The Modern Vegetarian: Tomato, Feta, Almond and Date Baklava

This month, Delicious magazine and Waterstones hosted the first book launch for the genuinely charming and enthusiastic Maria Elia, who's first book is The Modern Vegetarian. I am most definitely not vegetarian and neither is Maria, but it is one of those areas of cooking with great potential, but frequently boring options. I mean, there are plenty of lovely vegetarian pasta and risotto recipes as well as the odd curry, but the alternatives are often limited. This book, however, changes that drastically. Maria's recipes are less 'vegetarian' and more just happen not to contain meat.

The evening was lovely - Maria demonstrated her carrot pancakes and a carmelised onion, tomato and feta baklava. Both were stunning and I went on to re-create these myself. She also demonstrated her impressive creativity and natural flair for flavours, by suggesting alternatives to dishes off the top of her head. Take the carrot pancakes - make them 'Thai' style by adding chilli, lime juice and fish sauce to the houmous, that kind of thing. The sort of thing I am patently not good at, being a religious recipe follower. Consequently, I appreciated that the book also includes this kind of commentary. It is particularly helpful for vegetables, where they can be out of season or simply not appropriate to the season, it was great to see comments such as try peas or broad beans instead of the butternut squash.

The book is divided into sophisticated starters, sensational mains, sofa suppers, stylish sides and stunning sweet. Besides being an impressive use of alliteration, this is a practical and useable categorisation. There are lots of beautiful (tempted to say stunning!) photos in the book, although unfortunately, not with every recipe. The recipes are, however, well laid out and easy to read although a guide to overall cooking time would be helpful.

I have tried a few of these recipes over the last week, two successes and one disappointment. We'll start there and work upwards.

I made the Butternut Squash and Rosemary Polenta Chips with homemade aioli from the stylish sides section to go with my very not-vegetarian steak. Maria did mention she likes salt, but these were so salty so as to be rendered almost inedible, which was a real shame. I would make them again, but with about a quarter of the salt.

The next attempt was much more successful. Maria made the Carrot Pancakes with Houmous and a Feta Salad at the event in a cold canape version, which is a great idea. I made the full-sized version with warm pancakes, slightly different but equally delicious. We used some lovely baby carrots from the market to make the carrot pancakes, which are really more fritters and were packed with flavour - chilli, cumin seeds, fennel seeds, ground coriander, fresh coriander and chickpea flour (I believe these are also gluten free due to the use of chickpea flour). These are then topped with roasted carrot houmous and finally a salad with feta and orange segments. While this was an astounding number of flavours and ingredients, the final product mellowed and came together beautifully. A really delicious vegetarian lunch or starter (although I think it would be very filling for a starter).

I also made the Tomato, Feta, Almond and Date Baklava - sounds good already. This seems to be a a bit of a speciality of Maria's - she varies the fillings of her savoury baklavas and serves them at her restaurant. This dish was amazing. There is no other word! It is quite sweet from the caramelised onions, cinnamon, honey and dates, but balanced by salty cheese and crunchy filo pastry. It took much longer to make than the recipe indicates, but was worth the wait!

Tomato, Feta, Almond and Date Baklava
From The Modern Vegetarian by Maria Elia
Serves 6

100ml olive oil
5 spanish onions, halved and finely sliced
2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
pinch of granulated sugar
bunch of dill, finely chopped (or 3 tablespoons dried)
8 vine plum tomatoes, skinned and roughly chopped (reserve half the juice)
3 teaspoons tomato paste
1 packet filo pastry (9 sheets)
150g melted butter
60g blanched almonds, whizzed to a crumble
100g medjool dates, stoned and finely sliced
250g feta cheese, crumbled
6 tablespoons clear honey

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.

Heat the olive oil in a large-bottomed pan. Gently fry the onions over a low heat, add the garlic, cinnamon and sugar and increase the heat. Fry for about 6 minutes, until carmelised (I found this was more like 20 minutes). Add the dill, tomatoes and half of their juice and the tomato puree and cook for a further 5 minutes, until reduced (again, more like 15 minutes).

Unfold the pastry and cut in half; keep it covered with a damp cloth to prevent it from drying out. Brush a baking try (approximately 30 x 20cm) with melted butter, line the tin with a sheet of filo, brush with butter and repeat until you have a 3-layer thickness.

Spread half the onion mixture over the pastry, top with half the almonds, dates and half the feta. Sandwich 3 layers of filo together, brushing each with melted butter and place on top of the onion and feta mix. Top with the remaining onions, almonds, dates and feta and again top with a 3-layer thickness of filo. Lightly score the top, cutting diamonds or squares, brush with butter and splash with a little water (I found it easier to brush with butter first and then score the top). Place on a baking tray and cook for 30-35 minutes until golden (I cooked it for about 45 minutes and then got sick of waiting!).

Leave to cool a little before serving, then drizzle each portion with honey (not too much, it is already quite sweet). Serve hot or cold with fennel salad or some tzatziki.