Wild Mushroom Pie
This is an 18th-century Dutch recipe, from the Aanhangzel van de Volmaakte Hollandsche Keuken-Meid (1761). For those who are interested in authenticity, here is a translation of the original recipe:
Mushroom Tart, how one should make it.
Cut the mushrooms in slices, add some meat broth, lime juice, herbs, some salt, nutmeg, bread crumbs, butter too, place on an under-crust, place an upper-crust over it, bake it slowly; and when you want to eat it, squeeze lemon over it, is good.
Now you can see why in these recipes I rarely dictate how much to use of any one ingredient: its all up to the cook's own taste and judgement. When I make this tart I use a pâte brisé (reducing the butter) with an added egg, you could also add some cream if you like...I've seen many variant pastry recipes in the cookbooks of the time (I sometimes like to add a bit of crushed black pepper to the pastry too).
Clean and slice a nice variety of wild mushrooms, mix in a bowl with fresh white breadcrumbs, lots of chopped parsley, lots of freshly grated nutmeg, salt, pepper. Line a pie pan with pastry, add the filling and dot with many small clumps of butter. Cover the pie with a pastry top and punch several air vents into it. Decorate the top and brush with an egg glaze. Mix together one egg, some beef broth and juice of half a lime; using a funnel pour the liquid into the pie through one of the air vents, to moisten the filling. Bake 45-50 minutes at 250 C (you may want to turn this down a little bit halfway through). Serve warm or cold with lemon or lime slices, so you can squeeze fresh juice over each slice.
Last update: Tuesday, March 27, 2007