Recipe for a Tart of Spinach

Pastry recipe from A proper new Booke of Cookery.
Declaring what maner of meates be best in season for al times of the yeere, and how
they ought to be dressed, & served at the Table, both for fleshe dayes and Fish daies.
with a new addition,very necessary for al them that delight in Cookery. 1575.
Available at https://archive.org/details/b21530191/page/n4/mode/2up
and http://www.medievalcookery.com/notes/pnboc1575.txt

To make short paste for a Tart.
Take fine Flower, a litle faire
water, & a dish of sweete butter, & a litle
saffron, and the yolkes of two egges, &
make it thin and as tender as ye may.

Recipe for A Tarte of Spindage from The good huswifes Jewell.
(Wherein is to be found most excellend and rare Deuises for conceites in Cookery, found out by the practise of Thomas Dawson. Wherevnto is adioyned sundry approued receits for many soueraine oyles, and the way to distill many precious waters, with diuers approued medicines for many
diseases.) 1596

To make a Tarte of Spinadge.

Take Spinadge and seeth it stalke and
all, and when it is tenderly sodden,
take it off, and let it drayne in a Cul-
lynder. and then swing it in a clowte, and
stampe it and straine it with two or three
yolkes of egges, and then set it on a chafin-
dish of coales, and season it with butter and
Suger, and when the paste is hardened in 
the Ouen, put in this Comode, strake it
euen.

Recipe for Poudre Fine - Le Menagier de Paris

"Take an ounce and a drachma of white ginger, a quarter ounce of hand pciked cinnamon, half a quarter ounce each of grains and cloves, and a quarter ounce of rock sugar, and grind to powder.

Variations
I omitted dsffron from the pastry and Grains of Paradise from the Poudre fine due to lack of availabitlity. I only used spinach and parsley leaves in the filling mixture. I'd like to try this again with grated boiled eggs rather than whisked to see how the texture compares. I'd like to try adding non-white sugar to my poudre fine to see how the taste compares (eg. raw or palm sugar).

Pastry
3 egg yolks
Pinch of salt
2 C plain flour
200g unsalted butter at room temperature
splash of milk to moisten

I added the salt to the flour and mixed, and then I rubbed the cubed butter into the flour/salt mix. When the mixture resembled fine crumbs, I mixed in the egg yolks and kneaded lightly. I added a splash of milk for extra moisture (but an extra egg yolk would have been better). I baked the pastry in a pie pan at 200 degrees C for 15 minutes. I didn't have baking beans to hand, so I pricked the base with a fork to prevent the pastry rising.
When the pastry was cooked, I removed it from the oven and cooled it on a rack. When it was cool, I filled it with the spinach mix and baked it (see below).


Tart Filling
500g cleaned, chopped spinach (frozen is great)
250g ricotta
250g grated tasty or mature cheese
200g dried parley or a large bunch of fresh (to taste)
7 small/medium eggs
dash of pepper and salt (to taste)
1/4 tsp powdered clove
1TB each of sugar, ginger and cinnamon

I mixed the spinach, parsley and spices together before adding them to the whisked eggs and mixing until well combined. I spooned this mix into the pre-cooked pastry casing (I made 2 smaller ones) and baked at 180 degrees C (FF) for 35-40 minutes. I added more spice than I normally would have because I tend too under-spice. It would also be fun to play around with different types of leaves and herbs.
This amount of mixture made too much filling for the pastry below. You could double the pastry, but I cooked the rest of the mixture up into a frittata.


Some comments I received included:
"Good ratio of greens to egg and cheese. Base is crunchy which I like but a bit thick"
"Good base for a dish, with a subtle flavour. Would benefit of being served with a sauce or relish"
"Excellent base, moist and crumbly. The spinach flavour is a little overpowered by the base; it is otherwise gorgeous"
My family also enjoyed it.

As always, I am indebted to those members of the Populace who take the time to comment on recipes so that dishes can be improved.

