Blue brie and caramelised onion tartlets

Any moment now, my family will descend on the house for Christmas in July Part 2. Husband and the Sprogs are huddled around the TV watching the Olympic opening ceremony. I’m – as usual – cooking

This time around it’s slow-roasted lamb with assorted veggies, with Christmas Cake Strudel for dessert. The strudel is part of the Christmas in July blog I wrote for Village Voices this week. To see all the recipes, click here.

CHRISTMAS CAKE STRUDEL

• 500g Christmas cake
• 2 tablespoons of brandy
• 2 tablespoons of sugar
• 3 apples, peeled and grated
• 1oog melted butter
• 6 sheets of filo pastry
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• icing sugar for dusting
• Vanilla bean custard to serve

Preheat oven to 180C. Crumble Christmas cake into a bowl and mix with grated apple, sugar and brandy. Lay out two sheets of filo pastry and brush them with melted butter, then sprinkle with cinnamon. Repeat with another two sheets of filo. Repeat again with final two sheets. Arrange the cake mixture in a log down one of the short sides of the filo, about 5cm from the edge. Fold in the long sides and roll the filo and cake mixture to form a log. Brush with melted butter. Bake in the oven for around 30 minutes, or until golden. Dust with icing sugar and serve with vanilla bean custard.

One of my fabulous Newcastle friends who came to Christmas in July last weekend left me the ingredients to make a nibble for this arvo: blue brie and caramelised onion tartlets. Very handy!

Very easy to make too. And yummy. Here’s the recipe:

Blue brie and caramelised onion tartlets

1 wedge of blue brie

1 jar of Beerenberg caramelised onions

2 x pkts of 12 mini tartlets

METHOD: Pop a little caramelised onion in each tartlet. Top with a chunk of blue brie. Serve!