Hortaropita (Asian Greens, Feta and Filo Pies)

The spinach, chard, kale and other leafy green seedlings we started in October are growing extremely slowly.  They are so small that we have to keep digging them out from the pine needles and leaves our trees are constantly dumping on the garden.  The dramatic temperature fluctations we have been experiencing here in Texas are certainly not helping encourage seedling growth.

Amazingly, our Asian greens are still flourishing.   These greens seem almost indestructible.  We selected varieties that were developed for hot, tropical climates, and they produced heavily all summer.  We didn't expect them to survive once the temperatures dropped, so we have been pleasantly surprised that the plants are not only alive but thriving.  Although bred for heat, these greens are truly year-round vegetables for the Zone 9 garden.  If you live in a climate similar to ours, we strongly encourage you to include these greens in your garden next year.  If you want to learn more about the greens we are growing, click here.  Evergreen and Kitazawa both have excellent seed selections.

Since spinach from the garden seems but a distant dream, we are grateful for the abundance of Asian greens.  We have already used them to make delicious Lebanese Pies, Pasta with Goat Cheese and Eggplant and Spicy Tofu with Asian Greens.  Asian greens are an excellent substitute for spinach in all these recipes.  Here we use Komatsuna and Misome to make Turkish pies similar to spanakopita.   Thanks to Mae of the wonderful site, Peas Love Carrots, we now have a name for our pie -- Hortaropita.  As Mae writes, "it's a phyllo pie dish (pita), but not using the traditional spinach, but other "greens" (horta) instead".  Not traditional, but tasty none the less.

Hortaropita with Asian Greens, Feta and Filo

Ingredients

1 1/2             pounds                  Asian Greens, thick stems removed
                                                  (or spinach)
1/2                cup                        olive oil
1/2                cup                        butter (we used clarified)
1                   bunch                     scallions, white parts only,
                                                   finely chopped
3                                                 eggs
12                  oz                          feta
1/3                 cup                        Italian parsley, chopped
                                                   (we used fresh-picked parsley;
                                                    you may need more if you use
                                                   store-bought, which tends to have
                                                    less flavor)
1/3                 cup                         milk
1                                                  box (1 lb.) filo dough, defrosted
1                                                  egg yolk
1/8                cup                          milk

Procedure

1. Preheat oven to 350° convection (375° conventional).
2. Blanche the greens in boiling water.  Drain, squeeze dry, then chop.
3. Heat 1/4 cup olive oil with 1/4 cup butter over medium, then add greens and scallions.  Cook briefly, stirring (about 2 minutes).
4. Let greens cool, then add feta, 2 eggs, and parsley.  Combine well.  Add salt and pepper to taste.
5. In a pyrex measuring cup (or something with a spout), combine 1/4 cup melted but cooled butter with 1/3 cup whole milk, 1/4 cup olive oil, and 1 egg.  Mix well.
6. Spread a tiny amount of the butter mixture on a sheet pan, then layer 1 sheet of filo.  We pour the mixture on with the measuring cup, then spread with the back of a spoon.  You can also use a pastry brush if you have one. 
7. Layer a single filo sheet on the buttered sheet pan, then spread a little more of the butter mixture on top of the filo.  Repeat until you have 10 layers of filo dough.
8. Spread the mixture of greens and feta on top of the filo dough.  Evenly distribute.
9. Use rest of filo dough to make a top for the pies, repeating the process of layering a single layer of dough, spreading butter mixture, then adding another layer of dough. 
10. Mix 1 egg yolk with 1/8 cup whole mik, then use this as a glaze to cover the top layer of filo dough.  Before putting into the oven, cut your pie into triangles.  We used a pizza cutter for this, and ended up with 20 triangles.
11. Bake for 20 minutes, then lower temperature to 300° convection (325° regular) and bake until top is browned and flaky.

Lebanese Pies with Asian Greens and Feta

I have always loved the little spinach pies you find at Lebanese restaurants.  We just got our spinach seeds in the ground, so an authentic Fatayer is still months away.  But the garden is practically bursting with Asian greens -- we have an abundance of Natsu Rakuten, Yu Choy, Komatsuna, and Choho to name just a few.  I wish I could tell you the distinguishing flavors of each of these greens, but we always harvest the greens together and combine them when we cook.  The cooked greens taste amazingly similar to spinach.