Recipe for 'A Tarte of Rice'

This recipe comes from the Good Huswifes' Jewell-

A Tarte of Rice
Boyle your Rice and put in the yolkes of two or three Egges into the Rice and when it is boyled, put it into a dish, and season it with Suger, Sinamon and Ginger and butter and the iuyce of 2 or 3 orenges, and set it on the fire again.
From The Good Huswifes' Jewell by Thomas Dawson, 1596

My recipe
1C Arborio rice - well rinsed
1.5 C water plus 200ml extra
50g butter
5 tsp sugar
1 heaped tsp cinnamon
1 heaped tsp ginger
3 egg yolks, small to medium eggs

Method: 
Cook rice until al dente. Lightly beat the egg yolks and add the spices. Stir.
Add the egg yolk/spice mix to the rice and stir. Add sugar and mix well.
Cook the mixture on moderate heat until rice is nice and soft and the mix starts to fuse together with the individual grains looking less defined. (I  cooked it is the microwave due to time constraints, but a a small saucepan on the stove top would be ideal.) You may need to add extra water here if the mix looks too dry.
When the mixture is cooked and the rice is very soft, put into a serving dish and sprinkle cinnamon and sugar on the top. Caster sugar would be best here.
Next time I will add more spice. Cooking in the microwave meant that the dish didn't have  a lovely crust like you get when you put it in the oven to brown after cooking.

I have made this recipe with and without the orange juice. I liked the recipe above (without the orange juice) better; it was less acidic.

Some of the comments I received included:
'Delightful! Lovely as a dessert or between courses. I think the addition of cream over the top would be great'.
'I really like this, it is nice and I want to eat more!'
'Loved it- delicious. The flavours are well balanced and really liked the kick of ginger on the tongue. It was a little dry but arborio rice left overnight does that. Would recommend almond milk as a substitute for the water or orange juice. If you reduced the sugar it would be a good accompaniment to a fatty strong flavoured meat.'
'Nice texture, well cooked. Good spice.'

A Recipe for White Leach

Image of a dish of cream from https://www.biggerbolderbaking.com/how-to-make-sour-cream/

A recipe that has proved to be very popular with adults and children alike is White Leach from 'The Good Huswife's Jewell' (1596). I made this silky white milk jelly as part of the spread for my Sweete Delyte Revel, and the dish was clean by the end.

A White Leach
Take a quart of new milke, and three ounces weight of Isinglasse, halfe a pound of beaten suger, and stirre them together, and let boile halfe a quarter of an hower till it be thicke, stirring them all the while: then straine it with three spoonfuls of Rosewater, then put it into a platter and let it coole, and cut it into squares. Lay it fair in dishes, and lay golde upon it.
From: Thomas Dawson The Good Huswives Jewell (London: 1596)

My recipe:
300 ml heavy cream
300 ml skim milk
1/2 cup sugar
4 tsp gelatine powder
1 1/2 tsp rosewater
nutmeg to taste

I used skim milk as it is what I usually have in the house. I added heavy cream to make it richer.
I substituted gelatine powder for isinglasse as it is much more easily availabile.

I mixed the milk and cream together gently in a small saucepan and then heated the mixture gently. AS it was warming, I sprinkled the gelatine powder into the mixture.  The version of the recipe reproduced in Peter Brears' book "All The Kings Cooks" (p. 179) suggested that the mixture should be heated to 60 degrees C so I followed that advice. I then stirred in the sugar and rosewater into the warm milk mixture until it was well mixed with no grains. I added a little bit of nutmeg for richness and to complement the creaminess.
I then put into a lightly greased dish to cool and set in the fridge. I let mine set overnight.

This recipe can be presented in a dish or can be put into a lightly greased pan and cut into rectangles or lozenge shapes when set. Served up as individual wobbly pieces, this dish is very striking and appeals to the inner child in diners.

Some of the comments I received included:
"It is very nice and yummy"
"This is my all time favourite. It was smooth and silky and nicely set. Well presented with a bottom layers of creaminess to make a simple sweet go to the next level"

I will definitely continue to make this one. Interesting variations could include different flavours such as orange essence or a stronger rosewater flavour. I am tempted to make some different colour variations for fun, or even try a layered jelly with different colours.

You can learn more about historical jellies at https://www.historicfood.com/Jellies.htm