Cornish Crab Pie

Name: Cornish Crab Pie
Yield: Serves 4
Cuisine: United Kingdom
Ingredients: 2 large crabs; ½ teaspoon cinnamon; ¼ teaspoon nutmeg; Salt and freshly ground black pepper; Salt and freshly ground black pepper; Juice of 1 orange; Generous ⅜ cup (120 g) clotted cream; ¾ lb (360 g) puff pastry; 1 egg yolk, beaten; 3 hard-boiled eggs, finely chopped; 24 white grapes, pitted; ½ lb (240 g) asparagus, boiled until just tender, or 1 small tin asparagus tips; ½ lb (240 g) asparagus, boiled until just tender, or 1 small tin asparagus tips; ¼ teaspoon ginger; 2 tablespoons claret; ½ stick (60 g) butter; 2 to 3 artichoke hearts, boiled (tinned will do)

Preparation info

Serves
4

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

English Provincial Cooking

By Elisabeth Ayrton

Published 1980

About

Once eaten, never forgotten. This is a nineteenth-century recipe of surpassing delicacy and richness. It is perhaps a dish to eat once in five years. The crabs are best if freshly caught. A lettuce salad on a separate plate is the only possible accompaniment.

Ingredients

2 large crabs
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
½ teaspoon cinnamon

Europe
United Kingdom
Engalnd
Fish course
Pescatarian

Method

Have the crabs dressed. Remove all the claw meat. Mix the rest of the meat with the nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger and claret. Set aside. Butter a pie dish, put in the artichoke hearts, and on them put the chopped eggs, then the spiced crabmeat, and then the grapes and asparagus tips. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and pour in the orange juice. Spread the cream on top and into the cream push all the m