Vegetables & Cheese

Tian of tomatoes, courgettes & onions

Serves 4

2 onions

4 medium courgettes

4 plum tomatoes

1 tsp dried thyme

2 cloves garlic

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Bunch fresh basil

Salt and pepper

Chop the onions finely. Heat oil in a heavy saucepan, add the crushed garlic and then the onions and thyme. Cook gently over a low heat for about half an hour, until the onions are golden and soft. Season well with salt and pepper. Spread over the bottom of a large oval gratin dish.

Slice the courgettes and tomatoes, about half a centimetre thick. Place these in tightly overlapping rows over the onions.  Sprinkle liberally with olive oil, season with salt and pepper and scatter shredded basil, reserving a handful.

Bake in middle of pre-heated oven, gas mark 5, 190 C, for 30-40 minutes until really soft and tender and beginning to char around the edges. Scatter rest of fresh basil over the top and serve, either straight from the oven or at room temperature.  This is a wonderful accompaniment to al fresco food and is excellent with lamb, grilled chicken or barbecued sausages.

Spinach & Feta Pie

Serves 6.  Takes 90 minutes.

Spinach & Feta in crisp filo pastry.  Perfect for picnics.

• 1kg spinach (not baby spinach)

• 2 tbsp olive oil

• 4 spring onions finely chopped

• Sea salt

• Black pepper

• Feta cheese

• 250g ricotta cheese

• 4 eggs lightly beaten

• Grated nutmeg

• 2 tbsp finely chopped dill

• 1 pkt filo pastry thawed

• 125g melted butter

• Dill for serving

Heat oven to 180c.  Trim any major stalks from spinach – rinse well in 2-3 changes water.  Drain and rough chop.  Heat oil in large pan & add spinach & spring onions tossing until wilted.  Season, drain and put aside to cool & drain again & lightly squeeze.

In large bowl mash feta cheese – mix in ricotta, beat in eggs, nutmeg, dill and lots of pepper.  Add spinach.  Cover filo pastry with lightly damp cloth.  Remove top layer of pastry.  Brush with melted butter, place on lightly oiled 20 x 28cm oven proof baking dish allowing some pastry to overlap sides.

Continue brushing sheets with butter and laying them on top until there are six layers.  Fill dish with spinach mix – top with six more layers of buttered pastry again allowing a short length of overlap.  Roll edges under & tuck them into dish.  Bake 60 mins until top crisp & golden & filling set.   Cool 10 mins, cut into squares to serve.  Leave in dish to transport.

Hachapuri or Khachapuri

Russian (Georgian) bread filled with cheese

Serves 8.  Make 1 individual or several rolls.

Dough:

• 700g flour

• 500g plain yoghurt

• 2 eggs

• 50g soft butter

• 1 tsp salt

• 2 tsp bicarb soda

Filling:

• 200g ricotta cheese

• 600g feta cheese

• 2 balls of Mozzarella

• 1 egg

Preheat oven to 220C (gas mark 7).  Put in baking sheet to heat up.

Measure flour into large bowl.  In a separate and large bowl tip in yoghurt and break in the eggs.

Using hands or fork mulch the butter into the yoghurt and eggs then add scoopfuls of flour working it into a dough.  You may not need all the flour.  Work dough until mix comes away from the sides of the bowl and dough feels silky to touch.

Sprinkle in the salt and bicarb soda a little at a time working it in well.

Tip dough into a floured Tupperware bowl and cover with a lid.  The dough needs to rest approx 20 mins.  You can leave it in fridge for a couple of days, but 20 – 30 minutes will suffice.

Filling:

Crumble together the ricotta and feta and drain and chop or grate the mozzarella adding to the other cheeses.  Add the eggs and beat the cheese together.

Take dough from Tupperware bowl and cut in half.  Roll one half of the dough on a seriously floured surface into a circle to fit a 36cm pizza tin.  Spread over the cheese filling leaving a small border around the edge to help you seal it later.

Roll the other half of dough in exactly the same way and fit over the top of the first filled circle.

Fold in the edges to seal the outside of the bread curling them inwards to leave a roll of dough like a Cornish pasty.

Press the rolled outer edge with prongs of a folk all the way round to seal VERY firmly

Place on your heated baking sheet in the oven.

You can decorate the cheese-bread with any left over scraps of dough.  Grapes are a traditional Georgian decoration.

Cook the cheese-bread for 15 – 20 minutes.  It should be golden brown but still slightly doughy.

Cut into wedges while still hot.

This servs eight but cold leftovers can be sliced next day and shoved in microwave & briefly nuked for a quick lunch or supper.

To make small breads:  Flour small 6 – 7 cm round tins.  Tear off doughnut sized pieces of dough.  Work into rough circle. A generous spoonful of mixture is placed in centre, the sides of the dough were stretched around it.  The top is then twisted to form a knot and excess dough just torn off.  Flatten out the sealed bread back into a smooth circle to fill the tins.  Cook in a very hot oven for 10 mins only.  Cut each pie into four when hot.

Aubergine Lasagna with Feta

Corsican recipe.  Serves 2.  Prep 30 minutes.  Cook 35 minutes.

• 2 medium aubergines

• 4 tbsp olive oil

• 1 garlic clove

• 1 pointed red pepper

• 4 vine tomatoes

• 4 slices prosciutto

• 100g Greek feta cheese

• Handful of basil

• 4 tbsp parmesan finely grated

Heat oven 220.  Slice aubergine lengthways approx 6mm thick.  Oil a shallow roasting tin.  Lay out slices.  Use a pastry brush to paint exposed side of slices with oil. Roast 10 – 15 minutes, turn and repeat until soft.

Half the pepper lengthways, discard stalk and seeds.  Chop into small pieces.  Soften in 2 tbsp olive oil in a lidded frying pan with a pinch of sale.  Peel and finely chop or mince garlic.  Chop tomatoes.  Add to pan – cover and stir occasionally for about 15 minutes.  Force through a sieve leave no puree wasted.  Put in small pan simmer until ketchup like.  Reassemble aubergine in dish layer with ham and thin slices of feta – 2 tsps of sauce & bail, ending with toms.  Finish with parmesan.

Bake at 200c for 20 to 25 minutes.

Briam – Greek vegetables

Lesley’s recipe from Kokkino, Crete.  Lesley Groark was Paul’s carer.

Note – you can stand the veg up upright alternate rings.

• 2 tins of tomatoes

• 2 cloves garlic, crushed

• Herbs – chopped

• Olive oil

• Potatoes – sliced thinly

• Courgettes – sliced thinly

• Tomatoes

• Aubergine – sliced and washed, salted to drain

Use a large dish.

Coat veg in oil.  Then put toms (tinned) in dish and use another for the top.

Layer the veg like a lasagne.  Season after layering.  Foil cover.

180C for 1 hour, ten mins.

Remove foil for last 15 minutes and turn oven up to crisp.