La Différence

La Différence
A passion for food

Friday 27 July 2012

Greek Salad Tartlettes



Reminiscent of  holiday in Samos, these little tartlettes take me right back there. We had Greek Salad almost every lunchtime in a little Taverna by the sea, sometimes with grilled fish or souvlaki other times just with a dish of  tzatziki and taramasalata with some warm bread. I think it's the addition of oregano and they almost always used dried along with the Feta cheese that makes it such a memorable salad
I am always toying for new canapés for the many cocktail parties that I cater for and I did try just adding chopped tomatoes & onions, olives, cucumber & to a pre-baked pastry case but they were awkward to eat. Either all in the mouth in one go or the filling would be flying around all over the place. By adding a typical savoury custard to the tartlettes holds everything in place and better still they are delicious served either hot, warm or cold.

This should make around 24

you will need  2 mini muffin/tartlette tins well greased

For the pastry

    
For the pastry.
6oz / 150g  flour
pinch of salt
pinch of dried oregano
pinch of cayenne pepper
3oz/ 75g butter
1oz/ 50 g grated hard cheese, cheddar or parmesan will do fine
Rub the fat into the flour then add
Bind with enough cold water to make a pliable dough.
refridgerate for half an hour.


The Filling.
1 green pepper finely chopped
1 red onion          "         "
12 black olives halved or 6 quartered
4 tomatoes skinned & deseeded
2 large eggs
half a pint of double cream
6 oz Greek Feta cheese
dried oregano
seasoning
grated nutmeg
>
Sautee the onion & green pepper in a little olive oil until soft..
Put the 2oz of the Feta, cream, eggs, into a food processor & blitz until it starts to thicken. Season to taste
Cut the remaining Feta into small 24 small cubes
Roll out the pastry & use to line around 24  well greased mini muffin cases. use a cutter large enough so that the pastry comes up to the top of the holes in the muffin tray
Place some tomato, onion & green pepper into each case
Spoon over the cheese mixture taking care not to overfill.
Carefully add a little cube of Feta, some tomato and the halved olive on top.
Sprinkle over with a little dried Oregano
Give the trays a sharp rap on the table to settle the mixture and add a little more filling if needed.
Grate over some nutmeg
>
Bake at 180c/350f/gas 4  for around 15 -20 mins or until lovely & golden . Just test to make sure the underneath of the pastry is cooked through.
remove onto a cooling rack after around 3 mins



These will freeze perfectly. I usually carefully box them up using a layer of parchment paper between each layer of tartlettes.

1 comment:

  1. Just found your site. Wow! Really looking forward to trying this recipe. Thank you for sharing.

    ReplyDelete

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