Hello and welcome to my blog!

I'm a mother of two and I live in Brussels, Belgium with my family. I'm a keen and enthusiastic home cook with a vast repertoire of "tried-and-tested" dishes - all easy to make and delicious to eat. After a lot of “deliberating, cogitating and digesting” I've finally decided to start my own food blog - simply to share all the food that I love eating and making with "the world out there". I'm also a passionate bargain hunter and can often be found lurking in the aisles of Lidl and Aldi sniffing out their foodie treasures - more about that later... So here's my first recipe - enjoy!

Smoked trout tartlets

I first tasted this wonderful concoction this summer on my friend Emma's terrace in South-West France. She had just thrown it together for I think 18+ house guests and it was SO delicious... it had never occurred to me to use smoked fish in this way before! I finally got round to re-creating it last weekend for lunch with friends – and it was as wonderful as it was back in July:

230g shortcrust pastry (shop-bought)

1 ts oil or butter

300 ml cream

3 eggs

2-3 tbs horseradish cream

pepper and salt

a bunch of spring onions (or any other onion(s), chopped

1 or 2 garlic cloves, chopped

125g packet of smoked trout (or any other smoked fish)*

1 Preheat the oven to 200°. Line 4 loose-bottomed tartlet tins (10-12 cm) with baking paper (or use 1 25-28cm tin). Line again with baking paper and baking beans (or dried pulses/rice) and cook for 5-10 mins until golden brown.

2 Gently fry the onions and garlic in the oil until soft.

3 Beat the cream, eggs, horseradish and seasoning together.

4 Spoon the onion mixture into the (cooled) pastry shell(s). Add the flaked fish and the egg mixture. Bake for ca 30 mins until set and golden.


Notes:
*Lidl and Aldi's smoked trout are a great bargain at €1.49 each

This is my default egg mixture for quiches and tarts ie 100ml cream per egg. For any other quiche I add a handful or so of grated/chopped cheese – whatever is in the fridge.