vegetarian smörgåstårta

Smorgastarta is a Retro Swedish dish most often served an milestone events such as weddings, christenings, or house warming. Originating in the 70's it is in essence a savory cake. A bit gaudy and daggy but recently under going a revival as a trendy retro dish....a little like fondue has in recent times. It is rich and definitely not low fat, but fun to make and decorate and handy as a share meal when you are asked to 'bring a plate'.

This recipe is for a not very traditional, vegetarian smorgastarta rather than the traditional on which consists of meats, cocktail prawns, caviar and salmon mousse. I decorated the top with some smoked salmon as i brought this dish to a friends house whom aren't vegetarian. Simply omit the smoked salmon from the decorating and replace with any other vegetarian alternative. Cucumber, sweet potato, herbs, edible flows, micro herbs, cherry tomatoes, avocado....anything pretty!

Ingredients

1 loaf of sourdough bread of choice (rye would be great)

1/3 cup char grilled sliced capsicum (you can use jarred or sliced to save time)

1 eggplant, thinly sliced length ways and char grilled

1/2 lemon sliced

avocado cream

1 avocado

1/2 cup marscapone

2 tbsp sour cream (feel free to substitute the sour cream with quark)

1/4 cup finely diced Spanish onion

1 handful finely chopped dill

juice of 1/2 lemon

s & p

baby capers

big handful parsley

big handful parsley

1 bunch dill

1 bunch steamed baby asparagus

1 handful toasted pine nuts

1 handful steamed string beans

(other veg to garnish such as cherry tomatoes, marinated artichoke hearts, sliced capsicum, char grilled capsicum, Spanish onion etc)

egg cream salad

3 eggs hard boiled

1/3 cup creme friache

3 tbsps sour cream

1 tsp paprika

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp curry powder

s & p

smorgastarta icing

1 packet cream cheese

2/3 cup mayo

1 cup marscapone

1 cup sour cream

first beat all the smorgastarta icing ingredients together until light and creamy.

put in the fridge to chill until later

next make the egg cream salad, mash the ingredients together and place in the fridge until later.

next slice and char grill the eggplant and capsicum

then mash the avocado, add the other ingredients together

and now its time to build the savoury cake!

slice the bread into 1cm thickness HORIZONTALLY

take the first slice and spread generously with the avocado mix, then layer the eggplant overlapping slightly spread a generous amount of the smorgasarta spread on top of the eggplant

next put the next slice of bread on top, scatter with the roast capsicum and slather with a generous amount of the egg cream salad

then lay the next slice of bread

cover with cling wrap and put in the fridge to set for 2 or 3 hours

then you are ready to decorate.

first generously ice the whole loaf with the smorgastarta icing, then

get creative, use patterns, use pretty herbs, think of it like decorating a cake.