Pastry Appetizers - Savoury Mini Tartlets

A girlfriend of mine threw a party at the weekend so I made some appetizers in the form of savoury mini tartlets to go with the pre-dinner drinks. Tartlets are ideal 'blotting material' for soaking up alcohol and they look pretty too.

Tartlets are perfect for entertaining because both the filling and pastry can be made in advance and frozen if necessary (depending on the filling you use).

As a rule of thumb, two-bites-per-appetizer is all you need. I use those little muffin tins for the pastry cases and find a little filling goes a long way - one teaspoonful is roughly enough. Keep stress to a minimum by using easy to find ingredients and fillings you can make in advance. These are the fillings I made for her party:

Prawns with dill, crème fraiche & caviar
Chili chicken with mango, lime & coriander
Asparagus with lemon hollandaise
Chicken liver parfait drizzled with Cumberland sauce

In the main, I used what was already in the fridge. For example, a cooked chicken, some leftover hollandaise - (surprisingly nice cold) and the parfait, I'd already made for a cooking class. So not as impressive or complicated as it sounds. If you've made my chicken liver parfait you'll know it's easy to make anyway. The point I'm trying to get at here, is use what's in your fridge and let your imagination run wild.

Pastry is just as important as filling. I use Cookeen because it produces a very light, crisp pastry. For perfect results, follow these simple steps and you won't go wrong:

1) Refrigerate the pastry for 30 minutes before rolling - it stops shrinkage.
2) Roll the pastry out thinly - no thicker than a £1 coin.
3) Generously grease the patty tins with butter before lining with pastry.
4) Stamp out the pastry using a cutter larger than the moulds.
5) Line the cases with little tin foil pouches filled with dried pulses.
6) Bake in a hot oven 200C/Gas 6 on the top shelf for10 minutes.
7) Remove the foil pouches and return to the oven for 3-4 minutes.
8) Cool and store in airtight container or freezer until needed.

When everything's prepped, just put it together. TOP TIP: Use a homemade piping bag when filling the cases. Just take a regular polythene sandwich bag, stuff it into a mug, for easy filling, squeeze the mixture down into the bag, snip off the corner and Voila!

Finish off by decorating the top with a little mock caviar or a sprig of fresh herbs and your tartlets are ready to go.

Uma Wylde is a natural born cook. She specialises in creating stunning tastes. If you're having trouble getting food to taste the way you want it to or are just bored cooking the same old things, try following some of her carefully explained recipes at http://www.umawylde.com. Unlike traditional recipes, which often leave you dangling, hers show you how to bring the whole meal together, so everything turns out perfectly.

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