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
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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
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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.