The Anisata Goat's Cheese and Vegetable Cake can be made a day in advance of using and this allows the aromatic flavour from the anisata to infuse gently through the cake. Just warm through in the oven or microwave before serving. It's a great stand-alone dish or can accompany any meat. Any left-overs will make a delicious light lunch the next day. This is really very tasty!
olive oil for pan-frying
1 large eggplant (aubergine) peeled and sliced
1 clove garlic
1 medium onion, sliced
1 large fennel bulb, sliced
6 ripe tomatoes (roma are perfect), sliced
150g Outback Tomato Chutney
olive oil spray
1 teaspoon anisata
Wild Herb Salt to taste and ground black pepper
120g log goat's cheese
150g mozzarella, grated
100ml milk
100g sour cream ( light sour cream is fine)
2 eggs
1 teaspoon anisata , extra
Pre-heat the oven to 180C
Heat some olive oil in a frying pan and cook the sliced eggplant until translucent and golden. Remove from the pan.
Adding a little more oil as needed, cook the garlic, onion and fennel until softened. Remove from the pan.
Heat a little more oil, as needed, and lightly cook the tomato slices so that they still hold their shape.
Spray or grease with olive oil a 22cm x 22cm (or similar) baking dish and place a layer of a third of the eggplant on the base. Top with a third of the onion and fennel mix, then a layer of tomato.
Dollop a third (50gm) of Outback Tomato Chutney over the layer and spread if you can. Season this with a little of the Anisata, Wild herb salt and pepper. Then crumble a third of the goat's cheese over the top of tis layer, together with a third of the grated mozzarella.
Continue layering with the remaining vegetables, seasoning and chesses - ideally you will have three layers finishing wit a cheese layer on top.
Whisk together the milk, sour cream, eggs and extra Anisata and pour over the vegetable and cheese layers.
Place the baking disj, on a tray, on to the middle shelf of the oven and bake for an hour and until the top is golden and the b=vegetables are cooked through.
If serving after cooking, please let this rest for at least 10 minutes before serving in portions. If you can leave for a few hours or overnight it will be very easy to cut into portions to re-heat.