spinach tart

[cellio]

Baronial 12th night is traditionally a free pot-luck event. I generally try to bring a main dish (knowing that most main dishes brought will be meat). This year I adapted the spinach tart from Cariadoc's Miscellany (his recipe is about three-quarters of the way down the page). For two 9" crusts I used the following:

10oz fresh spinach
about 3/4 bunch of fresh parsley
about 1T fennel seed (maybe more)
about 1T ground ginger
10 eggs
8oz cheddar
8oz mozzerella

(I didn't have any chevril or beet leaves.)

I chopped everything reasonably finely but I did not try to reduce it further like the original suggests. I had a little too much fennel. Next time I make it I will increase the ginger and perhaps try different cheeses; for a modern use I think havarti or parmesan would be tasty. I will also increase the spinach a bit or add another green; I was planning on 3/4 pound of spinach but didn't quite have enough.

I never know if people at potlucks will actually eat their veggies, but these both went pretty quickly so I guess people liked it. :-)

Comments

[richardf8]

Gruyere also works real well in this.

[cellio]

Ooh, that sounds good -- thanks!

[byronhaverford.livejournal.com]

Thanks for bringing it! I'm a big fan of quiches and their relatives. Here are two additional data points for you to weigh or discard as you see fit:

Cara thought that that was the right amount of fennel.

I thought that that was too much fennel.

We both think that there is no such thing as too much spinach.

Three. That's three data points.

[cellio]

Cara thought that that was the right amount of fennel.
I thought that that was too much fennel.

Conclusion: next time, his&hers tarts. :-)

Quiches and their relatives can be prepared in advance, transported easily, and served cold (or at room temperature, after a while), making them ideal for pot-lucks. They also tend to be protein-ful, which helps if you don't think you'll be able to eat a lot of the other main dishes or you think everyone's going to bring dessert. So I almost always do some member of this family for events.

[dagonell.livejournal.com]

Interesting. Here in Heronter, the vegans will bless you for bringing a vegetarian dish, because most of the feast isn't. I've brought home leftover meat before, but NEVER leftover veggies.

[cellio]

I think the vegans are still out of luck. Or, at least in my experience, vegan means they won't eat the eggs and cheese.

[http://users.livejournal.com/merle_/]

When one unit of spinach goes with one unit of egg and 1.6 units of cheese, you can be pretty certain people won't notice the spinach.

I usually use boiled potato cubes as part of the filler to cut down on the eggs and cheese, but that's just me.

[cigfran-cg.livejournal.com]

Pretty much what I was going to say: People will happily eat their veggies if smothered in sufficient egg and CHEEZE.

[cellio]

If they get as far as tasting it, I agree. But it's still very very green, and I wondered if that would deter folks.

Thanks for the potato tip.