Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Impromptu 'fika'.

As you may or may not know, I have been on death's door for the past two weeks, but have still managed to go to the market. In addition to that, I have been learning Swedish, and today's 4:15 class will be my last for the semester.
In Sweden, they have this thing called 'fika', which is roughly...afternoon tea, coffee-and-cake time, or something. We have all been requested to being 'fika' for the last class, but to "not all just bring a packet of biscuits, or chips." I would usually turn around and say, "How old do you think we are, 12?" but most of the kids in the class are from first year, still live at home or are from college. Yeah, I am one classy broad.
This is where my 2 day trip to NT comes in. I get to use up ingredients. Now, I don't know if they really do savouries as 'fika' in Sweden, but they do now- it's baked...like a cake, so suck it. I had to use up a whole bunch of ingredients that looked like they would be sad upon my return...so here it goes.

Some tart thing.

1 Spanish onion, halved and sliced
2tbs oil
equivalent in butter
red wine vinegar
sprinkling of sugar (if need be)
the remainders of a jar of olives (around 10), pit and slice them
1/2 bunch of rainbow silverbeet, chopped and rinsed
1 large handful of walnuts
100g ricotta
1 cube of marinated goats feta
4 eggs
200 ml of natural yogurt and some water (cos that is all I had)
or
300ml cream
4 sheets filo
50gr melted butter

-Preheat oven to 180 degrees.
-Toast walnuts in a pan and chop. Keep it chunky, you want some texture.
-Cook off the silverbeet, stalks first, then add the leaves till they wilt. Transfer on plate to cool.
- In the same pan, turn the heat down to low and add the oil and butter. Throw in your onions and soften. Add the red wine vinegar and caramelize.
- Meanwhile, butter between your sheets of filo, and butter a tart pan. Doesn't really matter what shape it is. Lay the filo into it and arrange the silverbeet on the bottom, topped with the olives and walnuts. tear chunks of ricotta over that and do the same with the goat's feta.
- In a bowl, mix together the eggs and the dairy of choice. Season with salt and pepper.
-Check on the onions. If you're impatient and they're not sweet enough yet, add a sprinkle of sugar and continue cooking them off. It should take around 30 minutes.
-When they're done, arrange over the top of the other ingredients and pour over the egg mixture.
-Bake for 20-25 minutes or till the egg has set. Can be eaten hot or cold, cut into slices and serve.

*NOTE- "death's door"= primary viral infection with a secondary bacterial infection of the throat and chest. Yeah, I rock.



No comments: