Feta dill rice gratin with Greek style stew - and random moments

Inspiration is an odd thing.  Some leftover fresh dill, rice in the freezer and a packet of feta helped me veer off course from my meal planning.  The result was this delicious feta rice gratin with a tomato vegetable stew inspired by Greek cuisine.  I loved how it brought together favourite old recipes but felt new.

When I was planning my weekly grocery shopping this Sunday, I was frustrated at my lack of ideas for meals.  I had tubs of cooked rice in the freezer so I was tossing up between a Spinach rice gratin and a Vegetable nut and rice crumble.  But I had fresh dill to use up.  Dill makes me think feta and lemon juice.  And so the ideas for the gratin were forming.  I considered a crumble topping but it was easier to scatter yummy crunchy stuff and then drizzle with olive oil.  It was lovely and chewy and crispy when baked.
 

You can see in the pictures that my rice was a red jasmine rice.  I found it in a health food store and wanted to try it.  It is a nubbly wholegrain rice.  I enjoyed it but it took longer than brown rice and was not that much different tasting.  Next time I would use brown rice or perhaps basmati.  

I was inspired by the tomato vegetable layer in the nut crumble.  I find it easy to fry onion and then add a tin of tomatoes and some veg and seasoning.  So this seemed a good accompaniment to the gratin.  It wasn't quite as I expected because I only had passata.  It was more soupy than I wanted but once I added some diced potato and edamame, it went from soup to stew.  And after 30 minutes of simmering, it was really lovely. 

Sylvia came out of her bedroom as I served dinner.  She had planned to snack on pretzels and chocolate.  When she saw what I had made, she tried a little and then a bit more.  She declared it "good stuff"!  High praise, indeed!  And so satisfying to feed her good food.  It also fortified me for the week ahead.  I was so happy to have leftovers for work lunches.

Before moving onto the recipe, here are a few recent random moments:

• My shock at discovering that my 2 week old laptop at work had to be wiped and rebuilt due to a virus.  All the work of sorting out my software and settings on a new computer had to be repeated.
  

• When Sylvia ordered fried eggs on toast at a local cafe, she asked for a "hard yolk".  When her meal came she had egg with soft yolks and yoghurt on the side.  The waiter had totally misheard her request.
  

• Meeting up with a guest historian and two friends from my masters course was so much fun. As we swapped memories, the years fell away and we remembered the excitement of the field trip and research into the history of farm buildings.
  
  

More recipes with dill on Green Gourmet Giraffe blog:
Avgolemono (gf, v)
Creamy potato and dill soup
Rosy Russian bread (v)
Vegan 'salmon' pate (gf, v)
Vegan tahini stew with feta and dill dumplings

Feta dill rice gratin with Greek style stew 
An original Green Gourmet Giraffe recipe
Serves 4

Feta rice gratin:

4 cups cooked rice
1 egg
1 tsp stock powder
juice of 1/2 lemon
125g feta, crumbled and divided
2-3 tsp fresh dill, chopped
Handful of grated cheese
Breadcrumbs (I used panko)
Sesame seeds
Olive oil

In a shallow round 28cm casserole dish, mix rice with egg, stock powder, lemon juice, 75g of feta and dill. Scatter on top the remaining 50g feta along with the grated cheese, breadcrumbs and sesame seeds.  Drizzle with olive oil.  Bake for 20-30 minutes until golden brown and crisp.

Greek style stew:

2 tsp olive oil
1 brown onion, diced
1 carrot, diced
700ml passata
1/2 cup water
3 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp garlic granules
1 tsp salt
3 tsp cider vinegar
1 tsp honey
2 tbsp tomato paste
2 zucchinis, cut into chunky half moons
1 potato, diced
1 cup frozen peas or edamame beans
400g tin chickpeas, rinsed and drained

Heat olive oil in a large saucepan.  Fry onion and carrot in oil for about 5-10 minutes until soft.  Add remaining ingredients.  Check seasoning and adjust.  Bring to the boil, cover and simmer for about 30 minutes or until the vegetables are soft.  

Serve gratin with stew.

On the Stereo:
The Terrys - self titled