Monday Special: Smoked Trout Tart

It all began on Sunday actually. I went off to host the monthly Hot Lakes Craft Market at the Arts Village while my husband took our little people to the Ngongotaha Trout Hatchery for one of their 'Kids Fish Out' days. This is where children aged 6-14yrs can learn to fly fish and, get this, it's a guaranteed catch of a lovely rainbow trout. Seriously! How good is that?! So the more children you have, the more fish you come away with. I know - brilliant! So if you don't have any children, take my advice and borrow some - at $3 each you're onto a winner (for the fishing license that is, not the kid). The added bonus is that it's a really lovely place to visit and you can wander around the grounds and enjoy all the different trout pools, the hatchery and the lovely stream. Take along your coffee thermos and you're well and truly sorted.

So we ended up with two rather small (possibly not legal in the 'real' world) but lovely none-the-less rainbow trout. Yesterday they were gutted, butterflied, salted and sugared and left overnight in the fridge. Today they were hot manuka smoked for 15 minutes. While they were smoking I googled for a recipe (I do a lot of that) and thought that a 'Smoked Trout Tart' sounded like a fine way to appreciate our little beauties. I used this recipe, but with this pastry.  The first recipe (which makes enough for 2 tarts) uses 14 tbsp of butter... what? Who measures that much butter by the tablespoon? Too weird/difficult I thought so I found one where they measure in much more civilised grams. It's pretty rich with a cup of cream in it... but blimey it's GOOD!!

I certainly ain't no food photographer and had to wrestle the kids away whilst being cruel enough to make them wait for photos, but I mean, just look at it.  Drool...