Smoked Salmon Phyllo Tarts

I had some leftover lemon curd from Queen of Tarts that was expiring the next day, which was too good to waste. If you haven’t tried this stuff trust me when I say it’s REALLY good lemon curd. What could I make with lemon curd?!

Well as I’ve said before, I’m loving Fillo Factory’s whole wheat phyllo sheets as they come in pretty handy so I try to keep some in my freezer. I defrosted a box, baked up some phyllo shells with a dollop of lemon curd and voila – lemon curd tarts!

But then I was left with a whole other problem – leftover phyllo sheets. In a household of two, one package of phyllo is a lot. Refreezing the sheets is ok but does leave the sheets more brittle so I try to avoid this as much as possible. What can I make with this phyllo?

Then I see on the counter cans of smoked salmon my parents had brought us from their Alaskan cruise and remember I had purchased some Smoky Valley Valencay cheese at the City Market. DING, DING, DING…. salmon tarts! Growing up my father used to make salmon tarts using canned salmon and puff pastry. They were always a hit. He even had family calling to request them for parties. Best part, they were super easy to make. Now I’m going to pretend my phyllo tarts were better than his – they weren’t. But these were still pretty good and I’m willing to bet a lot less calories and fat as they weren’t wrapped in butter-laden puff pastry.

In a large bowl I combined:

1 can Alaskan smoked salmon
1 pkg Smoky Valley Valencay goat cheese with the rind removed and diced finely
3 wedges of laughing cow light cheese
1 tsp black pepper
3 tbsp chopped fresh dill

Mash the ingredients together really well.

Got the phyllo shells ready by stacking together 4 phyllo sheets (lightly spraying in between each sheet with cooking spray). I made 4 cuts (3 squares x 3 squares) into the stack to create 9 squares in each sheet (36 squares total). I lined a muffin tin with 3 phyllo squares each to create 12 phyllo shells.

Scooped in the smoked salmon mixture. Baked at 350 degrees for 25 mins (until shells turn a golden colour).

After they came out of the oven and cooled, I added a bit of the mustard-dill sauce purchased from Sgambaro and a fresh sprig of dill. Yum! D ate 3 right away.

Note: I found these a bit too salty and if I were to re-do them, I would substitute the laughing cow cheese for 1/4 cup ricotta and add some chopped asparagus to reduce the saltiness.