This inspired us to create our own version of a traditional Lebanese pie using a mixture of Asian greens.  We added feta (because what's not better with feta?), and instead of making pastry dough we used store-bought puff pastry.  The results look like savory hamantaschen and taste wonderful.  If you're the entertaining type, these would make fantastic appetizers fresh from the garden.  Since our entertaining these days seems to be limited to crowds of hungry little boys, we kept all the pies for ourselves and popped them in our mouths straight off the sheetpan.  A little bit of Beirut by way of China and Japan right here in our Texas kitchen.

Lebanese Pies with Asian Greens and Feta

Ingredients

1/2         lb         assorted Asian greens, washed,
                          thick stems removed, and chopped
1                        large onion, chopped
3            tbs       olive oil
1/4         tsp        allspice
1 1/2      tsp        sumac
                          salt and black pepper to taste
6            oz         puff pastry, defrosted
1/4         cup       feta, crumbled or cut into small pieces

Procedure

1. Cook onions in olive oil until golden.  Add Asian greens and cook until soft, 1-2 minutes.  Add spices, then salt and pepper to taste.  
2. Remove from stove to cool and heat oven to 325 convection or 350 regular.
3. Flour your work surface and a rolling pin lightly.  Dust puff pastry lightly with flour on both sides and roll out until thin.  Cut circles of whatever size you prefer.  We made 3" circles, which yield mini pies.  As you cut the circles, place them on a silpat or parchment paper.  You can re-roll the extra dough after you cut out your circles.
4. Mix the feta into the cooled filling.  Place a dollop in the center of each circle and pinch a corner on the bottom left and right (if you're a military type, pinch at 4:00 and 8:00).  Last, pinch the top.  
5. Once all your pies are assembled (and don't worry if they don't look perfect), bake until golden brown, about 30 minutes.

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Farro Pasta with Goat Cheese, Eggplant, Tomatoes and Greens

Dinner was Italian (sort of).  Pasta with eggplant and tomatoes.  So far so good.  But we still don't have spinach in our garden, so our Italian pasta dinner included senposai instead.  Senposai is such an adaptable green that an unsuspecting diner would probably never know the difference.   We have used senposai in Middle Eastern, Asian and Italian dishes.  Really it works in any recipe that calls for spinach, kale or cooked leafy greens.

Senposai is also a star in the garden, especially our hot Houston garden.  We've been harvesting from the same plants all summer, and many months later they are still growing.  The leaves are thick and green; when left on the plant they reach up to 12 inches long.  Senposai is tasty whether picked small or large.  We rarely let the leaves grow to full size because there's always a need for more senposai in the kitchen.

We selected a wonderful pasta from Rustichella d'Abruzzo made with organic farro.  Farro is an unhybridized ancestor of modern wheat with a dense nutty flavor.  The texture and taste pair well with vegetables fresh from the garden.  Imagine a pasta stand-in for brown rice.  Our recipe is really not much of one.  Use it as a guide for whatever vegetables you have on hand.  For us that means eggplant (of course), Matt's Wild Cherry tomatoes, and senposai.  But this pasta would be delicious with kale or spinach, or even with brussel sprouts (my favorite vegetable).   

Farro Pasta with Goat Cheese, Eggplant, Tomatoes and Greens
makes 4 entree portions

Ingredients

1        box         dry pasta
1        pound      Italian eggplant, sliced thinly
1 1/2  cup          senposai or other leafy green
1        cup          cherry tomatoes
4        oz            goat cheese (we used Carpicho
                         de Cabra peppered goat cheese)
                         olive oil
                         salt and black pepper

Procedure

1. Cook pasta and drain in collander.  
   
2. Heat olive oil over medium in saute pan and saute eggplant until golden on both sides.  Place slices on paper towels to drain.
3. In same pan, saute senposai until soft, about 2 minutes.  It shrinks down like spinach, but not as much because it is thicker.  Remove from pan and set aside.
4. In same pan, gently heat a tiny bit of olive oil and add goat cheese.  Allow cheese to get warm, but not to melt into a liquid.  
5. Remove goat cheese from pan and add to cooked pasta.  Add eggplant and senposai and toss.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.  Add cherry tomatoes.        
   

                 

Spicy Tofu with Asian Greens

This summer we experimented with growing Asian greens.  We ordered every variety that we could find that would survive the long, hot Texas summer.   The plants were quite hardy and productive, far exceeding our expections and producing heavily all summer.  The challenge for us then became what to do with these exotic greens.

