Shrimp Quiche

Quiche au Crevettes – Richard Olney’s Shrimp Quiche

(Adapted from Richard Olney, The French Menu Cookbook, pp. 212-4 )

Advance Preparation Notes:  

Blind-baked pastry shell, cooked/peeled shrimp, and flavored cream will hold for several hours before mixing egg batter and baking quiche.  Quiche tastes better warm than hot.  

Special equipment:

• Food processor

• Marble of granite slab (optional)

• Tart pan (9”) with removable bottom

• Baking sheet

Pastry:

1 C. flour 

pinch of fine grain salt

1 stick (4 oz.) unsalted butter, cold & cubed

< ¼ C. ice water

Preheat oven to 400°F.  Cube butter and place in freezer until ready to make pastry.  Chill water with ice unless water is already chilled.  

Flour and salt by whirling in bowl of food processor fitted with a steel blade.  Add cold cubes of butter and pulse a few times to form coarse, pea-sized, pebble-like texture.  Add cold water and pulse a few times to distribute water.  Dough should still be crumbly but moist enough to adhere when pressed.  Dump onto a sheet of plastic wrap, press into a compact disk, and wrap.  Chill pastry dough until firm—30 minutes in freezer or 1 hour in refrigerator.  

Unwrap  pastry disk and spread plastic wrap on work surface (marble or granite is ideal to keep pasty cold) and placed another sheet of plastic wrap on top of the disk.  Whack the disk a few times with a rolling pin to make the pasty more pliable.  Working the dough as  quickly and as minimally as possible, roll from the center of the disk outward in each direction to form a thin circle large enough to cover bottom and sides of your tart pan.  Rolled out, the dough should look like marble stone with the butter showing marble-like streaks throughout the dough. 

Peel off top layer of plastic wrap and use the bottom sheet to easily pick up the rolled dough from your work surface.  Invert and center the dough over the tart pan so that the plastic wrap is on top.  Keep the plastic wrap in place until you are happy with the placement of your dough and you have pressed the pastry more or less into place with your fingers.  Peel the plastic wrap off and continue pressing the dough into the tart tin, pushing up slightly above the top edge of your tin to allow for shrinkage.  Prick the bottom of the pastry with tines of a fork to allow steam to escape during baking.  To firm up pastry, chill in freezer for 15 minutes or so until it feels firm enough to hold its own shape.  Confirm pastry has been pricked with a fork. Place a sheet of parchment paper or foil over the pasty and pour enough uncooked beans, uncooked riceor baking pellets to prevent pastry from buckling during baking.   Place tart tin on baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes and immediately turn down oven to 375°F. 

Confirm oven has been turned down to 375°F.  Remove baking weights and paper/foil.  Return pastry to oven and allow to dry out for 5-7 minutes.  Set aside to cool.  

Mirepoix:

2 T. unsalted butter

2 large carrots (5 oz.), peeled and diced finely

1 large onion (5 oz.), peeled and diced

1 small rib celery, diced

Large pinch of thyme of Herbes des Provence, finely crumbled between palms of your hands

1 small bay leaf, finely crumbled

small handful of parsley, finely chopped

Melt butter in a sauté pan over low heat.  Add all ingredients and cook very gently, stirring occasionally and allowing vegetables to “sweat,” for about 30 minutes.  Keep heat low enough that vegetables do not brown.  

Shrimp Filling

1 T. EVOO

24+ shrimp with heads on (about 1 lb.), rinsed and NOT peeled

2 T. mirepoix (recipe above)

salt

black pepper, freshly ground

1 pinch cayenne pepper

1 T. Cognac

½ C. dry white wine

1 C. heavy cream

Heat oil in a large sauté pan.  Add shrimp (unpeeled), the mirepoix, salt, black pepper, an cayenne pepper.  Sauté with a wooden spoon until the shrimp have turned pink.  Add the Cognac and light with a match or trigger igniter.  Add white wine, stirring until flames are extinguished.  Let reduce until liquid has nearly disappeared.  Set aside to cool.  

When cool enough to handle, peel shrimp (setting the aside) and place shells back in sauté pan along with mirepoix and any cooking juices.  Pound and crush shells with something heavy like a wooden or stone pestle. Stir in cream and bring mixture to a boil.  Pass mixture through a fine sieve into large glass measurer or bowl.  Work residue in sieve well with the pestle to extract all juices.  Reserve mixture and discard shells.  

Prepping the Pastry Shell for Filling & Baking: 

Preheat oven to 375°F. Reserving 8-12 whole shrimp (depending on number of serving wedges). Chop remaining shrimp into bite size pieces and distribute evenly around bottom of pastry shell. Place whole shrimp decoratively at equal intervals around pastry—imagine the face of a clock and assure each wedge will have its share of shrimp.  Tuck whole shrimp among the chopped shrimp to assure an even layer all over.  

Egg Batter:

3 large eggs

Salt

Black pepper, freshly ground

1 C. heavy cream

½ cup gruyere cheese, freshly grated

In a medium bowl or glass measure with a lip, combine eggs, salt, pepper, shrimp-flavored cream, and additional cream.  Whisk well and pour over shrimp arranged in pastry shell.  Sprinkle surface with grated gruyere.  Place tart in on top of baking sheet to control for dripping.  Bake for approximately 30 minutes, until the center of quiche is firm like custard.  

Allow quiche to sit for at least 15 minutes.  Push from bottom of tart tin to release from sides of tin.  Place on serving platter and slice into wedges.