Recipe Series: Finishing Salt

It's Galette Week at Encompass Farm!

I decided this a few weeks ago when I added the 'galette week' notification to my calendar. I wanted to tailor your Veggie Boxes and recipes to my favorite summer staple, a dish that I learned to make last June and immediately integrated into my routine. I can't wait to share it with you!

 A Galette is a rustic, free form pastry made without a baking pan, where the dough edges are folded over a central filling. The filling is infinitely variable, and suited to seasonal fruits and veggies, which is the first part of why this meal has become so entrenched into my routine. The second part is the easy pastry dough.

Now, I'm no baker. Math and measurements in the kitchen? No thanks. I hold my chaotic, spontaneous cooking methods quite sacred. And this irony is not lost on me: for someone who writes a weekly recipe newsletter, I don't really use recipes in my own kitchen. I rebel against being told what to do, instructions in a recipe included. I mostly look at the pretty pictures in recipes as inspo and then wing it with the ingredients I have on hand from there! No such thing is possible with baking...

Dough has always intimidated me, but learning to make this three ingredient pastry dough has been a game changer. I’ve used the same dough to make naan, sweet pie crust, pizza and pitas. The variety in this week’s Veggie Box was tailored to make a diversity of galettes. Tomato, squash, and even blueberry galettes await!

So let’s get into it…

Butter, water, flour. That's all it takes. The ingredients are simple, and once you master the temperature and easy technique, you're set. I use my food processor to make the dough, and love the easy cleanup this way. No food processor? You can easily mix your ingredients by hand!

My tip - the recipe below includes salt in the dough. I opt out of mixing it in the dough because I prefer to salt the outside of the Galette with Finishing Salt before baking. It creates such a beautiful crust! Don't forget that Veggie Box Subscribers get discounted pricing on all our farm grown goods when added onto your box via the portal!

Here's a recipe link with step by step dough instructions:  https://foolproofliving.com/galette-dough/

Here it is, the star of the show, the tomato galette! Use either slicer or cherry tomatoes in your galette, but my tip is to slice and then pat dry your tomatoes on a paper towel before assembly. The best part about the filling is that you can use literally whatever you have on hand. Some of my recent variations:
cream cheese with asiago
ricotta cheese with pesto
greek yogurt with parmesan
cheddar cheese
garlic herb goat cheese
 

https://www.heinens.com/recipes/savory-tomato-galette/

This week's blueberries come from my neighbors at Overmountain Vineyards, and if they survive being snacked on fresh, they make a great sweet Galette! I used the standard dough recipe, but with an added tablespoon of sugar. For the filling, I folded honey and lemon juice into ricotta, and poured it into my crust, which I did bake in a pie pan with walls to help contain all the filling. Then in a small pot on the stovetop I browned pears in butter and once they softened, I added a handful of blueberries and tablespoon of sugar to help combine and caramelize the fruit. I poured the fruit over the ricotta in the Galette, and baked! Once cool, this decadent Galette made a great breakfast or dessert. So special!

This Peach Blueberry Galette is the ultimate summer dessert that I would like to think of as a “lazy man’s pie”. It is a rustic, free-form (and stress-free) tart that celebrates the sweetness of juicy summer peaches and blueberries. It can be made a day ahead and baked right before serving for a still-warm, buttery, flaky dessert.

https://foolproofliving.com/peach-blueberry-galette/

A big salad with this week's lettuce paired with a tomato galette fresh from the oven. It's the perfect meal that comes together in 30 minutes or less! I topped our salads with salmon, hard boiled eggs and tzatziki for dressing.

Still have pesto hanging around from the basil and recipes I  included a few weeks ago? Mix it into your galette filling, or into the crust itself! 

This week's yellow and green zucchini, when sliced thin and layered in a galette, really shine!

https://www.eatloveeats.com/mexican-courgette-ricotta-galette/

This week's Poblano peppers won't be left out of the Galette fun.  I plan to chop, sautee and then fold mine into cream cheese to bake as the filling for my zucchini galette. I've also come across recipes for Caramelized onion, poblano pepper, and goat cheese galette, plus Poblano & Potato Galette.

This week's lettuce comes from my friends at Smallholding Farm and as soon as this harvest came in today, I made a big salad. Bulked up with rice, Baba ghanoush and beef kafta, this was a truly great meal. I chopped up and mixed some of this week's Poblano peppers into the ground beef and spices to make my kafta, and I highly recommend. If you still have some of last week's eggplant hanging around, don't skip the baba ghanoush! Alternatively, hummus works great too.
 

https://www.runningtothekitchen.com/beef-kafta/#wprm-recipe-container-31229

Stuffed Zucchini with Black Beans, Corn and Poblano Peppers.

https://www.punchfork.com/recipe/Stuffed-Zucchini-with-Black-Beans-Corn-and-Poblano-Pepper-EatingWell

Poblano Zucchini Green Enchilada

https://www.nourishdeliciously.com/?p=17120

From juicy chicken thighs to tender zucchini, everything cooks together on one sheet pan for a flavorful dinner with easy cleanup. Poblano peppers offer a nice flavor with mild heat.

https://www.eatingwell.com/sheet-pan-chicken-with-zucchini-11940836

Rajas: Creamy Poblano Strips with Potatoes. These are roasted poblano strips drenched in a creamy sauce and they are easily one of Mexican cuisine's most common side dishes.

I typically add potato and some stock to make them a bit more hearty, but you can consider both of those items optional as they are traditionally served without them.

https://www.mexicanplease.com/rajas-creamy-poblano-strips-potatoes/