Galette & Broccolini
Jen
Oct 14
|20:18 pm
Last Updated on Monday, 02 November 2009 11:23
"Galette is a general term used in French to designate various types of flat, round or freeform crusty cakes." Galette's are great mechanisms to use up lots of odds and ends you have in the fridge. You can put basically anything in them.
For our Galette, we used your basic frozen puff pastry sheet available at your local grocer. Take one of the pastry sheets out, and set it on the counter for 15 minutes to let it thaw. Gently open it until it lays flat, and let it sit for another few minutes. Preheat your oven to 425 degrees with your pizza stone on the bottom rack. Dust your counter with flour, and roll the pastry sheet out with a rolling pin into any shape desirable. Put your pastry sheet on a piece of parchment paper for easy moving. Pile your fillings in the center, and fold all of the edges of the puff pastry over the items in the center. We then used a pizza peel to load the galette on top of the parchment paper right onto the pizza stone in the oven. (If you don't have a pizza stone, simply use a cookie sheet.) Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the puff pastry is a nice golden color.
Details of filling: For our filling, we took a chicken breast, and sliced it up, and grilled it until almost thoroughly cooked (remember it will cook in the oven too). We also sliced a bunch of cremini mushrooms (baby portabello's), and then sautéed them on high heat with a little bit of butter. We piled some Chevre (soft Goat Cheese) in the middle of the pastry sheet, then piled on our cooked chicken and mushrooms, and then gave a good pinch of Kosher salt over it. You can sprinkle on some fresh or dried herbs of your choice. Folded over the edges of the pastry sheet, and brush the top of the pastry sheet with either melted butter, oil, or a beaten egg. (Note to self: put minced garlic in next time.)
We tried a new recipe we found for Broccolini. According to Wikipedia, "Broccolini is a green vegetable similar to broccoli with small florets and long, thin stalks". I like the texture of broccolini better than plain broccoli. I will also eat the stalks of broccolini, and they aren't as thick, and greener. This recipe came from the November 2009 issue of Bon Appetit, page 133. It basically involves sauteeing almonds, garlic and smoked paprika in some olive oil, then setting the mixture aside. Put some more extra virgin olive oil back in the pan, and sautee your hauled broccolini, add a pinch of kosher salt. Add a small amount of water, and put the lid on to steam them under crisp/tender. Get rid of the extra water, then toss your almond mixture over the cooked broccolini and add a splash of Sherry wine vinegar to finish.
The Broccolini was fine. Not great though. I think it has potential, and I will be playing around with different combinations going forward.
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