The Cover In My Kitchen - Good Taste, September

I have had so much fun cooking the recipe off the cover of the last two Donna Hay magazines that I thought I might turn it into a new regular blog feature.  Welcome to The Cover in My Kitchen.

This week I am kicking things off with the September Issue of Australian Good Taste.  On the cover this month is a Pumpkin and Feta Filo Frittata, and it was a real hit when I made it for lunch yesterday.  The boy even jumped in an helped me out which resulted in him eating up more pumpkin and broccoli than I think I have ever seen him eat!

I didn't bother with the haloumi and rocket salad for serving with, the pancetta already puts the frittata on the expensive side to make and as much as I love Haloumi pairing it with the feta and pancetta in the frittata just seemed like a salt overload.

 Rather than using butter to brush the pan and filo pastry I used olive oil, it was just quicker and easier (and probably healthier) than melting butter.  It worked a treat and I love the no stickage factor of the end result.

I roasted my pumpkin instead of steaming (steamed pumpkin, ick...I know it's really all in my head lol) and blanched the broccoli separately.  I also added in a bunch of cut up spring onions into the egg mix, because there was a shallot listed in the ingredients and I had a bunch hanging out in the fridge starting to look a bit worse for wear.

Filo pastry really is not my favourite thing in the world to work with but I do love the light and crunchy end result so it was worth while and I definitely wouldn't recommend substituting a different kind of pastry.  I was using a previously used frozen pack, I wrapped the folded sheets in a damp tea towel, was extra patient and gently eased them apart one fold at a time so I didn't get too much cracking of the sheets.  I only used 5 sheets instead of the prescribed 8 because that was enough and I suspect that mine were longer than those used in the magazine example.

The Recipe

With the exception of the fiddliness of the filo pastry this recipe is pretty easy.  Like I said I roasted rather than steamed the pumpkin but like any frittata you can substitute pretty much any vegetables you want.  8 eggs was the perfect amount, it is too 'eggy' but it holds together well.

Although it is a little pricier than bacon pancetta is perfect it isn't as salty as prosciutto or as strong as bacon.  If you were going to substitute bacon instead of pancetta I would chop the rashers up into small pieces rather than large chunks.

I used danish feta, that is our first choice from the deli, it was perfect because it is nice and creamy and softens in the oven.  Greek and Australian feta can both get a bit rubbery with heat.  Bulgarian feta has the same creamy texture but is saltier than danish so unless you really love salt I probably wouldn't use it, or I'd reduce the quantity.

Serving it Up

The recipe says serves 6 but I cut it into 8 and the portions are still plenty big enough to be served as dinner with a salad.  The calorie count in the magazine seems low at 410 cal/serve for all that cheese and eggs.  With the omission of haloumi and smaller serving size mine would have had a lower calorie count again in which case it is very filling.

The Magazine

Australian Good Taste is awesome value at $3.95, it is a regular addition to my trolley at Woolies and I always find at least a few recipes to try. It has a range of recipes suitable for a variety of skill levels in the kitchen.  It is probably fair to say that I'll suggest you buy it each month ;)

This month is proclaimed as 'your ultimate guide to healthy and tasty eating' so there are plenty of low calorie meals in there,  especially handy if you are looking to loose some excess kilos leading into summer. 

Besides the frittata I made the Vietnamese fried rice last night and Chicken stuffed with bocconcini and spinach is on the menu for this week.  I've got my eye on the soy-poached chicken, cabbage and pineapple salad for when I get my hands on a good pineapple and there is a lovely expert guide on paella.  I'm putting a paella pan on my christmas wish list.

Have you got this month's Good Taste?  What caught your eye? Is it a magazine that you buy regularly? 

Hope you enjoyed my first installment of The Cover in My Kitchen.  Next week I'll be cooking up the cover of Gourmet Traveller.

Tatum xx

Note: For this regular series unless I can find the recipe in an appropriate place online I won't be sharing it here, as much as I love to share I am a bit of a stickler where copyright is concerned.  When the recipe pops up on the Taste website I'll add it retrospectively.