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Game Postej & Pumpkin Puré

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Game pie or "vildt postej"
Game pie or “vildt postej”

As I have talked about before I am planing a medieval & renaissance inspired larp dinner. I just started testing out recipes. Thursday night I had a friend over who will be part of the event so that was a good chance to test out a few recipes. I made a game postej (or game pie) and a pumpkin puré.

Grapes, chestnuts and apple compotI had brought some diced game meat and a pumpkin among a lot of random other things that day without quite checking the recipes, so I made some adjustments. So what I ended up making was inspired by and based on period recipes (both from the renaissance) but I wasn’t quite following them. I also had some old apples that I cooked into a spicy apple compote using period spices.

I had so much fun in the kitchen cooking up a storm and both my partner and my friend loved it. The game pie will definitely be part of the larp menu.

Pumpkin puré

dsc_0627The pumpkin puré is based of Bi Skaarup’s “Græskar at koge” in Renæssancemad. My only adjustment is the regular breadcrumbs are substituted for gingerbread breadcrumbs as I didn’t have any white bread and wanted to use spices in the puré anyway. I had seen gingerbread used as breadcrumbs in other main course recipes. It turned out to be a very tasty addition to the dish. The original recipe is from Anna Wecket’s cookbook “En artig oc meget nyttig Kogebog…”, 1648.

Pumpkin puré

Græskar at koge A pumpkin spicy puré based on a recipe from Anna Wecket's 1648 cookbook. Works really well in a fall menu.

  • Prep Time: 10m
  • Cook Time: 20m
  • Total Time: 26m

Ingredients

  • 1 pumpkin child head sized
  • 0,5 liter milk whole milk is probably best
  • 3 tablespoons gingerbread breadcrumbs (store brought is fine). Just put the gingerbread in a morter and smash them up
  • 4 tablespoons butter
  • 0,25 tsp safran
  • salt

Instructions

  1. Peel, de-seed and dice the pumpkin.
  2. Boil the pumpkin in the milk at a low heat until the flesh is mashable. That takes 10-20 min depending on how big your dices are. Make sure the milk don't burn or overflow.
  3. Grained the safran in a mortar and add a tablespoon of boiling water and let it sit for a bit.
  4. Take the pumpkin off the heat and puré the pumpkins with a wooden spoon or use a potato masher in the milk. You can of course use a blender but that might alter the consistency.
  5. Put it back on the heat and add the breadcrumbs. Let it simmer for 5 minutes while it gets a bit thicker.
  6. Add the butter and salt to a taste.

Game pie (Vildt postej)

Game pie or "vildt postej"
Game pie or “vildt postej”

A “postej” is a pie in old danish. This pie is a mix of a number of recipes – all of them period appropriate. Pies were a common part of the wealthier table from the medieval kitchen and up until the 1800’s in Denmark. I have not made a postej before, so I am pleased as pie, that it turned out really well.

The process is a bit complicated as it involves two different crusts and a filling made separately, but the result is quite good and resultat is well worth the time. The two different doughs for the crust need resting for at least an hour but they both freeze well. The base crust is the easiest pie crust I have made so far.

You can make a simpler version by using a casserole dish instead of the base dough and just add a short crust lid to the dish. It should be good, but doesn’t look as impressive. The dish can be made well in advance and be served either hot or warm or at room temp.

Game pie

A renaissance game pie, called a "postej" in Danish. You can make a simpler version by using a casserole dish instead of the base dough and just add a short crust lid to the dish. It should be good, but doesn't look as impressive. The dish can be made well in advance and be served either hot or warm or at room temp.

  • Prep Time: 30m
  • Cook Time: 40m
  • Total Time: 2h 10m

Ingredients

Base Crust

  • 500 grams wheat flour
  • 125 grams butter
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 170 milliliters water boiling

Shortcrust (top crust)

  • 250 grams wheat flour
  • 150 grams butter
  • 1 egg
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 50 milliliters water optional
  • 1 egg mixed for the crust lid

Filling

  • 500 grams game meat in small dices (or alternatively beef)
  • 100 grams grapes roughly chopped
  • 100 grams raisins
  • teaspoon salt
  • 1 onion small, peeled and diced
  • teaspoon thyme fresh or dry
  • teaspoon basil fresh or dry
  • nutmeg to taste
  • 1 tablespoon butter for frying

Instructions

Base crust

  1. Melt the butter in the boiling water
  2. Put the flour in a bowl and mix it with the salt. Make an indentation in the little Mountain of flour (like you do with pasta dough).
  3. Add in the water/butter mix, one third at a time, and mix it in with the rest, until you have a smooth pie dough.
  4. Add it to a plastic bag and let it rest for an hour in the fridge.

Shortcrust (top crust)

  1. Rub the butter and flour together in with your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
  2. Add eggs and water and mix it together until you have a smooth pie dough.
  3. Add it to a plastic bag and let it rest for an hour in the fridge.

Filling

  1. We start by preparing the meat using a technique that is called "indpassering" in danish but I have no idea what's called in English - sorry. It is basically frying in a pan with spices.
  2. So, add all the spices to the meat (you can use many more if you want).
  3. Melt the butter in a pot, add the onion and meat and brown it.
  4. Mix the raisins and grapes together

Assembling and baking

  1. Roll out the base crust and place it in a cake tin with a loose bottom. Let it hang over the edges for now.
  2. Put in half the grape and raisin mix.
  3. Add the meat mix and cover it with the rest of the grapes/raisins.
  4. Roll out the shortcrust (it don't have to be all that thin) and cut out a circle that fits the size of your tin and place it over the filling.
  5. Fold over the base crust over, so there is an overlap. You can now decorate the top of the lid with pretty shapes of shortcrust if you feel creative.
  6. Brush the lid and the edges with a mixed egg.
  7. Bake at 200 C (375 F) for about 35-45 minutes until the crust is golden brown.

The top dough “Postejdej nr. 2” is printed in “Historisk Kogebog” af Else-Marie Boyhus but is originally from Haldahl’s cookbook from 1883.

The top dough “Mørdej uden sukker” is from  “Renæssancemad” by Bi Skaarup.

The spices and the instructions for the filling is also printed in “Historisk Kogebog” af Else-Marie Boyhus but is originally from Haldahl’s cookbook from 1883.

 

 


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