I saw outside the local fruit and veg shop yesterday buckets of fresh, local, organic silverbeet at $1.50 a bunch. (Chard if you are not in Australia). Someone else obviously has silverbeet going nuts – hardly surprising. It is the time of year for it. My Italian silverbeet has all gone to seed now, but all the Fordhook Giant is still going strong and looking gorgeous, and I have young Perpetual coming on.
A few months ago, I remember being amazed that anyone was buying the bunches of sad old silverbeet in the supermarket for nearly $6 a bunch. I hate to think what was on it. Even in my garden with long established populations of pest predators – birds and lizards and frogs, insectivorous bats and predatory insects like mantises – the little grasshoppers make a mess of it in summer. From spring onwards I don’t bother planting it.
At the moment I am giving away armloads to visitors and using every silverbeet recipe in the repertoire, but any day now I expect the grasshoppers to arrive and the urge to bolt to seed to win out and the bounty will be over. Seasonal eating. Make the best of it while it lasts, then leave it off the menu till next winter.
The Recipe:
Serves two generously.
You need bread dough. You can make a bit specially for it, but where this recipe shines is in how easy it is if you are already making bread. When you punch down your bread dough ready to put it in the baking tin, reserve a couple of pieces the size of a small fist for this. I use my wholemeal sourdough, but you could use any bread dough.
In a frypan, saute a finely chopped onion, then, when it is translucent, add a couple of cloves of crushed garlic.
Then add
- A bunch (8 or so) silverbeet leaves, stripped from their midribs and roughly chopped
- 2 dessertspoons of pine nuts (or substitute chopped cashews or macadamias)
- 2 dessertspoons of sultanas
- 2 dessertspoons of chopped mint
Cook for just a minute or two longer until the silver beet is wilted.
Meanwhile, break the sourdough into four pieces the size of large eggs.
On a lightly floured bench, roll them out with a rolling pin until they are a bit more than half a centimetre thick.
Spread half the filling over one sheet and cover with another.
Press the edges together to seal, then roll lightly with the rolling pin to press the layers together. Repeat for the other two pieces of dough, with the other half of the filling.
Allow to rest for 30 minutes or so. The sourdough should “prove” a bit and the gozlemes look a bit plumper.
Lightly oil 2 pans and put them on a low heat.
Cook the gozlemes on one side for about 10 minutes, then flip it and cook the other side.
Serve warm sliced into quarters with a slice of lemon.
Looks gorgeous…I have to try it! I love your recipes.
Ohh that is such a great idea! It looks so yummy. Anything with dough, pine nuts, sultanas and green is a winner!
Actually, do you know anything about the sulfur that they use to dry fruit? I have always wondered about eating fruit dried with sulfur…
I love gozleme too and your recipe looks wonderful. TFS
xx
Hi Phoebe, This link is a bit old but it’s a good description of how they treat non-organic sultanas. I buy organic ones. They’re expensive but to me they’re one of the things where the difference in price is so worth it.
oh I love that name! not sure I am pronouncing it right. they look delicious, I must try them.
They look delicious. I am definitely trying them. My silverbeet looks like it’s on the way out too.
Yum! Are these turkish? This might get my husband to eat chard/silverbeet, since it’s a well-known fact that things taste a) better wrapped in pastry and b) with an “exotic” origin. And it looks like a handy trick to deal with whatever leafy veg you’re overrun with at the moment. (Kale, in my case, here in the northeastern US as winter approaches.)
Lovely recipe, Linda! Might be enough to make even a silverbeet loather like me reconsider! We seem to have heaps of kohlrabi at the moment, but all the leafy greens have gone to seed (with the exception of some recently planted lettuce). Wet and soggy here in Sydney at the moment..
Hi Teresa, the name is Turkish, but I take great liberties with traditional recipes – there’s probably a Turkish mama out there hurrumphing right now! I’ve made them with kale and they go really well. Kale and grated apple is a surprisingly good combination.
I haven’t found a way to love kohlrabi yet, though I saw your recommendation to julienne and stir fry and I thought I might give them a go again next year. It’s wet and soggy here at the moment too. Very strange spring weather.
I haven’t tried making gozlemes before even though I love them. I wouldn’t mind a batch right now with some of your broad bean dip on the side. Yum!
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I’ve been making whole meal sourdough no kneed breed for a about a month and I’ve got to use up my silver beet from the garden before some critters eat them. If got some nuts but no sultanas, looks like something I have to make tomorrow in-between cleaning the house.