This savory crab quiche makes an excellent light dinner served beside a pile of mixed greens drizzled with vinaigrette. Pair your dinner with ice-cold white wine like a dry Chenin Blanc. Round it out with Peches Melba for dessert and you’ll have a summery South of France meal year round.
Cook’s note: Make this dish more diet-friendly by substituting 1 cup of light half and half for 1 cup of heavy cream. If you prefer a less intense cheese flavor, ½ cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese can fill in for the Swiss cheese.
- Pastry:
- 1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
- 6 tablespoons cold, unsalted butter, cut into ½-inch cubes
- 2 tablespoons vegetable shortening
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 3 to 4 tablespoons ice-cold water
- Filling:
- ½ lb premium lump crabmeat
- 4 large eggs
- 2 cups heavy or whipping cream
- 2 tablespoons minced fresh chives
- 1 tablespoon minced fresh dill
- 2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley
- ½ teaspoon salt, to taste
- ¼ teaspoon pepper, to taste
- Dash (1/16 teaspoon) freshly grated nutmeg
- ½ cup Gruyere cheese, coarsely shredded
- ½ cup Swiss cheese, coarsely shredded
Pastry:
Chill your hands with cold, running water from the tap and dry thoroughly. In a medium bowl, rub together flour butter, shortening, and salt until it resembles cornmeal with a few larger lumps throughout. Using a fork, toss the flour mixture with the ice water until it just sticks together to form a ball. (Alternately, you can use a food processor on pulse-mode for this step.)
Divide dough into 2 portions, gently roll into a ball and flatten into a 6-inch disk with your palm. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for 2 hours.
Roll out both portions of dough to form one 12-inch circle. Fit the dough into a deep-dish 9-inch pie plate and trim the excess dough, leaving ½-inch overhang for fluting, and fold under to thicken crust edges. After fluting edges, gently prick surface with a fork, loosely line with a parchment paper circle cut to fit over entire surface of pastry, and then chill for 45 minutes. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Fill lined pastry half full with dried beans, rice, or pie weights and bake until pastry is light golden brown, about 15-20 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool on a baking sheet while making quiche filling.
Filling:
Whisk together eggs, cream, and seasonings, and then stir in crabmeat and cheese. Carefully pour into prepared pastry shell and bake for 50-60 minutes. The quiche is done when a small knife inserted near the center comes out wet, but clean and it is puffed and golden brown. (If the pastry edges brown too quickly near the end of baking, tent them loosely with foil or pie shields.)
Makes 8 servings.
