Surrounded by the remnants of my half-eaten Easter eggs this weekend, I was searching for something to make that didn’t involve chocolate but was still distinctly seasonal. This thought process led me down a rather savoury path and I arrived at a gorgeous recipe for asparagus and smoked salmon tartlets.
Asparagus season in the UK lasts from May to June and, in contrast to our European neighbours who prefer the white variety, British growers produce an amazing crop of green asparagus. In this recipe I also took advantage of the British spring onions that are in season right now as they add a wonderfully fresh flavour to the tartlets. My favourite part of this recipe, however, is the parmesan pastry which I simply can’t get enough of. I even baked the scraps that were left over from the tartlets and ate them with smoked salmon – a perfect pre-tartlet snack!
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Makes 12, preparation time 1 hour 20 minutes, baking time 30 minutes
Ingredients
For the pastry
300g plain flour
50g grated parmesan
150g unsalted butter
Pinch of salt
70ml ice cold water
For the filling
16 heads of asparagus
3 eggs
150ml double cream
Pinch freshly grated nutmeg
Juice of half a lemon
Salt and pepper
3 spring onions, chopped
Small bunch chives, chopped
50g smoked salmon, cut into strips
Method
To make the pastry: mix the flour and parmesan in a food processor until combined. Add the butter and salt, and mix until the ingredients resemble breadcrumbs. Add the water very slowly until the dough starts to come together. Once all the water has been added, turn the dough out onto a floured surface. Knead by hand 3–4 times before wrapping tightly in clingfilm. Leave to rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
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Once it's rested, dust a surface evenly with flour and roll the pastry out to around 1/2 centimetre thickness. Don’t worry if it starts to crack around the edges or ends up a strange shape, there will be more than enough pastry to allow for this.
Slide a spatula underneath the pastry to loosen it from the surface. Using a large pastry cutter (mine was actually the lid of a large jar measuring 10cms in diameter) cut 12 rounds from the pastry. The pastry will shrink when baked so the rounds will need to be big enough to accommodate this.
Press each round into a muffin tin gently. The tin does not need to be greased as the butter in the pastry will melt during cooking and prevent sticking. Don’t worry if the pastry overlaps and creates folds on the inside of the tin. Simply press the folds together with your fingers until the they smooth out. Leave the pastry cases to rest for half an hour in the fridge.
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Preheat the oven to 180ºC/160ºC fan. Place tinfoil into each of the pastry cases and fill with either baking beans (or uncooked rice, if you don’t have baking beans). Do not line the cases with clingfilm as it may melt when cooking! Bake the pastry cases for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, remove the tinfoil and beans or rice from the inside of the pastry cases and bake for another 5 minutes or until the bases are just cooked. Set aside to cool.
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To make the filling: Put a pan of water on to boil. Cut the asparagus to around 5cm lengths. Once the water reaches boiling point, add the asparagus and leave to cook for approximately 3 minutes. In the meantime, prepare a large bowl of ice cold water. After the 3 minutes, quickly drain the asparagus and place in the iced water immediately. Leave to cool in the water before draining.
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In a large bowl, combine the eggs, cream, nutmeg, lemon juice and seasoning, and mix well before adding the spring onions and chives. With the pastry cases still in the muffin tin, place a strip of smoked salmon (or more if you wish) into each of the cooled cases. Pour the egg mixture on top and finish by placing two of the drained asparagus heads on top of each tartlet.
With the oven still at 180ºC, bake the tartlets for 30–5 minutes or until the surface is puffy and a light golden brown colour. Remove from the oven and leave to cool on a wire rack. Once cool, serve with a green salad.
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