Assortment of Tartlets

For a fun appetizer, snack, or a light dinner if you so wish, this is an assortment of tartlets. Of course, you could only do one of these tartlets if you like.

The tartlets we are going to make here are Salmon with Crème Fraîche and Sun-dried Tomatoes* with Goat Cheese. We will use smoked salmon and tinned sun-dried tomatoes, so it is really easy to prepare.

While preparing the tartlets, start preheating your oven to about 175C (350F).

If you have an oven tray, preheat the oven tray in the oven as well.

We start with the pastry; you can buy pastry dough at the supermarket and you just have to unroll it. I like to further thin it just a bit; you will have to experiment with the dough you find in the supermarket. You can use a drinking glass or another round thing to cut out your pastry.

I used a package of smoked salmon and sliced it up to make it easier to arrange the salmon on the pastry.

Place the salmon in a little heap on the pastry circle and sprinkle on some chives, I just used dried chives from a spice jar.

For the sun-dried tomatoes, I place them so that they open up on the top (see the picture for a better explanation).

And in this little pocket, I place the goat cheese. Now, I'm using a goat cheese spread, which I formed into a little ball. You can do it which ever way you like.

Finally, crinkle up the edges of the pastry; almost as if you are folding the edges in just a little bit. Don't sweat it too much, it does not have to be perfect.

Now we are ready to bake! Place the pastries in the oven on the tray for about 15 minutes; but keep checking in on them. (The pastries on the right are Croissants with Ham and Swiss).

And after 15 minutes or so, your crust should be nicely browned and raised, carefully take the tray out of the oven and plate the tartlets.

Finally, drop a dollop of crème fraîche on the salmon tartlets and drizzle some honey on the sundried tomato tartlets and they are ready to eat!

I love doing these tartlets for a light dinner because, as you saw, it is very easy to do and it has quite a nice mix of textures.

*Tip: Don't throw away your sun-dried tomatoes, refer to our "Let's not waste anything!" page, and check out few ideas on how to use your sun-dried tomatoes.

As with all the other recipes we put on this site, this is meant to be easy to follow. We are hobby chefs who love to cook, and we are always up for learning new techniques. If you know of anything in this recipe which can be done a different way, whether for increased ease of preparation or better taste, please add a comment below!

Whipped up by Shyamal Addanki

Salmon and Goat Cheese Tartlet

This easy to make tartlet is a great way to use up any leftover pastry crust from making quiche, or just because its summer. Its especially good on a Sunday.

As promised, its easy too. For two people, I made eight lil' ones. You can make as many as you like, but this recipe is for eight.

You probably want some Salmon to make Salmon tartlets, one filet (100g) is more than enough. Oh, and some goat cheese, when you read the rest of this recipe you will get an idea of how much you need. I come from a school of thought which believes one can never have too much goat cheese, so just get a bunch and use whatever you need on these tarts, and then reward yourself by eating the rest with a drizzle of honey.

I like to top them off with some chives, if you get fresh ones then good for you. I just used chives from a spice bottle. I also like to drizzle the whole thing with a bit of honey, so have some honey laying around the house. No, not THAT way! The kind from bees, silly.

Right! To the Salmon!

We are first going to cook the salmon fillet, preheat your oven to 175 C ( 350 F). On a piece of aluminum foil, place your salmon fillet and gently poke it a bit with a fork, then drizzle some honey over it and rub that honey in. Don't worry about too much or too little, I promise you it won't mess it up as long as you don't drench the salmon in honey.

Now wrap the salmon in that foil so it is all covered up and pop it in the oven, it will take hardly any time to cook and we can prepare the crust meanwhile.

If you're using ready made pie crust, then you just need to unroll it, perhaps consider thinning it just a bit. Its really not a big deal if you don't want to thin it out. If you're making your own pie crust, then, well, you clearly know what you're doing.

Now, take a drinking glass or something to cut out the circle shapes and cut out your crusts. You can just ball up the remaining dough, roll it flat, and cut some more. If you bought the pre-made crust, it probably came on a baking sheet, I keep my dough circles back on this sheet.

By about now, the salmon ought to be done, take it out of the oven and check that it is nicely pink. If it isn't, put it back for a bit, but take it out within a minute and check again; don't let it dry out.

Go ahead, take a fork and take a bite of your honey glazed salmon ... good isn't it? Well, make honey glazed salmon another time, now its time for salmon tartlets! What we are going to do now is to use a fork and pick on the salmon until is is in flakes, your salmon should flake up pretty easily.

At this stage, if you have a cat, best to lock him/her out of the kitchen.

Now it is time to assemble; place a few flakes of salmon on each circle of dough, top of off with a bit of goat cheese and then some bits of chives. You can drizzle some honey around the salmon if you like, or save it for later. If you want to make this into a "purse" type tart, you just pick up the edges and pinch them together as in the one on the left in this picture.

Now carefully put them in the oven.

And after 10 minutes or so; they should be nicely browned. As you can see, my tarts opened up. This is fine, if my dough had been a bit thinner, they might have stayed closed.

Now transfer them to a plate, and if you didn't already add honey earlier, this is a good time to drizzle some honey over them.

As with all the other recipes we put on this site, this is meant to be easy to follow. We are hobby chefs who love to cook, and we are always up for learning new techniques. If you know of anything in this recipe which can be done a different way, whether for increased ease of preparation or better taste, please add a comment below!

Whipped up by Shyamal Addanki