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.

A Recipe for Frumenty

One of the recipes I made for the Revel was Frumenty.

These period recipes listed below  are reproduced at http://medievalcookery.com/recipes/frumenty.html

Source [Le Viandier de Taillevent, J. Prescott (trans.)]: Frumenty. Take wheat, prepare it, wash it very well, and cook it in water. When it is cooked, drain it. Take cow's milk boiled for an instant, add the wheat, and boil it for an instant. Move it to the back of the fire, stir often, and thread in plenty of egg yolks. Some add spices, saffron and venison stock. It should be yellowish and well thickened.

Source [Forme of Cury, S. Pegge (ed.)]: I - FOR TO MAKE FURMENTY. Nym clene Wete and bray it in a morter wel that the holys gon al of and seyt yt til it breste and nym yt up. and lat it kele and nym fayre fresch broth and swete mylk of Almandys or swete mylk of kyne and temper yt al. and nym the yolkys of eyryn. boyle it a lityl and set yt adoun and messe yt forthe wyth fat venyson and fresh moton.

Source [Liber cure cocorum, R. Morris (ed.)]: Furmente. Take wete, and pyke hit fayre and clene And do hit in a morter shene. Bray hit a lytelle, with water hit spryng Tyl hit hulle, with-oute lesyng. Þen wyndo hit wele, nede þou mot. Wasshe hit fayre, put hit in pot. Boyle hit tylle hit brest, þen Let hit doun, as I þe kenne. Take know mylke, and play hit up To hit be thykkerede to sup. Lye hit up with 3olkes of eyren, And kepe hit wele, lest hit berne. Coloure hit with safron and salt hit wele, And servyd hit forthe, Syr, at þe mele. With sugur candy, þou may hit dowce, If hit be served in grete lordys howce. Take black sugur for mener menne. Be ware þer with, for hit wylle brenne.

Source [Libro di cucina / Libro per cuoco, L. Smithson (trans.)]: XXIV - Maize dish (Frumenty) good and perfectly useful. If you want to make a frumenty, take the wheat and beat it well to when it leaves the shell / husk, then wash it well, then put it to boil not much, then throw away the water, then put into it that fat of the meat that you choose, and it needs to be not too much, and mix spices sweet and strong and saffron, and if you do not have wheat take rice; it will be good.
Originally Published: March 20, 2003

As you can see, these recipes are either savory (with meat and marrow additions) or sweet, with spices and/or fruit additions. I chose to do a sweet version.

My recipe:

approximately 150g bulghur wheat, rinsed until water runs clear
pinch of saffron
3 egg yolks beaten
1/2 cup of almond milk
sugar to taste (approximately 1/2 cup)
prune pieces to taste

I boiled the bulghur wheat and saffron in a little water until soft, stirring often. It was very thick so I added the almond milk and yolks and stirred over a low-medium heat to get a consistency similar to porridge. It was too bland for a dessert revel, so I added sugar to taste and some chopped, pitted prunes.

I used bulghur wheat and commercially produced almond milk to reduce the preparation due to my wrist injury. I suspect that cooking down hulled wheat would produce a more interesting texture, and the addition of home-made almond milk would produce a richer and more creamy result. I did not add cinnamon or other spices as other menu items were spiced and I wanted a bit of variety in the dishes. Next time I do this dish it will not be as part of a feast so I will add spices such as cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves, and probably some salt. I would be interested to try the dish with some different sugars, such as raw sugar, to see how the taste is affected.

Comments I received on this dish included:

"Very subtle taste, nice relief to stronger flavours. Quite sweet and moist. Felt like a dish to have as palette relief."

" I like the flavour! Very lovely."

"Pleasantly tasty with a delightful texture and flavour."

So, probably a dish worth experimenting with and developing.