Saturday, March 16, 2013

Greek Roast Vegetable Frittata with
Spinach and Feta and a Neil Young concert!


There are some major events going on this weekend in Melbourne. Four suburbs away from where we live, Formula 1 racing cars are tearing around our beautiful Albert Park Lake for the Grand Prix. The screaming din of these high-octane machines can be heard as far away as Sandringham which is almost 15 kilometres from the Grand Prix site. I have music playing here at home – a bit of Neil Young, Fleet Foxes, Grizzly Bear and some very loud Led Zeppelin thrown in for good measure – and I can still hear the constant gear changes of these noise polluting gas guzzlers.

Thankfully, we are leaving town in about an hour to make our way 70 kilometres southwest of Melbourne to lovely Geelong where Neil Young (yes, the actual Neil Young) will be performing at an outdoor concert. The event is known as "A Day on the Green" and several are held during the year with big-name artists on the bill, in the form of a half-day festival that is usually set up at a winery property. Victoria is home to many picturesque wineries and they provide the perfect backdrop for outdoor concerts.

Today we are going to see Neil Young and Crazy Horse at The Hill Winery, with support bands Husky (fantastic young, Australian, folk-inspired pop/rock band), and Shane Howard, former lead singer of Goanna (remember Solid Rock?).

The weather isn't looking too promising (after weeks and weeks of dry sunny days, the forecast for today is cold with showers – can you believe it?) but we'll make sure we're well prepared for whatever the weather may bring. Donned in my very fetching red plastic poncho and rainbow-coloured gum boots, I'm sure I will be wowing everybody with my high sense of fashion. We've got the picnic rug, fold-up chairs and a big hamper of food ready to go, including a batch of Greek Frittata that I prepared last night, the recipe for which I will get to in a moment.

But first, another very important event happening in Melbourne this weekend is the Lonsdale Street Antipodes Festival. Unfortunately we are going to miss out this year but if you're in Melbourne and interested in Greek culture, music and food, I highly recommend spending Sunday afternoon at the festival for a dose of good Greek fun and frivolity, or if you're a fan of the gorgeous Mihalis Hatzigiannis, he'll be headlining a free concert on the main stage in Lonsdale Street on Saturday night.

In the spirit of bringing some Greek flavours to the Neil Young mini-festival this weekend, I have prepared a picnic-friendly Greek Frittata and a simple Greek salad to take with us.

The frittata is made with classic Greek ingredients including spinach, feta, tomatoes, onions, red capsicum and oregano. It can be served warm or cold, the latter being the way we will be enjoying it at the concert today.


Greek Roast Vegetable Frittata with Spinach and Feta


Serves 6–8

Ingredients

  • 1 large red onion, finely sliced
  • 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
  • 150g baby spinach leaves
  • 1 red capsicum
  • 150g feta cheese, sliced to 5mm thick
  • 5 whole eggs
  • 5 egg whites
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon dried oregano
  • 250g cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
  • Ground pepper to taste

Instructions

  1. Place whole capsicum, coated in oil in a small oven tray and roast at 200 degrees celsius for 30 minutes or until starting to blacken. Remove capsicum from oven and place in plastic bag to sweat. When cool enough to handle, remove from plastic bag, cut in half and remove the skin and seeds. Slice lengthways to make approximately 8 slices and set aside.
  2. While capsicum is in the oven, cook onions over low heat for around 30 minutes until softened and caramelised. Add the garlic to the onion mixture in the last minute of cooking time.
  3. During the onion and capsicum cooking time, lightly beat whole eggs and eggs whites in a medium sized bowl. Add salt and oregano and set aside.
  4. In the last few minutes of onion cooking time, steam the spinach.
  5. Roughly arrange the onion and spinach in clumps around the base of a straight-sided baking dish that measures approximately 20cm x 30cm.
  6. Layer slices of capsicum over the onion and spinach, followed by the feta slices.
  7. Pour egg mixture over vegetables and cheese and arrange cherry tomato halves over the egg mixture, cut sides up.
  8. Grind cracked pepper over the tomatoes and bake for 45 to 50 minutes, or until lightly browned on top. The frittata is cooked if a knife inserted in the centre comes out clean.


10 comments:

  1. Ahh, so you're off to see Neil Young tonight! This doesn't surprise me..I hope the weather behaves for you.

    I have a couple of friends going down for the concert too. I'm sure if they caught sight of your frittata you'd be in danger of leaving with an empty dish! Have fun!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The weather was torrential!!!!! But we still brought out the picnic food! Crazy stuff, everything soaked, soggy frittata, rain-diluted wine. We still had a great time though. It was Neil Young!! We just danced and had a ball in the rain.

      Delete
  2. A friend recommened this blog to me, and I love it! I too am a greek vegetarian and can't wait to see what you cook up next!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hello and welcome!! Great to meet another Greek vegetarian! Hope to see you here again soon :)

      Delete
  3. So happy to have found your blog, gorgeous food and wonderful stories. This frittata looks divine, will be making it for sure. I've tons of home grown capsicums/peppers to use so had been looking for inspiration and certainly found it here.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for the lovely comment Kyra. I'm happy you found my blog too! You really must try Briam as well - it's a simple roasted vegetable dish to which you could add as many capsicums as you wish!

      Delete
  4. what a beautiful frittata! i love the cherry tomatoes on the top. have fun at the concert. i hope he plays my favorite- cinnamon girl!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes! He played Cinnamon Girl! It's my favourite Neil Young song too!! It was pouring rain and the ground was just mud but we had a fantastic time and Neil was such a good sport to play under those conditions. The whole stage and all their equipment got drenched but they played on!

      Delete
  5. I think this is the most beautiful frittata I've ever seen! I've really never thought of a frittata as picnic food, but I'm going to have to give it a try this summer.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Kiersten! It tastes lovely warm or cold. Even at room temperature!

      Delete

Thanks so much for your comments and feedback.

To leave a comment, please choose your profile account from the dropdown menu below. If you don't have a profile account, you can use the "Anonymous" option but please remember to sign your name at the end of your comment so I know who you are.

Thanks and hear from you soon!