A Tarte of Beans

Origin: British Period: Elizabethan

Original Recipe

A Tarte of Beans
(A Proper Newe Booke)

Take beanes and boyle them tender
in fayre water, then take theym
oute and breake them in a morter
and strayne them with the yolckes
of foure egges, curde made of
mylke, then ceason it up with
suger and halfe a dysche of butter
and a lytle synamon and bake it.

To make short paest for tarte
Take fyne floure and a curscy
of fayre water and a dysche
of swete butter and a lyttel
saffron, and the yolkes of
two egges and make it thynne a
nd as tender as ye maye.

Modern Redaction

Ingredients:

250g dried broad (fava) beans
4 egg yolks
120g cottage cheese (curds)
4 tbsp sugar
90g butter
4 tsp ground cinnamon

For the Pastry:

225g flour
90g softened butter
2 egg yolks
6 threads saffron ground into 1 tbsp water in a pestle and mortar

Method:
First re-hydrade the beans by placing them in aobut 600mls of water
in a pan. Bring this to boil in a pan then turn off the heat, cover
and allow to sit for at least 70 minutes. Then add a further 250ml of
water, bring to the boil again and simmer for about 50 minutes until
the beans are soft. Once cooked drain the beans and blitz in a food
processor.

Allow the bean paste to cool then mix in the egg yolks and add the
cottage cheese (which should not be drained). Add the sugar, butter
and cinnamon and mix to a smooth paste.

To make the pastry for the pie crust sift the flour into a bowl, add
the saffrom threads and their steeping water along with the egg yolks
and mix together well. First add 3/4 of the softened butter and mix
in well. If all the flour does not come together into a dough add a
little more butter. Once the dough comes into a ball cut it into two
pieces (one slightly larger than the other. Roll the larger piece of
dough out and use this to line a 22cm pie dish. Cut off the excess
pastry around the edge and fill the middle of the pie with the bean
mixture. Next roll the smaller piece of pastry out and use this to
place on top of the pie. Use the back of a fork to crimp the upper
and lower pieces of pastry together then pierce the top pastry a few
times to allow steam to escape as the pie cooks.

Cook in an oven pre-heated to 180°C for about 45 minutes or until the
upper crust has just turned a golden colour. Brush the top surface of
the pie with a mixture of sugar, molten butter and cinnamon. Seve.

Source: Celtnet Recipes