We have discovered that Asian greens are amazingly versatile.  They can act as a stand-in for spinach in Italian recipes, as lettuce for our Middle Eastern salads, and as the vegetable for stir frys.  Last night, we created a Pan-Asian dish using a combination of three of the greens:  Senposai (Japanese), Yu Choy (Chinese) and Natsu Rakuten (Japanese).  We added Thai eggplant and jalapenos from the garden, plus tofu, to create a filling dish with a bit of a kick.  If you love heat, feel free to add even more chiles to the recipe.  You can also substitute any greens you have available if senposai, yu choy and misome are not sold at your local Kroger or Farmer's Market.

Spicy Tofu with Asian Greens

Ingredients

1       lb       tofu
                   peanut oil for frying
                   olive oil for sauteeing
8                 sections green onion, each 1" long
8                 thin slices ginger
2       tsp     chili paste
1       tsp     chopped fresh jalapeno
2       cups   assorted Asian greens
                   (we used senposai, yu choy and natsu rakuten)
1       lb       Thai (or other Asian-style) eggplant, sliced thinly
2       tsp      sugar
2       tsp      sesame oil
4       tsp      corn starch
5       tsp      soy sauce
2 1/2 cup     vegetable stock

Procedure

1.  Horizontally cut block of tofu into 3 sections.  Then cut each slice in the shape of an "X" -- on the diagonal each direction to make a total of 12 triangles of tofu.
2. Heat the peanut oil on high, then fry tofu about 4 minutes until both sides are golden brown.  Remove from oil and drain on paper towels.
3. Heat olive oil and saute eggplant until golden brown on both sides.  Remove and drain on paper towels.  Using same pan and oil, cook greens briefly (about 1 minute).  Remove and set aside.
   
4. Heat 3 Tb peanut oil over medium and saute onion, ginger, chili paste and jalapenos until fragrant.  Add tofu, eggplant, greens and all of the remaining ingredients.  Bring to a boil and cook until sauce thickens, about 3 minutes.
   

Asian Vegetables in Houston

If we lived in a more moderate climate, we would probably never have ventured into growing unusual (to us) vegetables such as Yu Choy, Chin Chiang, Senposai and Misome.  These greens were all developed in Asia, many of them hybrids, to thrive in hot tropical weather, and they have performed admirably in our garden.  We have enjoyed experimenting with these vegetables in the garden and in the kitchen.

Joy Larkcom's book Oriental Vegetables has been an excellent guide.  She provides detailed information about most Asian vegetables including growing instructions and suggestions for their use in the kitchen.  If you're interested in growing these greens, we recommend sourcing your seeds from specialists such as Evergreen or Kitazawa.  Johnny's and Nichols also offer several interesting Asian greens such as Hon Tsai Tai and Agretti.  All these companies provide useful seed and plant details on their websites.

Here's a primer for the vegetables we're growing:

Komastuna
Known as mustard spinach (although it is actually neither), Larkcom calls Komatsuna "the most underrated vegetable" because of its excellent flavor, garden performance, and versatility in the kitchen.  We started with Senposai, a hybrid created by crossing komatsuna and common cabbage, and it performed so well that we later added several komatsuna and misome (a komatsuna-bok choy cross) varieties to the garden.  

Hybrid Kojisan, Natsu Rakuten - Summer Fest and Tokyo Early:  these are all hybrid komatsuna varieties developed to survive in hot climates.  All three are easy to start from seed and they are very low maintenance even during the hot summer months.  Of the three, Natsu Rakuten is probably the most vigorous grower.

Senposai Hybrid -- the leaves look like cabbage, but unlike cabbage, senposai thrives all summer in full sun with no special care.  Excellent sauteed, and it keeps growing back after harvesting.  The thick purple stems that develope are also edible. 

Pak Choi/Bok Choy
Chin-Chiang Cabbage, Hybrid Tropic Wonder -- Chin-Chiang is a baby bok choy.  As suggested by the name, Tropic Wonder is a hybrid developed especially for hot climates. 

Tatsoi Bok Choy (Pak Choi) White Stem -- Tatsoi is a rosette boy choy.  Conventional wisdom is that rosettes have the best flavor of the various bok choys.  It can be used raw as a baby green, or cooked.  It is very high in minerals, and nutritious.

