Boy, oh bouyiourdi

Sometimes I come across a dish that definitely falls in the ?must try this at home? and that was certainly the case with the bouyiourdi I had among the meze at a local Greek restaurant recently.

It?s a really simple dish but it has a lot going for it. It?s the sort of thing I like to throw together for myself when no one else is coming home for dinner and I fancy something tasty but don?t want to spend all night making it.

Bouyiourdi is basically a layered dish of sliced tomatoes and capsicums, chillies, feta, oregano and another Greek cheese, kasseri. Some recipes include olives. The restaurant one I sampled included some sliced mushrooms. Most recipes say you need at least two cheeses. I used feta, some Greek goat?s curd cheese and some gruyere. The idea is to have a melange of vegetables and cheese.


Second time round I needed something a little more substantial to share with The Spouse so I went cross-cultural and added some slices of spicy chorizo. And though it might be the middle of winter here, I did manage to get some quite tasty small vine tomatoes as my local market.

While a recipe is hardly necessary, here?s my version. I made them in some of those Spanish terracotta bowls that are ideal for tapas and meze dishes.

Bouyiourdi
Serves 2

200g feta cheese
4-6 well-flavoured tomatoes
1/2 red pepper
50g goat?s curd cheese
1 small chilli, deseeded and chopped
handful of Greek olives
2 tablespoons fresh oregano leaves
olive oil
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
some melty cheese such as gruyere

Preheat oven to 190C. Sprinkle a little olive oil in the bottom of an ovenproof dish. Layer in slices of feta, tomato and red pepper, adding the other ingredients as you go. Bake 20-25 minutes.