Dominique’s savoury vegetable cake, from her Domaine de l’Oiseau in Burgundy
This is an unusual and delicious appetiser to enjoy, still warm from the oven, with pre-dinner drinks, or served with butter and a cup of coffee. This cake always brings back happy memories of my time in Burgundy with my daughter Yolanda, at the Domaine de L’Oiseau country house owned by my friends Dominique and Phillipe, when Dominique served it with drinks before dinner. We spent many great visits there and Dominque and I loved our time cooking together. I was thrilled when she shared the recipe with me, as she frequently did. I often serve it as part of the welcome tea and coffee before cooking classes. I sometimes halve the quantities and make it in my small rectangular loaf tin, measuring 8cm x 24cm x 4cm deep.
Serves 10 as a starter
Ingredients:
1 red capsicum, chopped
½ green capsicum, chopped
1 onion or a whole eschallot, chopped
200 g fetta
3 large eggs
150g flour, plus baking powder
5 tbsp or ‘French soupspoons’ extra virgin olive oil
6 tbsp or ‘French soupspoons’ milk
100g Emmenthal cheese, grated
50g black olives, chopped
1 tbsp finely chopped chives
1 tbsp finely chopped parsley
Pinch dried chillies
¼ tsp sea salt
¼ tsp freshly cracked pepper
Method:
Preheat the oven to 180ºC.
For the vegetables: sauté the capsicums and onion in some extra virgin olive oil for 5 – 10 minutes until translucent, do not brown.
For the cake: add all the other ingredients to the onions and capsicum and mix well. Add the sea salt and freshly cracked pepper.
Pour into a log or bread tin and smooth the top.
Cook in the preheated oven at 180ºC for 45 minutes to one hour. Check to see if cooked by inserting a skewer into the centre of the cake; when cooked the skewer will come out clean. Leave the cake in the tin for a few minutes, then turn it out onto a wire rack, to cool.
Serve either cut into slices with butter served on the side; alternatively, cut the cake into small 3-4cm cubes and serve as an hors d’oeuve finger food.
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