Smoked Salmon & Leek Tart

It’s been a fairly relaxed week flavoured with a fascinating walk round Highgate Cemetery, meals out & catching up with friends. On Wednesday i read an interesting online article predicting food trends for 2011, it discussed various topics from taste trends (apparently it’s going to be all about clashing flavours & textures) to cooking via iphone applications-something i find myself turning to more & more. It also discussed men in the kitchen. Apparently due to the credit crunch affecting more men than women, it’s given many men more of an opportunity to get busy in the kitchen while women become the breadwinner (those of you know the houseboy & i know it's highly unlikely this would happen in our household..) This leads me on to my next topic-the houseboy...Who stepped up to give me some serious competition this week, producing a fantastic Beef Wellington. Perfectly cooked & utterly melt in the mouth is was a resounding success with our Tuesday evening guests. This was brilliantly followed up with friend Liz’s TimTam Desert, a delicious mix of TimTams (a popular Australian biscuit) vanilla ice cream, raspberries, hazelnuts & chocolate sauce. Heart stoppingly good!

So I thought I would hand over this weeks victory to the houseboy & Liz and choose a humble savoury tart as this weeks pick.

Ingredients:
• 175g Shortcrust Pastry (see recipe below)
• 100g Smoked salmon
• 400g Leeks
• 100mls Single Cream
• 50mls Milk
• 4 Eggs
• Cheese
• Seasoning

Set your oven to 190C/375F/Gas 5.
Make your pastry using the recipe below remembering to leave it to rest. Slice the leeks thinly & cook them gently in butter making sure they don't colour-you want them stay nice and pale. While they are cooking, whisk together the eggs, cream & milk. Season with pepper (you shouldn't need any salt as there is plenty in the smoked salmon) Take the leeks off the heat and let them cool while you deal with the pastry. Roll out your pastry on a light floured surface % line a 20cm well-buttered flan dish. Line the base of the pastry with baking parchment & then fill it with baking beans (or rice) & place on a baking tray-bake blind for 20 minutes. Remove the beans & parchment, return to the oven for another five minutes to cook the base. Roughly shred the salmon & mix well with the cooled leeks, add to the pastry case making sure you cover the base evenly. Pour over the egg mixture, sprinkle over a handful of freshly grated cheese-like a nice mild chedder or parmesan. Bake until set with a slight wobble in the middle. Usually 20-25 minutes.

*Shortcrust Pastry recipe:

• 110g plain flour
• 25g softened lard
• 25g softened butter
• pinch of salt

Sift together the flour & salt-keeping the sieve high over the bowl to incorporate lots of air. Cut the lard & butter in small cubes & gently begin to rub in the butter until you have a soft breadcrumb texture. Add enough cold water (roughly 1-2tbsps) to make the crumb mixture come together to form a firm dough, & then rest it in the fridge for 30 minutes.