Misome -- Misome is a hybrid green created by crossing komatsuna and rosette bok choy.  As a group, these greens perform well in hot climates.  They all grow upright, with dark green crinkled leaves.  We have three varieties:  Misome Hybrid, and Japanese Green, and Choho, which is a cross between tatsoi and komatsuna.  These have grown and thrived throughout the summer, and are very pretty in the garden. 

Flowering Brassicas
Hon Tsai Tai -- purple-flowering choy sum.  Mostly grown for its edible flower stalks and flowers.  Hon Tsai Tai should be started in September for fall and winter harvesting.  The purple stems intensify in color in cold weather.  We have ours growing in the front yard border, and the seedlings are attractive.

Yu Choy, Hybrid Leafy Yu Choy -- Yu Choy is edible rape.  Hybrid Leafy Yu Choy is an usuual yu choy because it was developed for its leaves as opposed to the flowering stalks.  This hybrid grows year-round in warm climates, and has done extremely well in our garden.


Mizuna
Mizuna Early Mustard -- We're not huge fans of mustard greens in general, but Mizuna has a nice mild flavor and it is one of the few lettuce greens that grow year-round in Houston.  It can be harvested as a baby green, or left to mature into clumps of large, serrated leaves.  Mizuna can also be used as a cooked green.  Our mizuna is planted in partial sun (about 5 hours per day), and if it is not kept well-watered it starts to fade and wilt.


Bunching Onions
Unlike regular onions, which at least in our garden do not thrive during the summer, bunching onions will grow year-round in Houston.  We have two varieties, Evergreen and Red Beard.  We didn't start them until June, but they survived the summer in grower pots until we got around to transplanting them in September.  These onions do not form a bulb; instead, the stem is used.  They are a nice substitute for traditional onions in the summer garden.

Fall transplanting

After several days of rain, the sun finally came out Sunday afternoon. I used the dry weather as an opportunity to transplant many of our seedlings and to pull out some of the summer vegetables that were done for the year. It's never easy to pull out a plant that isn't totally dead, but by removing the watermelon and muskmelon vines, I created a big patch of fertile soil in full sun ready for new plants. Many of the transplants are vegetables new to our garden including rhubarb, cress and chickory. I also planted bunching onions, red dandelion greens, and succession crops of arugula, Italian dandelion and several asian greens. For herbs, I transplanted dill, anise, French sorrel, lavender, Giant Italian parsley and several varieties of basil including Dark Opal and Finissimo Verde a Palla.

I harvested the last of the "Contender" green beans, which made an excellent side dish last night, and the last of the edamame. I also harvested a big bowl of okra which David is going to experiment with tonight. I pulled out the bean plants, but the okra still has lots of baby fruit and flowers. The eggplant is still producing heavily, and the cucumber vines are loaded with flowers (although no mature fruit yet).

The asian greens trans planted in mid-July are growing rapidly. The Hybrid Misome, Tatsoi and Natsu Rakuten from Kitazawa are the stand-outs in terms of how quickly they've grown, but the Choho, Chin Chiang, Yu Choy and Hybrid Kojisan Komatsuna also look great. The Mizuna plants are green and healthy, but they are not growing as rapidly as the other greens. The Senposai which has been in the ground since the end of May has grown back again despite frequent harvesting all summer. I filled in the gaps with new seedlings, but the original plants should produce at least two more large harvests. Those original plants have developed pretty, thick purple stems, and I'm hoping that for our final harvest we can cook and eat them. I need to do a little research first.

Salad Greens in the Summer

While lettuces do not thrive in our hot, humid summer weather, I have learned that some will survive and produce enough to make a decent salad. That doesn't mean I'm growing Romaine in August, but there are several greens that have pleasantly surprised me with their heat-hardiness.

I've already written about Senposai and India Spinach Beet, two Asian greens that have been extremely productive in our garden. I have a long list of other Asian greens I'm growing right now. Most are crosses between Komatsuna and other vegetables, although I am also growing Tatsoi (a pak choy) and Chin-Chiang. They are still fairly immature, although growing well. The best true salad green from Asia for the summer is Mizuna. With it's jagged, feathery edges, Mizuna is familiar to anyone who has eaten a salad made with mixed greens. The Mizuna is growing quite well, and it tastes great. It is definitely not just a poor stand-in for lettuce, and is worth growing in any vegetable garden.

