Spicy Fish and Blue Cheese Tartlets
Small covered pies with a creamy filling of white fish, blue cheese, bacon and chilli — a combination that sounds unusual and works, because the strong cheese carries the mild fish. Individual, generous and made to surprise people.
The blue cheese is melted separately with the cream and only then mixed in. Added straight to the pan it splits under high heat and leaves the filling oily.
And the holes in the lid are not decoration: without them the steam bursts the pastry open.
The fish goes in raw, so do not shorten the baking: the pastry can be golden before the filling is done.
Ingredients
- 500 g pastry (puff or shortcrust)
- 750 g mixed white fish fillets (hake, pollock), in pieces
- 200 g blue cheese
- 200 ml pouring cream
- 150 g smoked bacon, in strips
- 2 onions, in half rings
- 250 g button mushrooms, quartered
- 2 garlic cloves, chopped
- 1 red chilli, chopped (or a pinch of chilli flakes)
- 1 egg, beaten, for brushing
- Olive oil, salt and pepper, to taste
Method
- 1
Brown the bacon in a pan with olive oil. Add the onion, the mushrooms, the garlic and the chilli; cook for 4 minutes. Add the pieces of fish and set aside.
- 2
In a separate small pan, melt the blue cheese together with the cream over the lowest heat until you have a thick, even sauce. Mix it into the fish mixture.
- 3
Line 6 individual tins (muffin or tartlet tins) with the pastry. Divide the filling between them, cover with a pastry lid and make small holes in the top for the steam to escape.
- 4
Brush with beaten egg and bake at 180 °C for 25 to 30 minutes, until the pastry is deep golden and crisp and the filling bubbles. Bear in mind that the fish cooks in there: golden pastry on its own is not enough of a signal.