smoked salmon cheesecake

To make the pastry, add the flour, salt and butter to your food processor and pulse until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the water and blitz just until the dough comes together. Turn out onto a lightly-floured surface and shape into a ball. Use a lightly-floured rolling pin to roll the dough out to 3mm thick. Turn a large plate upside down on the dough and use it to trim off the edges so you end up with a perfect circle.

Line a greased spring-form cake tin with the pastry. Prick the base generously with a fork, place tin foil on top and pour in baking beans. (If you don’t have baking beans, raw rice does the trick nicely.) Bake blind at 220 degrees Celsius for 15-20 minutes. Remove the baking beans and tin foil. Prick the base again and back in the oven it goes for another 5-10 minutes until cooked through and golden. (HOT TIP: To prevent your base from becoming soggy once you add the filling, lightly brush it with egg white before you pop it in the oven for the second time, it helps to seal the pastry.) Remove and allow to cool (but keep it in the tin).

Mix the filling ingredients and pour into the base. Bake at 160 degrees Celsius for 45 minutes, then turn the oven off (but keep the door closed) and keep the cheesecake in the oven for a further 45 minutes – it continues cooking, so even if the middle looks very wobbly at this stage, it turns out just fine and perfectly set.

Serve at room temperature decorated with a sprinkling of micro leaves and some gorgeous quality smoked salmon torn into ribbons. I love the crunchy contrast of micro veggies and cucumber and dill salad with this (see tips, tricks and trivia below).