For a light dinner, dinner party starter or lovely lunch dish, try this delicious crab recipe today and you'll not be disappointed.
Ingredients
- 250-300g ready made, all-butter puff pastry
- Plain flour, for dusting
- 200ml fish stock
- 60ml white vermouth
- 250ml double cream
- 150g freshly picked white crab meat
- 1tbsp brown crab meat (optional)
- Handful of seashore vegetables (sea beet, sea purslane, sea aster, samphire etc), washed, trimmed and roughly chopped
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- You will need:
- 4 individual tart tins (10cm diameter by 2-3cm depth)
Method
Roll out the pastry on a floured table to about 2mm thick. Use to line the four individual tart tins. Using your thumb and forefinger, firm the pastry up to – and a little over – the top of the tins. Prick the pastry all over with a fork, then line the tarts with greaseproof paper or foil and fill with baking beans. Refrigerate for 1 hour
Preheat the oven to 180C/gas mark 4. Bake the cases for 20 minutes, then remove the baking beans and paper and return to the oven for 5 minutes until lightly golden. Remove from the tins and leave on a wire rack to cool
Meantime, simmer the fish stock and vermouth in a pan until reduced to about a tablespoon in volume. Add the double cream and continue simmering until it has thickened and reduced by half. Add the brown crab meat, if using, and blend with a hand blender or in a liquidiser until smooth
Add the seashore vegetables to a pan of boiling water and cook for a minute, so they are still a little firm to bite. Drain. Add to the sauce with the crabmeat, season to taste and heat gently to warm through
Return the tart cases to the oven for a minute or two to warm. Remove from the oven and spoon the crab mixture into the cases. Flash under a hot grill until lightly coloured to finish, or serve as they are
