What We're Cooking This Week: Cake Salé - Willamette Week

Jim Dixon wrote about food for WW for more than 20 years, but these days most of his time is spent at his olive oil-focused specialty food business Wellspent Market. Jim’s always loved to eat, and he encourages his customers to cook by sending them recipes every week through his newsletter. We’re happy to have him back creating some special dishes just for WW readers.

If you’re in France and see the phrase “cake salé'’ don’t assume you’ve found a discount on sweet baked goods. While Franglais, the insertion of English words into everyday French, is both common and contentious, that easily-missed diacritic at the end of salé keeps the word firmly Gallic. It means salty.

Basically a savory quick bread, cakes salé most often appears at the early evening apéro, shorthand for apéritif, the hour before dinner reserved for drinks and a few snacks. But they’re substantial enough to serve as part of a light meal alongside a salad or bowl of soup.

This one’s adapted from a recipe famed baker Dorie Greenspan found in a cheese shop in Paris. Feel free to play around with added ingredients. Olives, capers and other herbs all work well with the cheese, and salami or other cured meats could be used instead of the ham, or it could be left out.

1 1/2 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt

4 large eggs

1/2 cup plain, full-fat yogurt

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil plus 1 tablespoon for greasing

3-4 ounces cooked ham, diced

4 ounces grated Gruyère cheese (about 1 cup)

6 ounces log-style plain goat cheese, crumbled

Heat the oven to 350 degrees.

Mix together flour, baking powder, black pepper and salt in a large bowl. Use a separate bowl to combine the eggs, yogurt and olive oil, then add them to the flour mixture and stir to combine. Fold in the ham and cheeses.

Grease a 10-inch skillet or 9-by-12-inch pan with the rest of the olive oil. Add the batter and smooth the top with a silicone spatula or spoon. Bake for about 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool for about 15 minutes, then remove from the pan and cool completely before serving.

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