FETA AND FRESH HERB CAKE

Since the weather here is quite freezing cold, grey and a little depressing, I’m sure that this savory cake will warm up your soul and chase away your wintertime “depression”… And for that, nothing’s better than food which reminds you of your nice summer holiday evenings when you are sitting out enjoying delicious food and a good bottle of wine!

This “Feta And Fresh Herb Cake” is the perfect option if you are looking for something super fine and delicate to serve as an apetizer (it goes incredibly well with olives and Parma ham). Eaten warm, a buttered slice of this cake will take you beyond the 7th sky or to yummyland!!!

This recipe was originally released in the N°86 (Juin-Juillet-Août) of the French magazine "Cuisine Et Vins De France". As usual, I have changed a few things in order to meet my own tastes...

Ingredients:
180g Plain white flour
2- 2 1/2 Tsp Baking powder
3 Eggs (~50g)
100g Gruyère (or Fontina), grated
200g Feta (or Mozarella), cubed
6 Tbs Olive oil
100ml Milk
1/2 Cup Fresh basil and chives, chopped
A pinch paprika powder
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F).
2. Incorporate the baking powder to the sieved flour and mix in the salt and pepper.
3. In a big bowl, beat the eggs until fluffy and until they lighten in colour.
4. While continuesly beating, add the olive oil and milk.
5. Incorporate the flour to the egg mixture and mix well in order to get a homogenous dough. 6. Add the feta cheese, the gruyère and the fresh herbs. Mix delicately.
7. Pour the dough into a greased rectangular cake pan.
8. Bake for about 50 minutes.
9. Cool the bread and eat while it’s still warm.

Remarks:
If the feta is too fresh and tends to break, then you should not incorporate the cubes into dough at the same time as the gruyère. I recommend you to pour a bit of dough into the pan and to add the cubed feta on the top, and then to add again a bit of dough and feta and so forth until the you have incorporated the whole quantity of feta cheese…
You should better use medium-aged gruyère for this cake.

Serving suggestions:
Eat it warm, cut into slices (or small cubes) and buttered. It is ideal to serve this savory cake with olives and tapas or mezze. And, of course, I recommend you to accompany the food with a good sparkly Chilean, Californian or Italian Chardonnay wine or any dry white wine of your choice (Pinot Gris, Muscadet, Chasselas, etc...)!…

(Feta Bread -Pic by Rosa www.rosas-yummy-yums.blogspot.com)
(Chives -Pic by www.mccormick.com)
(Feta Cheese -Pic by www.europaeducatief.nl)