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By Jess Thomson
Serves 6
Start to finish: 2 hours (plus time to cool the filling)
From Edible Seattle May/June 2010
Imagine the insides of a vegetable potpie brimming with spring’s latest—earthy morel mushrooms, tiny baby turnips, new potatoes, fresh peas, and the year’s first carrots. Now snuggle it into a thyme-scented savory version of our All-Butter Pie Crust, and you’ve got a vegetable galette perfect for celebrations.
For the crust:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
Freshly ground pepper
1 stick (1/4 pound) unsalted butter, chilled, cut into 1/4” dice, chilled again
4 to 5 tablespoons ice water
For the filling:
1/4 pound each baby turnips, carrots, and potatoes
2 small leeks, halved and cleaned
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme, plus an extra pinch for baking galette
Salt and freshly ground pepper
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 large clove garlic, finely chopped
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3/4 cup whole milk, warmed
1/2 cup fresh shelled peas
1/4 pound morel mushrooms (or 1/2 ounce dried, rehydrated morels), cleaned and sliced
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese (optional)
First, make the crust: Blend flour, salt, thyme, and a good grinding of pepper in a medium mixing bowl. Sprinkle chilled butter cubes into the flour and press into the dry ingredients with your fingertips, blending together until the mixture looks like fresh breadcrumbs or damp sand. Ideally, no lumps of butter any bigger than a pea will remain, nor will you have any dry flour lurking in the bottom of the bowl.
Add cold water one tablespoon at a time, blending gently with a large fork, until the dough forms into a ball. Pat the dough into a flat disc, wrap in waxed paper, and chill at least 30 minutes
Next, make the filling: Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Cut the turnips, carrots, and potatoes, as well as the green portions of the leeks, into bite-sized pieces. Transfer these to a bowl (reserving the whites of the leeks for later) and toss with the olive oil, thyme, and salt and pepper to taste. Roast the vegetables for 20 to 30 minutes, until browned on one side. Set aside to cool.
Meanwhile, melt the butter in a small saucepan over low heat. Chop and add the white parts of the leeks and the garlic and cook, stirring frequently, for about 5 minutes, until the leeks are soft. Add the flour, then cook and stir for 2 minutes. (The mixture will be thick.) Add the milk in a slow, steady stream, whisking as you add it, and bring the sauce to a simmer, stirring constantly. Simmer for a minute or two, then season to taste with salt and pepper. Gently stir in the peas, sliced mushrooms, Parmesan, and roasted vegetables, and let cool to room temperature.
Lower the oven temperature to 400 degrees. Roll crust out on a lightly floured surface with a floured rolling pin into a roughly 13” round, and gently pat into a 9” springform pan (a cake pan works just as well), allowing any extra dough to drape over the edges. (The beauty of a galette is that it doesn’t matter if the crust is perfectly round.) Dump the vegetable mixture into the center, then spread it all the way to the edges of the pan.
Working in one direction, fold a 3” or 4” section of the dough up and over the filling. Fold up the next section, so the two pieces of dough overlap a bit. Repeat all the way around the galette. Sprinkle the crust with a bit of salt and thyme, and bake for 30 to 40 minutes, until the crust is nicely browned.
Cool in the pan for at least 15 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.
*Vegetarian
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