Mediterranean Vegetable Pesto Pie

A couple of days ago one of my friends posted a video on her Facebook page... a video that got me thinking. It was the 4 minute speech by Graham Hill - founder of Treehugger.com - on "Why I am a weekday vegetarian".

I have had exactly the same thoughts...I enjoy eating meat way too much to quit cold turkey, but on the other hand I don't want to contribute to meat factories, polluting the environment more than necessary and worse health... So where Graham Hill decided to eat meat only during the weekend, I have decided to have "veggie day" at least two days a week. I know, it's not much...but it's a start!

So today I made a vegetarian Mediterranean Vegetable Pesto Pie - a recipe I found in the cookbook Cappelens nye kokebok. I love the taste of pesto and was really looking forward to trying out this new recipe and this savoury pie of course....but I have to say that it wasn't the taste explosion that I had expected it to be. Anyway, I'll give you the recipe....your tastebuds might be different from mine!

Vegetable Pesto Pie
( Ø 24 cm)

Ingredients:

-for the pie crust:
3 dl of all-purpose flour
125 gr of butter, cold
2 tbsp cold water

- for the filling:
1 red pepper (capsicum)
1 yellow pepper
2 red onions
1 squash (courgette)
1 tbsp of olive oil
1 tsp of salt
1 tsp of ground pepper
3 eggs
2 dl milk
1 dl pesto

1.) Start by making the pie crust. Put the butter and the flour into a medium-sized bowl and use two knives to cut the butter into small pices and to blend them with the flour. You might need to use your hands after a while to crumble the butter even more, and get a crumbly flour/butter mixture.
2.) Then add the 2 tbsp of cold water, and knead until it forms a dough.
3.) Cover the bottom and sides of a springform pan - 24 cm in diameter - with the dough.
4.) Pierce the bottom of the pie with a fork, and put it into the fridge for 15 to 30 minutes.

5.) Now you start with the filling by preheating the oven to 250 degrees Celsius.
6.) Wash the vegetables, remove the stalk and seeds from the peppers, and cut the vegetables into pieces - the squash (courgette) into slices, the onion into half moons and the peppers into rectangular pieces.
7.) Put the vegetables on a baking tray, and mix with the olive oil, pepper and salt.
8.) Roast the vegetables for 15 to 20 minutes on the middle rack in the oven.

9.) When the vegetables have been roasted, take them out and set them aside. At the same time, turn down the oven heat to 200 degrees Celsius.
10.) When the oven is 200 degrees Celsius, prebake the pie crust 10 minutes on the middle rack of the oven.

11.) Take out the pie crust and fill it with the roasted vegetables.
12.) Mix the eggs, milk and pesto together and fill the pie crust.
13.) Bake the filled pie 35 to 40 minutes on the middle rack of the oven.
14.) Serve lukewarm together with a salad (I made a mediterranean salad with red leaf lettuce, romano lettuce and rocket /ruccola, mixed with sliced cherry tomatoes, mozzarella and a olive oil / balsamico dressing).

Enjoy!

Rhubarb Pie

A couple of days ago, on a visit to the farm of my in-laws, I snatched with me a couple of kilos of rhubarb. I just love rhubarb! It really gives me the feeling of summer. Today I used some of the rhubarb to make Rhubarb Pie. Yummie!

Rhubarb Pie
( Ø 24 cm)

For the pastry dough:
100 gr butter
3 dl sugar
1 egg
1,5 dl cream (27%)
3 dl all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder

For the filling:
dried bread crumbs
6 rhubarb stems
1 dl sugar

For the egg glaze:
1 egg

1.) Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
2.) Mix the butter, flour, sugar and baking powder (preferably in a food processor), add the egg and then pour in the cream until the mixture starts to become a dough. If the dough turns out sticky, add more flour. (I didn't use a food processor, and I needed to add more flour)
3.) Let the dough rest in the fridge for 30 to 60 minutes.
4.) Line the bottom of a springform pan (Ø 24 cm) with baking parchment, and butter the sides.
5.) Use half of the dough to cover the bottom and sides of the springform pan. You can either just use your hands, or roll the dough out on a flour-covered surface and transfer to the springform pan.
6.) Put the springform pan into the fridge.
7.) Clean and trim the rhubarb stems, and cut them into pieces of 2 cm.
8.) Mix the rhubarb with 1 dl of sugar. Sprinkle the bottom of the dough-covered springform pan with dried bread crumbs, and then fill the form with the rhubarb sugar mixture. (The dried bread crumbs will absorb some of the moisture from the rhubarb so that the bottom of the pie won't get soggy).
9.) Use the rest of the dough to roll into strips and cover the pie with these.

10.) Whisk the egg, and brush the strips and sides of the pie with it.
11.) Bake for 40 to 45 minutes on the lower rack of the oven.
12.)  Let the pie cool down first in the springform pan, then on a rack. Serve luke warm with vanilla ice cream or vanilla sauce.

Enjoy!