Smoked Trout and Fennel Tart

The base of this recipe comes from my good friend Alistair Wise, pastry chef extraordinaire. Alistair teaches all of our pastry classes at The Agrarian Kitchen and has been battle-hardened in the kitchens of Gordon Ramsay. This is by far the most balanced and delicious tart I have ever tasted, but the filling must be cooked only until it is just set. I have opted for some smoked fish and shaved fennel on top, but feel free to experiment – try sliced tomato and goat’s cheese or jamón with shaved celery and carrots.

Serves 8

• 1 baby fennel bulb
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 250 g smoked trout or salmon

savoury shortcrust pastry

• 250 g plain flour
• 125 g cold unsalted butter, chopped
• ¾ teaspoon fine sea salt
• 90 ml milk
• 1 egg, beaten

filling

• 500 ml cream
• 200 ml milk
• 8 eggs
• 1 teaspoon fine sea salt

For pastry, combine flour, butter and salt in a large bowl. Using your fingertips, rub in butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs, then add milk and gently mix to form a dough. Flatten into a disc, wrap in plastic film and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

On a clean, lightly floured workbench, roll out pastry to 5 mm thick and line a 22 cm round flan tin, gently easing pastry into base and corners. Using a sharp knife, trim excess pastry, then refrigerate pastry shell for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 180°C. Line pastry shell with baking paper and fill with pastry weights or dried beans, then blind-bake for 15 minutes. Remove baking paper and pastry weights, then return pastry shell to oven and cook for a further 5–10 minutes or until golden. Brush inside of pastry shell with beaten egg and return to oven for 5 minutes. Remove and reduce oven temperature to 150°C.

For filling, whisk together cream, milk, eggs and salt in a bowl. Pour into pastry shell and bake for 35–40 minutes or until just set.

Using a mandoline, thinly slice fennel and place in a bowl, then toss with lemon juice. Arrange smoked trout or salmon over tart, scatter over fennel and serve.