Award-Winning Oak Smoked Irish Organic Salmon
Shop-bought puff pastry is one of the great cheats in modern cooking. A sheet of all-butter puff, a soft cheese base, asparagus, and smoked salmon trimmings, twenty-five minutes in the oven, and you’ve got something that looks like a deli centrepiece. Cold the next day for lunch, room-temperature for an Easter starter, warm from the oven for a Sunday late breakfast.
Heat the oven to 200°C fan.
Unroll the puff pastry on a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper. Score a 2cm border all the way around with the tip of a knife, going about halfway through the pastry. Don't cut all the way.
In a small bowl, mix the cream cheese, crème fraîche, lemon zest, garlic, and a heavy crack of pepper.
Spread the cream-cheese mix evenly inside the scored border.
Lay the asparagus spears in a tight single row across the tart.
Tuck the smoked salmon trimmings in between the asparagus spears.
Brush the border with the beaten egg.
Bake for 22 to 25 minutes until the pastry is deeply golden and risen, and the asparagus is just tender.
Scatter the dill across. Black pepper. Slice into rectangles.
