I picked up some smoked salmon on sale a little while back, tossed it in the freezer, and kind of forgot about it. I recently remembered it existed and figured I'd give this salmon tart a go. I was dubious about using cucumbers in a cooked pie, but it actually worked really well! I love the cream cheese in the custard.

Scottish Smoked Salmon and Cucumber Cream Cheese Tart

Slightly adapted from the Book of Old Tarts by Elizabeth Hoder

Ingredients

• 175g shortcrust pastry
• 1 English cucumber, peeled and chopped
• 3/4 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 250g smoked salmon, broken into large pieces
• 250g cream cheese, softened
• 2 large eggs
• 1 large egg yolk
• 150mL heavy (35%) cream
• 2 Tbsp. chopped fresh chives
• 2 Tbsp. chopped fresh dill¹
• zest and juice of 1 lemon
• 1/4 tsp. peppercorns, ground

Directions

1. Line a shallow 25cm (10") tart tin² with the pastry and blind bake it³.
2. Toss cucumber with salt, place in colander, and place a plate and a heavy object on top. Set aside to drain for 30 minutes.
3. Pat cucumber dry and toss with salmon.
4. Preheat oven to 200°C (400°F).
5. Blend cream cheese, eggs, egg yolk, cream, chives, dill, lemon zest, lemon juice, and pepper.
6. Place cucumber-salmon mixture in pie crust.
7. Pour the cheese mixutre over the filling.
8. Bake at 200°C (400°F) for 30 minutes.
9. Serve warm or cold with vegetable side of your choice.

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¹ I didn't have any fresh dill, so I ended up using an extra 2 Tbsp. of chives + 1/2 tsp. of ground dill seeds. ^Back
2 The original recipe called for a 9" tart tin, but I've had issues with having too much filling for pies in this book before, so I decided to go up one tin size. ^Back
3 Line with parchment paper and fill with pie beans and bake at 400°F for 15 minutes, then remove paper and beans, prick with a fork, and brush with egg white, then return to oven and bake for another 5 minutes. ^Back

Last year we made some sweet cinnamon roasted pumpkin seeds after turning the rest of the pumpkin into delicious pie. This year we hit up the same set of recipes and tried out the ranch recipe for a savoury twist. And, once again, I was very pleased with the results. Although I think I'd cut back on the salt a little next time. Other than that, they were great though.

Ranch Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Slightly adapted from Wholefully

Ingredients

• 1 c. raw pumpkin seeds
• 2 tsp. olive oil
• 1 tsp. fresh parsley, minced
• 1/2-1 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground (depending on how salty you like things)
• 1/2 tsp. onion powder
• 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp. dill¹
• 1/4 tsp. mustard powder
• 1/4 tsp. celery seed, ground
• 1/4 tsp. paprika
• 1/4 tsp. black peppercorns, ground

Directions

1. Rinse and dry your pumpkin seeds.
2. Add olive oil and toss to coat.
3. Combine remaining ingredients and mix well.
4. Sprinkle ranch mixture over oiled pumpkin seeds and toss to coat.
5. Spread seeds onto baking sheet and bake at 300°F (150°C) for 30 minutes, turning every 10 minutes.

I think it might be interesting to try adding just a touch of buttermilk powder to the mix as well. I'd probably start with 1/4 tsp. or so just to see how it goes.

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¹ I was all out of dill, so I ended up grinding up 1/2 tsp. of dill seeds and using that instead. The flavour isn't quite the same, but it was close enough for this application. ^Back