Mini Crab Tartlets

Let's make mini crab tartlets today.  These tartlets are both incredibly easy to make and incredibly delicious.  When you get those two things together, you've got a winner and I believe we have a winner with this recipe.  So let's get started.

I'll give you the recipe first.

Mini Crab Tartlets

Ingredients

2 boxes (1.75 ounce each) frozen mini phyllo pastry shells
1 large egg
1/4 cup whole milk
1/4 cup Duke's mayonnaise
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 container (8 ounces) jumbo lump crabmeat, drained and finely chopped
2 tablespoons shredded gruyere cheese
1 tablespoon chopped green onion

Directions

Preheat oven to 375℉.  Place pastry shells on an baking sheet lined with silpat.  In a glass bowl, whisk egg, milk, mayonnaise, flour and salt until smooth.  Stir in crab, cheese and chopped onion.  Spoon into pastry shells.  Bake 9-11 minutes or until set.  Garnish with sliced green onions if desired.  Serve warm or at room temperature.

We start with the crabmeat.  Try and find the very best crab.  I bought this from Wegman's, but if you have a local fish market and you can get it there, then by all means, do so.  We have fresh fish markets at the Wharf here in DC, but access to that area has been restricted during the pandemic.  There were weekends where residents of the city congregated there in the beginning of the virus, not adhering to the six foot distance between themselves and the police were called in to monitor the situation.  The area was eventually shut down for a while and I think is still restricted.

We want to drain the crabmeat first.  You do not need to leave it in the colander forever.  Just let the packing water run into the sink and give the colander a shake or two and you'll be ready to go.

Here are all of the ingredients in individual ramekins, ready to be assembled for our delicious crabmeat filling.  Starting at the top and going clockwise, crabmeat, gruyere, milk, chopped spring onion, mayonnaise, flour and salt mixed together, and one large egg.

The first step is to combine the egg, milk, mayonnaise, flour and salt together in a glass bowl.

Using a large hand-held whisk, combine all of these ingredients together thoroughly.

Once the first set of ingredients are mixed together, we need to prepare the crabmeat.  Of course, this is jumbo lump crabmeat.  We are making small, bite-sized appetizers (tartlets) so the crabmeat needs to be finely chopped.

Using a knife or any sharp-bladed instrument from the kitchen, finely chop the crabmeat.  This picture shows you the consistency you are looking for that works best for this recipe.

Now, into the bowl with the crab, cheese and chopped onion.  Stir this all together, but do not use the whisk.  That will just make a mess.  Use a large spatula for this step.

Here is our crab mixture after all the ingredients have been incorporated.  I know it looks a little thin in this picture but take my word, it sets up very nicely once they are in the oven.

Fill each pastry shell very generously with the crab mixture.  I placed the shells on a regular sized baking sheet with a silpat on the sheet.  This works very nicely to keep them from moving around as you are placing them into or removing them from the oven.  You must have a silpat in your kitchen.  I made chocolate chip cookies recently and I baked them on top of a silpat and they came out of the oven perfectly browned on the bottom.

I used two boxes of pastry shells, each box containing 12 shells for a total of 24 tartlets.  As you see above, this recipe fills 24 pastry shells perfectly.  Not an ounce left over.

A little while later (somewhere between 9 -11 minutes later) you will have a dozen crab tartlets that you will be proud to serve to your guests.  Here, on a plain white tray with some spring onion sliced and scattered about for presentation.

If there are any left on the buffet, simply store them in a container in the refrigerator, but only for a couple days.  Honestly, I really do not think you will have to worry about finding a storage container for these.  They are incredibly delicious and they will disappear in short order.  Depending on the size of your crowd, you may want to make two batches.  Allow two - three tartlets per guest, so if you are hosting a group of more than 8 people, two trays of 24 tartlets each will be in order.

These are appropriate to serve any time of year, but especially in the fall.  Anything that can be served warm is always good for a fall gathering.