A delicious savoury cheesecake with smoked snoek, leeks and chives (photograph by Tasha Seccombe)

A savoury cheesecake? Yes please!

Spring is the perfect season for light lunches like quiche and salad. This is a chunky savoury tart with all the delicious elements of a proper South African “souttert”, mixed with the creaminess of a traditional cheesecake and the convenience of a simple, rustic, eggy quiche. Substitute the snoek with smoked salmon or trout for a delicately coral alternative, or use cooked smoked haddock.

Ingredients:

  • 1 x packet store-bought shortcrust pastry (thawed)
  • 50 g butter
  • 200 g leeks, chopped
  • 1/2 cup of chopped spring onions
  • 4 eggs
  • 250 ml cream
  • 125 ml milk
  • grated rind and juice of half a lemon
  • 200 g Fairview cream cheese, Black Pepper flavour (or 200-250 g plain cream cheese with 1 t added cracked blackpepper)
  • 2 t Dijon mustard
  • 1 t salt
  • 250 g smoked snoek (flaked and deboned)
  • handful of flatleaf parsley, chopped
  • handful of chives, chopped

Method:

  1. Pre-heat the oven to 180 C.
  2. Spray a 23cm springform cake tin with non-stick spray. Roll out the pastry slightly thinner to match the size of the tin, then carefully shape the pastry around the inside of the tin. Prick with a fork all over. Trimming the edges is optional (I like the rustic look of an untrimmed edge!).
  3. Blind-bake the pastry (lined with non-stick baking paper and filled with baking beans or rice) for 10 minutes, then remove paper and beans and bake for a further 5 minutes.
  4. While pastry is baking, heat the butter in a pan and fry the leeks and spring onions over medium heat until soft and translucent.
  5. While the leeks are frying, put the eggs, cream, milk, cream cheese, lemon rind & juice, mustard and salt in a large bowl and beat well with an electric beater. Add the flaked snoek, soft leeks, spring onions, and fresh herbs, and mix well with a spoon to keep the chunky texture. (If you prefer a smoother texture rather than chunky, process in a food processor.)
  6. Remove prebaked pastry from oven, then pour filling into pastry case. Return tin to oven and continue baking for a further 40-45 minutes, or until golden brown on top.
  7. Remove from oven and leave to set at room temperature. Serve warm or at room temperature (not piping hot from the oven) with a crisp, dressed green salad.

Tips: A large rectangular tart can also be made for cutting into smaller teatime portions.

Credits:

This post was especially written for The Pretty Blog by Ilse van der Merwe from The Food Fox.

Food: Ilse van der Merwe.

Photography: Tasha Seccombe.

Styling: Tasha Seccombe & Nicola Pretorius

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4 Comments

  1. Scrummy! I’ll definitely be trying this over the weekend. Hope mine ends up looking as good as yours does! Keep’em coming x

    1. Fantastic! Let me know if you liked it! 🙂

  2. Une version bien légère et très appétissante
    Bonne soirée
    Valérie

    1. Merci Valérie! Amusez-vous!

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