Country-style meat pie with Kasseri cheese and walnuts

Very tasty, hearty and filling meat pie which, in my opinion, it is better to serve as a main dish along with a green salad. Not that you can't have it as a first dish but if you are planning to serve a rich meal there is always the possibility of your guests not to honour your efforts feeling rather full after a piece of this pie. And I would like to add, although I have mentioned it before, that (at least) for those who live in the UK and can not find the Kasseri, the closest to it cheese they could use is the Tesco-own yellow mild Cheddar. I find that it is almost as creamy and semi-sweet as a Greek mild Kasseri can be

Slightly adapted from a recipe of Argyro Barbarigou,

a prominent Head Cook

Check out her site Argiro for more delicious recipes

Ingredients (for 6-8 people):
10 phyllo pastry sheets
1Kg of ground beef (passed only once through the meat grinder)
1/4 tea-cup of olive oil + a bit extra for brushing
2 yellow onions, grated
1 full tea-cup of Greek Kasseri cheese, grated
1 tea-cup of roughly chopped walnuts
1 small glass of white dry wine (optional -my addition)
1 heaped tbsp of finely chopped flat-leaf parsley (optional -my addition)
1 pinch of ground cinnamon
1 pinch of ground nutmeg
250 ml of beef stock
salt
pepper

Method:
Preheat the oven to 180°C.

In a shallow and wide pot warm the oil on high heat and sauté the meat until it changes colour, breaking it up in pieces with a wooden spatula.

Turn the heat down to medium, add the onions and sauté, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes until it is wilted. Pour over with the wine (if used) and allow the alcohol to evaporate.

Season with the spices, salt and pepper and stir. Take the pot off the heat and leave aside to cool down for a bit. Then add the parsley (if used), the grated cheese and the walnuts and stir well.

Brush with some of the extra oil the bottom and the sides of a large round pyrex dish of about 28-30cm (or an oven pan). Lay 4 of the phyllo sheets at the bottom, the one on top of the other, brushing with oil each as you go along. Empty half the quantity of the filling and spread evenly with a spatula.

Lay on top another 2 sheets well brushed with oil too and empty the rest of the filling. Cover the pie with the remaining 4 phyllo sheets, again brushing each one with oil. Twist the edges of the phyllo all around (see photo on top), gently score the surface of the pie into pieces with a sharp knife and brush well with oil.

Put the dish in the oven and for the first 30 minutes cook at the bottom of the oven. Transfer the pie to the middle shelf and cook for another 30 minutes until the pie is golden and the top phyllo sheet nicely crunchy.

Take the pie out of the oven, pour over with the beef stock and bake for another 10 minutes, this time having the pan at the bottom shelf of the oven so the stock is well absorbed without leaving the pie soggy at the bottom.

Leave to rest for 10 minutes and then cut into pieces. Beside the green salad, a few dollops of Greek yoghurt go perfectly with the pie!