g Dietary Fiber

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Roumeli Corn Bread with Leeks and Cheese - Lahanopsomo or Plasto

Recipe By :
Serving Size : 11 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories : LowerCarbs

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil -- or as needed
2 pounds leeks -- white and all but toughest green parts, finely chopped and washed well
2 cups boiling water
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups fine yellow cornmeal
6 large eggs -- lightly beaten
2 1/2 pounds Greek feta cheese -- or vlachatyri cheese, crumbled
3 tablespoons unsalted butter -- cut into small pieces

Heat 3 tablespoons of the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat and cook the leeks until wilted. Remove the heat and let cool.

Preheat the oven to 350F.
Rub a 15-inch round or a 12 by 18 by 2-inch rectangular baking pan with olive oil. Place the hot water and salt in a large bowl. Slowly add the cornmeal in a steady stream, stirring with a wooden spoon to combine. Mix in the remaining olive oil. Stir in the eggs, cheese, and sauteed leeks, combining well. The mixture should have the consistency of a very thick batter. Pour into the prepared baking pan. Bake for 45 minutes, dot with butter, then continue baking until golden and set, about 45 minutes longer.
Remove from the oven, let cool, and cut into serving pieces. Serve either warm or at room temperature.

Makes 10 or 12 servings

AuthorNote: This recipe, from Granitsa, a mountain village in the western part of Roumeli, harks back to another era. Traditionally plasto was made in a 'gastra' or 'sini', a metal - usually copper - dome that was placed over the pan, which in turn salt on a bed of embers, making for a kind of makeshift oven. Roving gypsies used to hammer out the gastras and hawk them, and quasi-nomadic peoples such as the shepherds of northwestern Greece (Vlachs) used to count them as part of their necessary kitchen accoutrements; nowadays a regular electric oven is the most likely place to find these old-fashioned pies baking. They are common from Karpenisi west throughout Roumeli and north into Epirus..

Vlachatyri Cheese: The "Vlachs' cheese", or shepherd's cheese, which is essentially a goat's milk kefalograviera [cheese] - a hard, tangy, yellow table and grating cheese - from Metsovo, the Vlach capital.

[Kefalograviera- another popular hard, yellow cheese, some of the best of which comes from Crete. The cheese falls somewhere between kefalotyri and graviera in terms of texture. It is a new cheese is Greece, barely thirty years old, yet it has become one of the most important commercially, with some 3,000 tons produced around the country annually. Kefalograviera is distinguished by its firm texture and by the air holes spread throughout its body. In flavor it ranges from mild to medium. While elsewhere in Greece it is made with a combination of cow's milk and sheep's milk (or cow's, sheep's, and goat's milk) in Crete it is almost exclusively made with sheep's milk.]

Cuisine:
"Greek"
Source:
"The Glorious Foods of Greece by Diane Kochilas, 2001"
S(Formatted by Chupa Babi):
"Sept 2011"
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Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 584 Calories; 43g Fat (66.0% calories from fat); 21g Protein; 29g Carbohydrate; 3g Dietary Fiber; 216mg Cholesterol; 1393mg Sodium. Exchanges: 1 1/2 Grain(Starch); 2 1/2 Lean Meat; 1 Vegetable; 7 Fat.

Nutr. Assoc. : 0 0 0 0 435 0 3272 0