SAVOURY TARTLETS…Crisp & pretty appetizers.

SAVOURY MINI TARTS…

TOPPED WITH SWEETCORN & MUSHROOMS…

I love the idea of using my spare time creating leftover sweet (or savoury) nothings! There is no ‘main dish pressure’, the leftovers are mine to use; no demands whatsoever. The end result is always full of suspense! These little tarts are the result of one such experiment…

A FRESH BASIL LEAF ADDS TO COLOUR & TASTE

I made these teeny savoury tartlets with the pastry dough left over from the quiche the other day. Once lunch was served & done with, everyone retired to whatever they wanted to; I took over the kitchen once again. The tartlets were lovely & crisp; vegetarian too.

I cut out circles with a fluted cookie cutter, placed the cut-out circles in a mini tart pan & baked them. Then topped the little bites with left-over corn & mushroom mix from the quiche. They turned out very enjoyable indeed & looked quite nice too. I loved the look of the crisp pastry, with the cheesy topping & finally the basil leaf. They got made real quick, went under the grill for 5 minutes & were tasty little bites. Perfect for finger-food & appetizers. These are vegetarian, but you can use any topping you like…just 1 tsp of topping is good for each tartet.

Here’s what I did…

• The recipe for the pastry is the same as for the quiche, which you can find here.
• The topping is also the same as the mushroom mix as in the quiche filling, just till the stir frying bit in the pan. The other tarts use just steamed sweetcorn which I made from a fresh ear of corn. You can use frozen sweet corn if you like.
• Roll out the pastry as thin as you can. Cut out 2-3″circles with a fluted cookie cutter, or even a plain one will do. Place them in the tartlet pan & bake at 180 degrees C for 10 minutes/till light brown.
• Cool on racks.
• Place a tsp of the mushroom mix each on half the tartlets. Top with cheese spread, oregano & a basil leaf. sprinkle with a little grated cheese.
• On the rest, add a tsp of sweetcorn (seasoned lightly with salt & pepper). Top with cheese spread, oregano & a basil leaf. Sprinkle with a little grated cheese.
• You can also mix the sweetcorn & mushroom to get different flavours; I kept them separate because of the kids. Just make sure the topping isn’t watery/liquidy because that will ruin the crispness of the pastry.
• Place under a medium grill (180degrees c) for 5 minutes.
• That’s it…serve hot, warm or at room temperature.
• Use toppings that you like…tuna & corn; chicken…whatever; this was just an experiment!
• The pastry tarts can be baked a couple of days in advance. Store in an airtight tin in a cool place.

THEY WERE REALLY NICE…We loved them!

I found just the right platform to send these to…‘Leftover Tuesdays‘ at Project Foodie. As foodie Pam writes,”Leftover Tuesdays #11 challenges you to transform your leftovers into tasty temptations and tell us all about it.” How apt…always amazed by how much sense some things make.

Am tempted to, & so, will send these for Mansi’s ‘Game Night Party’ at Fun and Food as well. These make for nice finger food which can be assembled in advance. Let the party go on!!