spinach-mushroom mini-tarts

Makes enough for 12 cupcake-size tarts, but for the shallower, wider, tarts, I'm not certain.

Defrost

2 sheets puff pastry

Preheat oven to 435.

Cook

12-16 oz mushrooms in a little oil

until they've stopped 'sweating' but are not completely dried out.

Defrost

1 package frozen chopped spinach

and drain it, pressing out some of the liquid. Add it to the mushrooms.

Grate

1-2oz swiss cheese and set aside

Prepare a roux by heating, in a 2qt saucepan,

2T butter

and adding

2T flour

and cooking until the flour loses its raw flavor, but before it really starts to brown.

Add

1/2 c milk

slowly, whisking to avoid lumps, to make a thick sauce. Season with

salt

pepper

freshly grated nutmeg -- perhaps 1t

Let cool a little, then stir in the mushroom/spinach mix, and then the swiss cheese.

Beat until nicely aerated

1 egg

and mix it into the filling.

Separate

1 egg

discarding the white and keeping the yolk. Add

1t water

to the yolk and mix to thin it.

Roll out

the puff pastry

into a 60-degree parallelogram so that you can get 6 rounds, each about 4 1/2 inches in diameter (our tiny corningware bowls make a good template), from each sheet. Re-chill if it's no longer cool to the touch. Then cut out the disks, and fill each container (in a shallow mold or a cupcake mold) with one sheet, folding the vertical edges as needed to make a cup. Brush the top edge of each with the egg wash mixture.

Fill the tart cups with 1/12 of the batter each. Cook about 11 minutes.

Sprinkle the tarts with a little bit of grated parmesan or grated swiss if you like.