Zucchini baked with Fetta and herbs

This is an adaptation from Paul Gayler. We ate it a lot last summer, and have just begun to bring it to the table again with the glut of new season zucchini. He makes it with a yellow tomato sauce which I didn't care for, so we eat this on its own, as a side, or as a delicious leftover the next day.


~Zucchini baked with Fetta & Herbs~
8 small to medium zucchini about 2.5cm thick (or the equivalent - this is particulary good with golden button squash)
4 tablespoons olive oil
2 shallots, sliced
1 garlic clove, crushed with a little salt
1 teaspoon chopped fresh oregano
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
100g crumbled fetta
2 tablespoons fresh breadcrumbs
black pepper

If you wish to follow Paul Gayler using small baton-like zucchini, slice off their ends and remove the centres with an apple corer (easier than it sounds). Or if, like me, your zucchini have grown past baton size or are the round type, halve and scoop out the flesh. Either way, chop the scooped out flesh into a small dice.

Heat the olive oil in a pan, add shallots, garlic and zucchini flesh, then cook down until tender and a little reduced. Turn into a bowl and cool a little, then add the cheese, breadcrumbs, herbs and pepper and mix well. Extra herbs are always good.

Par cook the zucchini shells in the microwave if you wish (I do this as my oven is a dud and seems to burn without cooking). Stuff baton zucchini with your fingers and a teaspoon, or the large halved type by piling the filling high.

Paul then grills the oiled and stuffed batons under a hot grill, and this is quite delicious, but generally I bake them in a moderate oven for a while until they are nicely browned and smell good.

Pumpkin, Leek, Mint & Spinach Tart

This is several evolutions from the original recipe, which involved ricotta and far less veges. Mint works so well with both spinach and roast pumpkin.

T scored this recipe a 9.5 but D said it was minus 1000. I liked it, so poor old D will have to suffer again.


~Pumpkin, Leek, Mint & Spinach Tart~
6 sheets filo or 2 sheets puff pastry, or some alternate base, like coca flatbread
800g butternut pumpkin, peeled, seeded and cut in 1.5cm dice
olive oil
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
about 10 baby leeks (1cm diameter, 10cm length), cut into 2cm pieces
salt and pepper
200g fetta, crumbled
2 eggs, beaten
2 cups firmly packed, chopped spinach or silverbeet
2 tab finely chopped mint
2 tab grated parmesan

Preheat oven to 180 degrees.

Combine pumpkin, garlic, leeks, olive oil, salt and pepper, and bake for about 20 min or until pumpkin is browned. In the last 5 min of cooking, make space for the spinach on the tray; pile it on and loosely cover with alfoil to allow it to steam and wilt slightly. Remove veges from oven and cool slightly.

Lay the base on a flat tray and curl the edges up to hold the filling. If using filo, spray with olive oil between layers. Bake for a few minutes to help cook the base.

Combine the eggs with 2/3 of the fetta and spread over the base.

Layer the spinach over the egg mixture. Sprinkle over the mint. Arrange pumpkin and leeks on top, then crumble over the remaining fetta and sprinkle with parmesan.

Reduce heat to 170 degrees and bake for about 20 minutes or until egg mixture is set and all is golden brown.

This would work well as a cocas/pizza topping.

Neverfail Vegetable Muffins

The original recipe for these surfaced in my consciousness at a bush BBQ about 30 years ago, but since it is in imperial measures it must be a bit older than that. I've seen it in so many places since; it would be fascinating to know the origins and how it spread across Australia...

I haven't come across anyone, man, dog or child, who won't eat these :)

~Zucchini Slice~
12oz zucchini, grated
1 large onion, finely chopped
3 rashers bacon, chopped
1 cup grated cheese
1 cup SR flour
1/2 cup oil
5 eggs, beaten
black pepper

Mix zucchini, onion and SR flour, until veges are "coated" in flour. Mix in bacon and cheese, then stir through oil and eggs until it's all well combined.

(Original recipe says - Pour into well greased tin and bake in mod oven about 30-40 min until firm.)

But I like to make muffins b/c they freeze well for school lunches, and use less power to cook - Spoon into silicone muffin trays and bake in a moderate oven (about 150 degrees) for about 15 minutes. Turn tray around at 10 minutes and check if they're cooked by poking a knife into the centre.

Remove from oven and leave in the tin for 10 minutes, then turn onto wire racks to cool.

Variations :

Silverbeet & Corn
replace zucchini with :
4 leaves silverbeet (deveined & chopped finely)
1 tin of corn (drained)

Leek & Semi Dried Tomato
replace zucchini, onion and bacon with :
2 leeks, washed and finely sliced
6 halves of semi-dried tomato in oil, sliced
2 tab chopped parsley

Substitutes :
you could probably substitute whatever you wanted into this, in the way of veges, or meat instead of bacon, or different cheeses, but I'd recommend that the ratios of flour:eggs:oil be left somewhat similar to the original.

Spinach & Pinenuts Coca (Flatbread)

There is a spinach glut in our garden right now, so we tried this for dinner last night, and it was delicious and simple - and used lots of spinach ;)

Coca are a type of Spanish flatbread pizza. The recipe was adapted from Moro East by Sam&Sam Clark.

