Smoked Snoek Tart from South Africa

Snoek is synonymous with Cape Town.  It is a silvery, oily game fish with sharp teeth and long needle-like bones.  A bonus is that it doesn't have to be scaled before cooking.  Snoek are caught in the waters around the Cape and traditionally smoked and sold at the side of the road.  Nowadays during snoek season you can buy smoked snoek in most supermarkets in Cape Town.  However, not everyone is lucky enough to be able to pop into a supermarket in Cape Town, so the snoek can be substituted with any other smoked fish.

1 packet frozen puff pastry
2 tablespoons butter
1 cup smoked snoek that has been deboned and flaked
1 small onion finely chopped
1 clove garlic finely chopped
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
zest of a small lemon
3 eggs
1 cup cream
1 cup grated cheddar cheese
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.  Melt the butter in a frying pan and saute the onion and garlic until soft.  Add to the flaked smoked fish together with the pepper, zest, eggs, cream and cheddar cheese.  Mix well and check the seasoning adding in more pepper or salt if needed.  Cut out pastry circles and place them in a greased muffin pan.  Spoon your smoked fish and egg mixture onto the pastry cases.  Sprinkle the Parmesan on the top.  Pop them into the oven and bake for about 25 minutes until the tops of the tarts have browned and the filling has set.  Serve with a salad.
Cindy Vine is a South African currently living and working in Kyiv in Ukraine. She is the author of Hush Baby, Defective, C U@ 8, Not Telling and The Case of Billy B. All her books are available on Amazon in both print and Kindle format. http://cindyvine.com