Tales from a Veggie Kitchen

This is a recipe that's pretty similar to where I lifted it from. Good old BBC Good food!

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/4540/crispy-greekstyle-pie-

I did make a few adaptations though, so I'll outline those here and what I did. It was very tasty and probably actually better cold than hot, or at least eaten the next day. I'd never used filo pastry before so it was all new to me. This is a great recipe to make for friends because it really does look exactly like the recipe picture and I think it's very attractive. I served it with boiled potatoes in roasmary butter and a tomato and radish salad.


Greek filo pastry pie

Serves 4

Takes around 50-55 minutes


200g bag of baby spinach

125g sun dried tomatoes (preferably in oil)

125g feta cheese

1 small red onion

2 eggs

A pack of filo pastry (make sure you have at least 3 sheets)


* Preheat the oven to 180C/160C fan. Break the eggs into a large bowl (big enough to fit the other ingredients in) and beat.

* Heat a large pan over medium heat. While this is heating, chop the onion into small pieces and cut or crumble the feta into small cubes. If you have time, slice the sun dried tomatoes into smaller pieces. Add these to the bowl with the eggs.

* Heat the spinach in the pan, covered, with a couple of tablespoons of water. When it's done, press the spinach down into a seive to drain the excess water and chop. Add this to the bowl. Once the spinach is out, fry the onions for about 5 minutes until softened.

* While the onions are cooking prepare the pastry. You can use a standard pie/flan dish. Take one sheet of filo pastry and brush one side with oil. Lie that sheet oil-side down into the pie dish and press into the dish, making sure there are flaps hanging over the side. Repeat with 2 more pastry sheets ensuring that they are turned so the overhanging flaps are not directly on top of each other.

* When the onion is done, add that to the bowl and mix everything together evenly and make sure everything is coated with the egg. Pour this filling into the prepared dish and close the overhanging flaps of the pastry until the filling is full covered.

* Bake for 30 minutes until the pastry is crisp and golden.

I'm afraid this was snaffled before any pictures could be taken as I made it for an afternoon tea party. However, you can rest assured that it was delicious and looked wonderful! It's a basic cake recipes with added cherries and ground rice for the crunch. I find it best if you have an electric beater to beat the sugar and butter in the first instance and beat for about 5 minutes. It sounds like a lot, but it's an easier way of knowing you've done it long enough than just looking out for it being "light and fluffy".


Crunchy Cherry Cake

Serves 10-12

Time taken around an hour


175g butter, softened

175g caster sugar

175g self-raising flour, sieved (or you can seive it directly into the cake bowl later)

3 medium eggs

25g ground rice

Juice of small lemon (or use just over half of a bigger one)

125g glace cherries, chopped


Preheat oven to 180C


* First thing to do is wash and dry your cherries. This is supposed to help against them sinking. Mine invariably still do, but your mileage may vary!

* Beat the butter and caster sugar for 5 minutes

* Add the eggs one at a time and beat a little in between each one

* Fold in the flour and ground rice with a spoon, a third of the ingredients at a time

* Add the lemon juice and cherries and mix them all together with the spoon

* Put into a tin (I used a loaf tin) and level the surface with the spoon

* Bake in the oven. Time varies hugely depending on the type of tin you use; mine took 45 minutes, which I think is a good standard time. That said, I did put some of the mixture into extra muffin tins because I had too much. Start with 45 minutes and go from there.

* Leave to cool for a few mintes before turning out onto a wire rack for it to cool completely.

The dough for my pizza, as the title suggests, was made in a bread machine. I can't possibly do all that kneading myself and there aren't enough warm spots in the flat to really make it rise. I suppose the amounts would be the same if you weren't using one, but then increase the rising time according to the heat of your warm spots! I used strong bread flour although the bread machine book suggested plain - also personal preference on how thick you want your crust.


Bread machine Pizza


Serves 2 if eaten on it's own, 4 if eaten with chips and salad (for example)

Using the bread machine with extra rising time it took about 2 hours in all


For the dough:

150ml tepid water

1 tbsp olive oil

1.5 tsp salt

280g strong bread (or plain) flour

1 tsp sugar

1tsp easy yeast (the stuff you don't have to activate first)


For the topping:

Half a jar of pizza sauce (yeah, yeah, lazy option!)

2 big handfuls of grated mozzarella

The rest is up to you, I used sliced mushrooms, orange pepper/ricotta and green olives.


* If using a bread machine, add the dough ingredients in the order I gave and fllow the instructions to make pizza dough. On mine this kneads for a few mintues then rises, taking a total of 30mins. If you aren't using a machine, then.. uhm. I guess you combine the dry and wet ingredients like you would a cake and knead it lots! Best look for another recipe online for that.

* I didn't find my bread risen enough in the machine alone, so I left it to rise for an additional hour. Your times will vary.

* When you are satisfied with your dough, first preheat your oven to 200C (fan oven, 220C conventional). Then take your dough, punch it back to remove excess air and using a combination of rolling pin and stretching with your hands, flatten it onto a 12" pizza tray according to your desired thickness.

* Spread the pizza sauce on top and sprinkle over the cheese.

* Chop/dice any additional toppings and sprinkle them over the rest. By now your oven is probably ready, so you can pop it right in.

* Cook for around 10 minutes, but keep an eye on it. Pizzas can go from perfect to hopelessly dry and burnt in only a couple of minutes!

* Enjoy your yummy (mostly) homemade pizza!

This recipe is for a Dutch cake which is thick, soggy and almost pastry-like in textures. I have to admit I didn’t get it quite right the first time, I could have used a less wide pan and I should have cooked it less (I have an obsession about overcooking anything with eggs in). However, I have to use the pans I have, and I don’t have room for more. Mine turned out more like a soft cookie which a chewy outside and soft centre. But despite all my complaining, it was heavenly. If you want the authentic boterkoek, you might want to search for another recipe, or alter it a bit.

A note on the almond essence: I think it could be optional if you have a nut allergy. I’m not sure plain Boterkoek is supposed to be an almond cake, so the small amount should do fine just to enhance flavour. However, my partner and I both LOVE almond flavour, so I doubled the amount.


Dutch Boterkoek

Serves… no idea, but will fit a 8” cake pan with about 1” thickness.
Total time taken 1 hour for a messy cook, 45mins for the more organised!


160g butter

200g sugar

210g plain flour

½ tsp baking powder

1 egg, beaten (reserve a teaspoon of egg for brushing)

1 ½ tsp almond essence

Preheat oven to 180C


* Mix together the butter, sugar and almond essence

* Add the egg and mix in well (all the above best done with an electric beater)

* Sift in the flour and baking powder

* Try and resist eating it already (hard even for me, the raw egg-phobe)

* It should look more like dough than cake batter. Flop it into a cake tin (7-9”) and pat down so it’s even.

* Brush over the top with the reserved egg mixed with equal amount of water.

* Bake for 25-30 minutes. This all depends on the pan and your thickness of cake. A 9” tin only took 25 minutes. I imagine a 7” would take longer. Just observe the colour of the top.

PS no picture, because it didn't looked like I wanted it to!