Crab & Samphire: a snappy tart

Ok, let’s say it was your last meal and you had a choice of whatever you want? (and no, you can’t spend the 6 months working your way through a whole pig from snout to tail). I think mine would be some seafood. Perhaps a glistening fresh sea bass simply cooked. Or perhaps a really, really fresh seafood platter. Oh yes. With oysters, clams, mussels, North Atlantic prawns, maybe some fried fish and crab, of course. As for lobster, well, thanks, but I’ll swap it for more crab please. Sure I’ve had lovely lobster (which has to be killed and cooked and eaten right there in front of you to get the best of its flavour in my opinion) but I’ve more often had okay lobster. You know, nice texture, looks pretty but lacking… taste. Whereas crab, now that I could eat any day. Love it. Yes, yes, even the dark meat!

I was thinking about that the other evening while I was trying to implement all the photographic advice just delivered by the renowned food photographer, Alastair Hendy. It was at a Food Photography Workshop run by Bord Biá (the Irish food board) and hosted at the Irish embassy here in London. The evening was laid on for invited food bloggers to come and learn from one of the leading food photographers and then spend an hour or so photographing some of the wonderful Irish produce that Bord Biá had laid out for us. And all the time being offered tempting morels like smoked salmon from the Kinvara or Inishturkbeg smokeries draped over Ditty’s oatcakes or slices of white and black puddings crostini. Delicious. We food bloggers do have tough lives sometimes!

The talk from Alastair Hendy was very illuminating and I managed to gain a few pointers which was a real bonus. The hard part is putting all that into practice. I’d been a fan of Alastair’s work for some time and love his evocative images and subtle colour palettes. His photo journalism and food photography is just so alive and real and downright scrumptious. One revealing thing was that he still shoots on film as well as digital and in fact most of the work he used to illustrate his talk was shot on film. He advises just shooting with natural light which is hard when in winter you dash home, cook, then photograph before it gets cold and it’s dark from 4 pm. Food blogging photography is limiting, however, we can but try. And try is what we did as we broke into groups and gathered around various tables of lovely Irish produce and begin to assemble a set to show off our snapping skills. Our group had seafood as a theme. One of the items we had was a lovely crab which is where this ramble began. My, how fine and heavy it was and paired up with some squeaky fresh samphire we foodies focused and snapped and repositioned and snapped again. Then it was the turn of the clams and oysters, then bread, butter, smoked fish, you name it we snapped it. Suddenly it was home time when, as an added bonus, we were all given some of our ‘photographic models’ to bring home.

All in all it was a really successfull evening and as I examined the shots on my camera on the train home (only so-so) my thoughts turned to food. More precisely to crab and samphire. Inspired by the imagery, this is what I decided I would make. And, if I make say so, it is one fine tart. I made it a few days later with some more crab and samphire and it went really well with some steamed new potatoes and a green salad with walnut dressing. Last meal material indeed. Or, of course, just anytime eating.

Crab & Samphire Tart

Shortcrust pastry
100 grams butter, very slightly softened
200 grams plain flour
3+ tablespoons iced water
salt

Tart filling
3 eggs plus 1 egg white for blind baking
170 grams white crab meat (you could include some tasty dark meat too, I just had no choice when buying)
90 grams samphire
2 – 3 shallots, large
125 grams cream, I used clotted cream because I had it otherwise use double cream!
2 tablespoons mascarpone, optional, once again I had it to use up and it added richness and body but tart would be lighter without it.
30 grams freshly grated parmesan cheese
salt & pepper
pinch of chilli flakes or paprika

Method

Either make your shortcrust pastry or buy some! I admit I usually buy it but when I do make it this is what I do. (I made the pastry for the tart that I photographed).

Pastry

Lightly rub the butter into sifted flour + salt till it resembles breadcrumbs. Some recipes say start with cold butter and cut it in then rub it in. Others (Delia) say allow the butter to soften a bit first and use a knife to work it in before using fingers. Whatever works for you. You need to be left with a fine ‘breadcrumb’ looking mixture.

Add the iced water gradually until the dough just holds together enough to make a clean unsticky ball.

Put in plastic bag and chill for at least 15 mins in fridge. Ideally up to an hour.

Remove from fridge, lightly flour the working surface, dough and rolling pin and roll out.

Line a 20 cms tart tin (with removeable base) with the pastry gently easing it into the bottom and repair any tears or cracks. Now chill again for 15 mins before you trim off edges. Then trim and keep any leftover pastry for later when you may need to plug any cracks after the blind baking.

Preheat oven to 180C.

Line pastry tart base with baking paper and add baking beans (or rice) and blind bake for 30 mins.

Filling:
Now make the filling. First sauté the shallots in a little olive oil till soft but not brown. Set aside to cool down.

Blanch the samphire (first making sure it is in lengths of not more than say, 5 cms) refresh under cold water and drain well.

Beat the eggs, cream and mascarpone if using. Season, remembering that many of the ingredients are salty. Add the chilli flakes or paprika. Add the parmesan then the crabmeat and then finally the prepared samphire. Mix gently.

Remove the blind baked pastry base from oven and turn oven down to 160C (mine is a ‘hot’ fan oven but if yours isn’t then keep it at 180C).

Remove beans and paper from pastry case and if the pastry has cracked plug it gently with the leftover pastry.

Brush the base with a softly beaten egg white to prevent any soggy pastry. Return to the oven for 5 minutes. Then remove and assemble the filling.

Assembly:
Sprinkle the base of pastry case with cold sautéd shallots.

Pour in filling. Bake for 30 -35 mins checking it is browning evenly.

Remove and allow to cool slightly before serving.

6 servings

Print version here

Finally a word of thanks to Niamh of eatlikeagirl who added me as her guest to the event (we Irish foodies can rely on each other), Bord Biá, Foodmatters and to Bobby McDonagh, the Irish ambassador, for opening up the splendid embassy to us foodies and making us welcome. Go raibh maith agaibh. Thank you.

Tagged as: crab, food photography, inishturkbeg, Irish, samphire