This was redacted for the Virtual cooking challenge #2 – To Make a Tart (tourte) – Goodman of Paris which was posted on the SCA Virtual Classroom and Artisan Display.
For future refrence, one should not attempt to make a challenge recipe after a virtual happy hour. Two glasses of port made me inattentive to my recipe and caused me to ramble A LOT in the video. To the point where I don’t have the patience to cut the video into a decent how-to. So this week I’m publishing written form only.
I wanted a tart for my family to eat so I decided to use a half recipe of my tried-and-true pie shell recipe from Good Housekeeping. The recipe usually makes a double-crust pie and I halved it to make a single crust.
My grocery store had no beets, beet green, chervil, or fennel. They also substituted mint for parsley (which is totally not the same thing but I decided to use it in the tart anyway). Finally they did not send the aged gouda so I had to use the cheese I had on hand instead.
In the end I feel this redaction is not particularly close to the source materials.. but it did make a tasty tart.
I feel that I had the right amount of egg/cheese for my greens BUT my tart when it cooked up was very short. I could have easily doubled the greens/egg/cheese and filled the pie shell entirely. Next time I’d keep the pie shell the same and double the ingredients for the filling.
Also, the powder fine sprinkled on top of the tart was nice.. but the original recipe calls for that to be incorporated into the mixture. I think that actually would have tasted even better. So next time I would add the powder fine to the greens/egg/cheese mixture.
The recipe below is what I actually made and does not include any of my “next time” updates.
Sylvie’s redaction of To Make a Tart (sort of)
1 cup unbleached flour
1/2 tsp table salt
1/3 cup butter
cold water
8 oz spinach
1 bunch mint
1 bunch green onions
3 eggs, raw
2 cups mixed shredded cheese (italian mix)
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
Powder Fine
1/4 cup goat cheese
Preheat oven to 375.
Make pie shell
Add flour and salt to a bowl and then cut the butter into the flour mixture until it resembles sand. Add cold water (3-4 Tbsp at a time) until the flour forms a ball. Work the ball a little bit to form gluton but not too much or your pie crust will be tough. Roll this out and put it in a pie plate or tin.
Make filling
On a cutting board, remove mint leaves from stem then chop mint, green onions and spinach fine and mix the greens all together.
In a mixing bowl, add eggs to the Italian mix grated cheese and mix well.
Add greens to the cheese/egg mix and stir well to coat all the greenery with egg and cheese.
Assembly and baking
Pour filling into the pie shell. Top with parmesan and then a sprinkle of powder fine.
Bake at 375F for 35-45 minutes. Top with 1/4 cup goat cheese. Serve warm.
Tart attempt #2
I used the same pie shell recipe.
Filling:
16 oz spinach/butter crunch lettuce mix (it’s what the grocer sent me)
1 bunch of beet greens (leaf only)
6 eggs
4 cups cheese (I used 1 cup mozzarella and 3 cup 4-cheese cheddar mix)
1/2 cup cheese on top
Powder fine
I sprinkled the power fine throughout the filling mixture.
I baked this at 375 for 45 minutes but found it was very wet (and overflowed the pie tin) and the bottom crust did not cook through. I then baked this an addition 20 minutes at 325.
This was an okay tart.. but nothing to get excited about.
Too much greens, too much eggs and cheese.
Tart attempt #3
Tart #3
I used the same pie shell recipe
Filling:
2 bunches of chard (leaf only)
1 bunch of beet greens (leaf only)
1 bunch of parsley
5-6 sprigs of mint (spearmint?)
4 eggs
3 cups cheese (I used a 4-cheese cheddar mix)
1/2 cup of cheese on top
I added powder fine throughout the filling mixture and then on top of the topper cheese. I used mint from my mint patch but I’m worried it’s spearmint not sweet mint and I didn’t want to overwhelm the pie… so I used WAY too little and I can’t even tell this has mint in it.
I ordered some sweet mint and I’ll taste test it today and see if I’m right and cultivate that in addition to the spearmint (if it’s spearmint).
I baked this at 325 for 60 minutes. This one did not overflow. The bottom crust cooked through and the top cheese browned.
This is again okay.. and even tasty.. but the filling was not as good as the first tart.
It also occurs to me that my cheese for the last couple tarts has been a bit boring. I may want to change this up with a stronger cheese choice.
