Crab and Goat Cheese Tart

Crab and Goat Cheese Tart

(adapt­ed from Richard Corrigan)

(serves 6–8 as a main course)

1 1/4 cups/175 grams plain flour
1/4 cup/75 grams corn­flour (corn­starch)
1 tsp salt
1 stick/120 grams very cold butter
dash cayenne
2 eggs, beaten
sprin­kles cold water

12 ounces/340 grams white crabmeat
8 ounces/240 grams goat cheese
1 bunch scal­lion, minced

1 tbsp fresh thyme leaves

2 cups/470 ml heavy/double cream
6 eggs, beaten
salt and pepper
1 egg, beaten

hand­ful minced chives

Make the pas­try by mix­ing, in a food proces­sor, the flour, corn­flour, salt, and but­ter (in lit­tle pieces, grad­u­al­ly). Then add eggs and water to make a nice stiff dough — it will begin to roll around in the food proces­sor and you will have to dis­lodge it a cou­ple of times and pulse — and form into a ball. Wrap in plas­tic wrap and refrig­er­ate for at least 20 minutes.

Roll out pas­try to be at least 2 inch­es larg­er all round than the tart tin (9‑inch/21 cm diam­e­ter) or spring­form-type cheese cake pan. Line the tin gen­tly with the pas­try, drap­ing the extra over the sides (do not trim yet). Line with foil and weight with beans and bake at 325F/160C for 40 min­utes, then take out the foil and beans and check to see if the pas­try is dry. If not, bake again for 5 minutes.

Mean­while, beat 6 eggs with the cream and sea­son well. Beat the left­over egg and brush the baked pas­try crust with it, all over. Scat­ter the scal­lions, thyme, goat cheese and crab­meat over the bot­tom, then pour over the cream and eggs. Bake at 350F/180C for 20 min­utes, then low­er the heat to 325F/160C for anoth­er 40 min­utes or more. Tart should not jig­gle in the cen­ter when it’s ful­ly cooked but it might give to the touch.  It will con­tin­ue to cook a bit after it leaves the oven.  Leave tart to cool to room tem­per­a­ture before serv­ing.  Sprin­kle with chives.