Sorrel, speck and caramelised onion tarts

When hosting a dinner party my natural instinct is to serve seafood as a starter. It's impressive, it's delicious and frankly, it says to your guests, "Hey, you're special to me so I have used some of my hard-earned cash to splash out on you." That is of course assuming your guests like seafood.

It's easy to serve up miniature lobster bisques or a teeny tower of crab cakes to the seafood lovers and hand the anti-prawn person directions to heat up their own cheese pastry. But in the spirit of kindness, I suppose we need to treat their dislike with a bit of respect. Its not that I don't like anti-prawn lovers, I just don't understand them. It's like we are from different planets or something.

I live with an anti-prawner, so I am faced with this issue daily. Christmas is a killer, although it is pretty easy on the wallet when I only have to create a seafood platter for one. I have to feed him something, though, so these little sorrel, speck and caramelised onion tarts are a winner. You can substitute the sorrel for spinach and the speck for bacon if they are difficult to find. Seafood haters will love you for it.

Sorrel, speck and caramelised onion tarts

Serves 4, easily doubled

• 1 portion of pastry
• 1 small bunch of baby sorrel leaves (or spinach)
• 150gms diced speck (or bacon)
• 4 baby onions
• ½ teaspoon brown sugar
• 3 eggs
• 100ml cream
• ½ cup of sharp cheese
• salt and pepper to taste

Soak onions in boiling water for a few minutes. This loosens the skins and you want the pointy bit to make your tarts pretty.

Place whole peeled onions to a small frying pan with a knob of butter and ½ teaspoon of brown sugar. On low, fry onions until sugar is dissolved and browned. Remove from pan and fry speck until browned.

Whisk together eggs, cream, cheese and seasonings and add sorrel. Spoon speck into egg mixture. Pour into to pastry cases.

Gently snuggle an onion down into the centre of each tart so that the pointy bit is facing upwards and bake for 25 minutes. Serve with a fresh green salad.

These are also perfect for lunchboxes, or tiny little ones can be made for pre-dinner drinks.