 Pie crusts can be intimidating. The threat of mushy, under-cooked undersides and the fear of rolling out concentric dough has kept many people from trying their hand at this pastry classic. Enter the galette. Galettes have all the flavor of pies but are far more low key. No blind baking and no tedious crust crimping. They are like that dinner guest who always knows what to say and gets along with everyone.
Please note that this recipe yields two crusts. I usually bake one off on the same day that I assemble the dough and refrigerate or freeze the other. Knowing that I have a ball of galette dough waiting patiently for me to transform makes me feel rich.
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2020 is the year that stopped drinking caffeinated coffee. A test with Viome confirmed what my intuition had long told me: coffee isn’t my friend. I knew for ages that caffeine affected me more than the average person but I didn’t know that the catechols in coffee were unfavorable to my microbiome as well as my gut integrity and function. No bueno.
I was musing about my desire to concoct a coffee-esque beverage to an herbalist friend and she immediately suggested bay nuts. Of course! I’d heard of them before and was seeing them on my hikes in the East Bay hills but I had never tried them. Bay nuts ticked all the boxes: they are similar in flavor to coffee, can be processed into a beverage AND I can forage them. Yes! Yes! A friend forwarded me this amazing article on the nuts and I was further convinced that this was something to pay attention too. I started hiking with clothing with deep pockets or a fanny pack. The flavor is really special. It’s toasty, bitter and earthy. One foot in coffee territory and one foot in unsweetened chocolate. In fact, I struggled a bit to name this beverage… Bay Nut Coffee? Bay Nut Hot Chocolate? The answer, of course, is the genius beverage that merges them both: the mocha.  In the fall roasted vegetables are nearly always on the dinnertime menu. This recipe feels fancy but isn’t at all. By including a panoply of colors and some more unusual additions like chickpeas and fruit we elevate this classic standby. In this recipe I add some arugula to enliven the hearty, earthy root vegetables and legumes. I love the peppery flavor these greens bring to the table.
Usually hash’s are made on the stove but I find that to be a tedious use of time and lackluster results: overly mushy is some parts and not cooked enough in others. By roasting you ensure that each vegetable gets the same amount of heat. It feels fairer, right?
I enjoyed this beverage when I lived in South Korea several years ago. It was served to me several times at the end of a meal in lieu of a dessert and I found it to be warming and nourishing. A thoughtful and light way to end a meal that was often composed of sour, pungent kimchi and spicy side dishes. In Korea they used dried Hachiya persimmons known as hongshi. This year I had an absolute glut of Fuyu persimmons but my hongshi stash was nearly gone and it would be at least a month before I could get more. A swap was made and the results were wonderful.
Another change was that I decided to simmer the dried Fuyu persimmons with the spices, which you wouldn’t do with hongshi unless you don’t mind a cloudy beverage. Typically this punch is quite sweet but I will leave it up to you to determine the amount of sugar added.
This vinaigrette is a riff on a sauce common to many of the side dishes that are found all throughout South Korea. Side dishes, or banchan, are staples for every and any Korean meal. Even a cheap ramen shop will offer a small tray of kimchi and daikon pickle.
Gochu, or Korean chile is responsible for the ubiquitous red color found throughout the dishes of the peninsula. It’s a medium spicy chile and you should feel empowered to add more or less depending on your heat preference. |
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