Having peeked in the every corner of my mind I can’t come up with any reasonable explanation of not cooking this genius galette earlier. I will not waste more time wringing my hands in vain and will tell you about this savory galette, casual and chic as a French woman with her curly hair in a bun fussing around the kitchen wearing a loose sweater, black pencil skirt and of course, ballet flats.
Like many dishes in my cooking repertoire the galette started as a different character. As a quiche, no less. I used to make this Turkish take on quiche where you go yogurt, cheese and some eggs instead of mind-boggling for a any non-French amount of cream and quantity of eggs. I possibly got my inspiration from Jamie, but as it often happens in my kitchen, things went off the hooks and eventually nothing about that ezine and lor quiche reminded of Jamie’s recipe.
This time two things have made quiche a less appealing idea: first, the time. You spend 20 minutes baking the crust and then more - letting it cool; only afterwards you can assemble and send your pretty quiche to the oven. I wanted less fuzz as I am already fuzzing a bit at the kitchen, quite frankly. Second, the eggs. Ok, people bear with me. You saw me going off sugar and grains and lactose and then coming back to some of those (but mind you, my cooking has never been the same again). Now eggs. I know I sound very credible after I was posting one omelet photo after another on Instagram this summer and someone even gave me the title of “an egg woman”. Maybe I just had eaten my whole egg share in this life, and there are no more unborn birdies left for me. So quiche without eggs is clearly not a quiche. I did not want to be silly when you remove all the core ingredients and still call the dish by its original name. Cesar salad without chicken, meatballs without meat, omelet without eggs, cheese without milk? All tasting like the real deal, even better ? Come on, people, get over it, just learn to enjoy things for what they are instead of feeling more superior or inferior (which is the same thing anyway) because of not eating like the majority of people on this planet. Get some pride about your plants.
So quiche became the galette, because why not. Galette is quick, galette is rustic, any cook can make galette, any eater appreciates galette. Galete is about two things, crust and filling. Yeah, I am methodological about my cooking, never taking it too lightly. So let’s start with the crust.
I have made mine with equal proportions of buckwheat and rye flours, but invite you to experiment. I have tried this crust with only wholewheat flour or buckwheat as well and loved the taste. The higher quality of the flour you use the better the taste, that’s why I go 100% wholegrain meaning 100% taste and 100% nutrition. To be very precise, buckwheat is not a grain but a plant from the same family as rhubarb and sorrel, so the flour lacks the ability to bind, which presents little bit of an issue if you are rolling the dough and want it to hold the weight of the hearty filling without breaking. That’s why you want to compliment buckwheat flour with rye, wheat, spelt and alike.
Now to the filling. This galette is not a careless snack; we eat it as a main dish so I tried to add as much goodness (equals vegetables and greens in my book) as possible. In these two small galettes I have packed 8 cups of chard and two carrots. Plus a generous helping of feta so the thoughts about “too healthy food” bitter like the leafy greens would no sadden someone’s meal. Are you still reading? I was pretty sure you were on your way to turn on the oven.
Buckwheat and Rye Galette with Chard and Feta
This galette is an essence of a perfect winter family meal: coming from the oven, bursting with flavor and nourishing.
Feel free to change the type of flour for your favorite (just watch the amount of water that you may need more or less of, depending). I love to bake with chard as it’s fairly dry, but you can opt for other leafy greens. I have also used nettles and spinach, individually and in combination with chard, with excellent results. If you use spinach, you will need to cook it longer on a slightly higher heat to get the moisture out; alternatively add a tablespoon of semolina or super fine bulgur to the galette filling to absorb excess moisture.
Prep Time: 30 min
Cook Time: 35 min
Total Time: 1 hr 5 min
Serves: 4
Makes: 2 small, but hearty pies
Ingredients
For the crust:
- 1 cup buckwheat flour
- 1 cup rye flour
- 1⁄2 cup cold butter
- 2 tsp apple vinegar
- 1⁄2 tsp fine sea salt
- 10 tbsp ice-cold water
For the filling:
- 1 tbsp butter
- 2 medium carrots finely grated
- 8 cups finely shredded chard packed
- 1 cup feta cheese (originally - ezine)
- 1⁄2 cup cottage cheese (originally - lor peyniri)
- 1 bay leaf
- 1⁄2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
- 1⁄2 tsp dried thyme
- 1⁄4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
- 1⁄2 tsp fine sea salt
- 2 tbsp thick plain yogurt
- hot red pepper flakes to sprinkle on top
Directions
- Make crust: Sieve the flours and the sea salt in a large bowl and stir with a whisk. Coarsely grate the cold butter into the same bowl and add apple vinegar. With your hands roughly mix the ingredients and then rub the lumps between your finger tips to fluff the mixture. Remember: only rubbing, no kneading as we are dealing with buttery pastry. Once the mixture looks uniform with no large bulks of butter, pour in half of the water and rub with your fingertips to mix. Then add one more quarter and rub again to see if there are any dry bits of the flour left at the bottom of the bowl. You will need the remaining water to moisten them. Finally, when all the flour is barely wet, squeeze it into a ball, wrap with a cling film, flatten slightly and place in the freezer. Done!
- Prepare filling: Meanwhile, warm the butter in a wide cooking pot, add the spices and then finely grated carrots. Cook on the medium heat for 2-3 minutes and as the carrots starts drying stir in the chard. Season with the sea salt and cover with a lead for 2-3 minutes until the chard looses some moisture and slightly wilts. Continue cooking uncovered for about 5 minutes so the chard softens and all the visible liquid evaporates. Set aside to cool.
- Assemble and bake: Preheat the oven to 180C/355F. Take out the crust dough. You can divide it into two parts to make two small pies or keep it whole for a large galette. Place a large piece of the parchment paper on your working surface, put the dough in the middle of it and cover with another piece of the parchment paper; this trick makes rolling easier. Roll the dough into about a 3 mm thick circle. Now and then you will need to lift the upper parchment paper to smooth the edges of your crust, don’t be shy and use your fingers. Once you have a neat thin circle stir the crumbled feta and cottage cheese in the chard mixture and spread the filling over the crust leaving a 5 cm margin all around. Fold up the edges of the crust to enclose the filling: try to make it pretty, but don’t forget that galette is not an exercise in perfectionism. Spread the yogurt over the filling and brush the edges with yogurt too. Sprinkle with red pepper flakes and send to the oven. Bake for 35 min, or until the pastry gets golden brown and smells irresistible. Now you have about 15 minutes to set the table as the galette cools a bit.