The other greens that have done quite well this summer are all European in origin: arugula, sorrel, and dandelion greens. It is recommended to grow arugula in cool weather, but ours has survived full sun without dying or bolting. The taste is strong and bitter, much better than any store-bought arugula. I'm curious if the taste will be more subtle when the temperatures drop, but we're loving the sharp flavor that it has now.

I planted the sorrel in the beginning of April, and kept urging David to hurry and make sorrel soup before it died in the summer heat. He never made the soup, but the sorrel has actually grown and thrived. It is not bothered by any pests, and has formed a nice thick cluster in the garden. David is still procrastinating on that soup, but we'll have lots of sorrel when he finally gets around to it.

Growing up in Maryland, dandelions were a garden enemy that ruined our perfect green lawn. They're not a problem here in Houston, but those bad connotations have lingered so I never thought I'd voluntarily plant dandelion. I have seen Italian dandelion occasionally at the market, and was happy to learn that it is quite different from the familiar weed. It is also rich in vitamins and nutrients.

Italian dandelion was quite easy to start from seed (perhaps the reason the other dandelion spreads so readily), and the seedlings are quickly growing in the garden. The taste is a bit bitter, but nothing like the arugula or sorrel, and the leaves have a pretty sword shape. These greens seem quite versatile, and will be tasty either fresh or cooked. I just started a red Italian dandelion seed from Johnny's which will look gorgeous with the green dandelion in a salad. So far, the experimentation has paid off with lots of tasty, interesting summer greens.

Some (Greens) Like It Hot

Being new to vegetable gardening, it came as a deep disappointment that lettuce and spinach cannot survive Houston's hot summers. After reading seed catalogs, websites, and my assorted gardening tomes, I decided to try some Asian greens from Evergreen Seeds which are recommended for their heat-hardiness:

Senposai Hybrid
Hybrid King of Summer Spinach
India Spinach Beet
Chinese Kale Green Delight

The Green Delight seeds were started on April 30th, and the other seeds were all started towards the end of May. In hindsight, it would have been better to start the seeds several months earlier, but I didn't discover these vegetables until Spring was all but over here in Houston.

The Hybrid King of Summer quickly succumbed to the heat. The Chinese Kale is still alive, but barely. The two stars have been the Senposai Hybrid and the India Spinach Beet, both of which are thriving. I have them planted in full sun in our front yard, which faces East and gets baked in the hot afternoon sun. I water them every day -- a lot of work with no sprinkler or drip irrigation system.

Senposai is a cross between Komatsuna and common cabbage. India Spinach Beet is native to India (hence the name), and it thrives in a hot, wet climate. If you're interested in learning more about these vegetables, I highly recommend "Oriental Vegetables" by Joy Larkcom. The author is a British gardener and writer who was an early pioneer in studying and then bringing Asian vegetables to the West. She goes into a lot of detail regarding each plant's history, climate and cultivation needs, and uses for these vegetables. You can pick the book up on Amazon.

Senposai and India Spinach Beet are both "cut and come again" greens, so we have already had three mini harvests since transplanting the plants to the garden in early June. The first two times, we sauteed them like spinach. They were really tasty. David will have to provide the details -- I don't cook the veggies, just grow and eat them. Tonight, we're using a combination of the two in a recipe courtesy of Delicious Magazine's website (deliciousmagazine.co.uk) -- haloumi and bulgur salad with harissa dressing. We're also using Yellow Pear tomatoes, mint, and cucumber from the garden for this recipe. The India Spinach works nicely in any recipe which calls for spinach.

We'll try the King of Summer and the Green Delight Kale again when it cools off. I don't hold their failure to thrive against Evergreen Seeds -- I've had great luck with many of their vegetable seeds, including eggplants, coriander, and bunching onions. It just goes to show that many plants that "love hot weather" can't stand Houston summers, so it's still a process of trial and error to discover the vegetables that actually like 100 degree temperatures day in and day out for 6 months of the year. My success with Sensposai and India Spinach Beet has inspired me to try several additional Asian greens -- a few more from Evergreen Seeds, plus two from Kitazawa Seed. This is my first order from Kitazawa which, like Evergreen, specializes in Asian vegetable seeds. Most people probably aren't experimenting with new seeds for Asian greens in July, but I'll get an earlier start next year armed with this summer's garden results.