This is their flatbread recipe for the coca base :

~Flatbread dough~
225g unbleached strong white bread flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon dry yeast
150ml tepid water
1 tablespoon oilive oil

I mixed and kneaded the dough in the breadmixer and took it out before it rose; then allowed it to rise for 2.5 hours (probably too long but we went out visiting and returned late).

They make their dough by placing flour and salt in a bowl. Dissolving yeast in water, adding oil, then pouring this mixture a little at a time into the flour, mixing constantly. When all is mixed, knead for 5+ minutes until it is elastic and smooth. Leave to rise 1-2hrs in a warm place until doubled in size.


~Spinach, PineNuts & Anchovies Coca~
4 tab olive oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 tab fresh oregano, chopped
around 500g spinach, washed, dried adn chopped
handful pinenuts
crumbled fetta
anchovies, sliced into thin slivers lengthwise

Heat the oil in a large saucepan on medium, add the onion and cook until golden. Add oregano, then spinach, and stir through until it is all wilted. Set aside to drain in a colander. (the original recipe then added 50g currants plumped in water)

Heat the oven to its hottest setting. Line 2 baking trays with paper, or flour lightly.

Divide the dough into 4 balls and roll each out on very thin, to around 20cm square, on the baking trays. Spread the spinach mix over the top, lay the anchovies across, as much as you like, then scatter pinenuts and fetta. Press the mix down onto the dough with your hand and drizzle a bit more olive oil over so it doesn't burn.

Bake for 10-15 mins until it is crispy and brown underneath and the pinenuts are golden.

This was very good, but you could leave out the anchovies or use salty olives instead, and probably use whatever topping you like - very good for using up garden greens and leftovers from the fridge!

Beetroot & Haloumi salad w Walnut dressing

We had this again last night with a few variations - salted green olives instead of capers, and no haloumi. Still delicious :) And with the beetroot in our garden swelling larger and spinach threatening to shade out all else, it will be around a little more over the next few months.

So here it is again :

~Haloumi & Beetroot salad with Walnut dressing~
6 large beetroot, trimmed
500g haloumi, drained
2 tabs olive oil
100g baby spinach leaves, washed and dried

Walnut dressing
1/3 cup walnut halves
1/2 cup drained capers
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1 garlic clove crushed
salt & black pepper

Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Wrap beetroot in foil and place in roasting pan. Cook for an hour or until tender.

Place walnuts on baking tray and cook in oven about 10 minutes or until lightly toasted. Set aside to cool.Chop walnuts coarsely; place in a bowl with capers, garlic, oil and vinegar. Season with salt and pepper. (I would leave out salt as it is quite salty already, and I left pepper out of the kids' portions as they don't like it).

Remove beetroot from the oven and cool for 10 minutes or until you can touch it. Use gloves if you don't want beetroot stain on your hands (I don't bother), and slip skins and stems off. Slice beetroot into thick slices.

Cut haloumi into slices - I like about 3/4cm, but whatever you prefer. Heat oil in non-stick pan to high heat. Cook haloumi in batches, until golden brown on each side. Cut into smaller fingers when they are cooked.We served this on a big platter and ate with out fingers - but you could serve individually. Lay spinach on plate first, then layer beetroot and haloumi and drizzle dressing over the top. Serve immediately.

Warm Artichoke Dip

This is Nellup's incredible version of Phoebe's warm artichoke dip :)

~Warm Artichoke Dip~
1 tub Mainland Spreadable special reserve Extra Tasty cheese
about 120g jar artichokes, drained
big splash of red wine
2 cloves garlic, crushed

Puree all together.
Warm in the microwave about 2-3 minutes, stirring after 1 min. Don't overheat.

I couldn't find the spreadable cheese, so made up a mix of grated strong extra tasty cheese, Philly cheese, and marscapone.

We had this with crackers and it was good!

Rocket Pesto

This recipe was adapted from one I found on google. There is a commercial dip of rocket/cashew nuts that I like, so I tried cashews but the walnuts were nuttier and more peppery so I'll stick to them in future.

Rocket Pesto
3 cups rocket
4 cloves garlic
1/3 cup walnuts, toasted
1/3 cup parmesan, grated
200 ml olive oil

Whiz the first 4 ingredients in the food processer, till chopped, then slowly pour in the olive oil.

Most of what I made was frozen, for using on pasta and as dip when summer is gone.

Basil Pesto

This recipe was given to me by a girl who had the most glorious wild tangly hair. She looked like Helen Bonham Carter. I've changed it over the years because I like less oil and garlic.

The basil bushes are enormous after a month of summer rain. So over the last few days I've made many batches of this and frozen most of it for later in the year. A lot has been frozen in icecube trays to use in cooking. The rest will defrost well for pasta, dips and winter breakfast on toast. I've made so much that I'm sick of the taste of it. Because you have to taste test each lot. With homemade bread of course.

Basil Pesto
100g basil leaves, picked
50g pinenuts, toasted
4 tab parmesan, grated
3 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
150 ml olive oil
juice of 2 small limes or one lemon

Place basil, pinenuts, parmesan and garlic in a food processor and process till mostly chopped. Pour the oil in with the motor running. Add the juice and process briefly to combine. Stir through salt and pepper if you like it.