The Kitchen Playground

I was just loving the thought of this afternoon. Lot’s of kitchen pottering to do. Dinner to make, lunches to prepare for tomorrow, yoghurt cheese, goats milk yoghurt to make, bread to bake, kombucha to brew. So much fun to be had.

One thing I didn’t factor in though…fighting Ankle Biters. I swear the little blighters have fought each other tooth and nail from the moment we walked in the door. I appreciate it’s the first week after school holidays and the end of day light savings and they’re tired and kind of jet lagged. I get that. I really do. Doesn’t stop my brain leaking out my left ear at every blood curdling screech they emit though.

Anyhoo, soldier on. Can’t let blood shed and warfare get in the way of a little weekend herb blogging now can we?

I picked some lovely oregano from the garden today and I had some asian eggplant and zucchini in the fridge. Isn’t that a combination that just screams Meditteranean? And thus, this pie was born.

Eggplant and Zucchini Pie.
40g tasty cheese
40g parmesan
40g gruyere
40g mozzarella
40g creamy blue
or any other combination or single cheese adding up to 200g
5 asian eggplant
5 small zucchini
bunch oregano, leaves stripped off stalks
1 small leek
2 shallots
3 - 4 large cloves garlic
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 large tomato, sliced
16 olives
8 sheets filo
butter

Preheat oven to 200 degrees.
Grate cheeses and crumble blue. Combine and set aside. In thermomix, 10 seconds on speed 6.
Grate or finely chop zucchini and eggplant. In thermomix, 10 seconds on speed 4 in two batches. Set aside.
Finely chop leek, garlic and shallots (5 seconds on speed 6 in thermomix) and saute lightly in a splash of olive oil (3 minutes on speed 1 at 100 degrees in themomix, scrape down sides first)
In a large frypan, lightly saute eggplant and zucchini in a tiny splash of oil for 5 minutes (too much to do efficiently in thermomix but feel free to do it in batches if you so desire).
In a large bowl, thoroughly combine cheeses, zucchini and eggplant mix, leek mixture, eggs and oregano.
Melt butter.
Brush butter onto half of 1 sheet of filo. Fold over and repeat. Repeat again with second sheet and stack so you have a rectangle 4 layers thick. Spoon one quarter of the mixture on to the middle of the pastry, place slices of tomato on top. Top the tomato with four olives. Fold edges of pastry up to encase and brush the outside with butter. Repeat to make another 4 parcels.
Bake for 30 - 35 minutes.

Tags: eggplant, thermomix, Vegetarian, zucchini