Recipe: Red Onion Galettes

Recipe Source: France, Christine and Steven Wheeler.  Barbeques and Salads.  Anness Publishing Ltd., London, 2002 p. 141

I've been dying to make this dish ever since I got this cookbook, but somehow the timing just never worked out.  When I found out a vegetarian was coming to dinner recently, I decided that now was the time.  After all, it would be one more thing on the table that he could eat.  At the end of the day, the gentleman canceled on us at the last minute, but that was okay.  While he was the impetus behind this, I enjoyed the dish so much I was more than happy to eat his share! 

The only thing I wasn't happy with was the appearance of the dish.  The recipe called for 8 oz of ready-made frozen puff pastry, thawed.  I tried to pick up some puff pastry but wasn't able to find any at my supermarket.  I did what any proper intrepid fearless cook would do: I made my own.  I used a very quick kind of pseudo-puff-pastry dough that I found in Najmieh Batmanglij's Silk Road Cooking.  While it makes a pretty darned good dough, and it certainly did puff up very nicely, it didn't really behave the way that the authors of this recipe intended.  As a result, the galettes looked pretty hideous, as you can see from the pictures.  That said, the taste was really out of this world.  I cooked them on our smoker while the meat was resting and it gave a beautiful color to the dough as well as an amazing flavor, but you can make these very easily on a conventional barbeque.  You could probably even manage it in the oven, but it won't be the same. 

Red Onion Galettes (serves 4; approx. 1.97/serving)

4 tablespoons olive oil

2 red onions, about 1 1/4 lb, sliced thin

4 garlic cloves, crushed

2 tablespoons mixed chopped herbs - I used sage, thyme and chervil, with more sage than thyme or chervil

8 oz (around 1/2 package) frozen puff pastry, thawed

2 tablespoons sun dried tomato paste

Equipment:

• Grill, barbeque or smoker
• Baking sheet
• Skillet with lid

1. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in the skillet.
2. Add the onions and garlic.  Cover and cook gently for 15 - 20 minutes. 
3. Stir in the herbs.  Note: These three steps can be done well in advance.  Set aside until ready to cook and then proceed with the following.
4. Divide the pastry into 4 pieces and roll each piece into rounds.
5. Crimp the edges so that they stand up a bit and provide a shallow bowl for the onion mixture.
6. Prick the bottoms of the rounds with a fork and place on a baking sheet. 
7. Chill the rounds on the baking sheet for 10 minutes.  (This is where I think my problem developed.)
8. Mix the tomato paste with 1 tablespoon olive oil and spread on the bottom of the galettes.
9. Top with the onion mixture.
10. Drizzle the remaining olive oil over the mixture.
11. Cook over a medium barbeque for 15 minutes, until the pastry is crisp.
12. Serve! 

Technorati Tags: Grilled food,vegetarian dish,recipes,galettes,pastry,onion,sun-dried tomato

Comments

[Peter]

The onion galette sounds like a great addition for a summer picnic...good hot or cold.

[Fearless Kitchen]

Thanks, Peter! This probably would be just as good cold, if you let it get that far. I just need to work on making it look less like a misshapen lump....