Ham & Cheese Mini Galettes
If there was a master's program that focussed on galettes, I would be the first person to enroll for it. Galettes, other than pasta is the most popular recipe on the blog. I love galettes because of how customizable they can be without being as finicky as a traditional pie. They also need to special tray or template which is why I made it first because I had no equipment back in 2017 when I made Melissa Clark’s stone fruit galette.
This galette was a product of creating recipes for my first ever pop up. I have mentioned the pop up before but I have never delved into it. So I guess this better late than never! The pop-up opportunity came to me out of the blue. I was scrolling through Instagram, and a follower DM’d to talk about my take on the food scene in India. We got to talking and she moved into telling me her an entrepreneurial idea she had. She wanted to create experiential spaces for audiences in tier 1 markets by using amateur cooks who create homemade fine dining food. Homemade fine dining is something that is on the rise and hearing her talk about this was extremely exciting. With this as the preface, I met Tanissha for a coffee. I came into the conversation with the thought that she wanted my perspective as a way to grow her idea further. However, I was quite surprised about how much she had thought through this already. She had a name, a theme, and a location (a beautiful bungalow in Jaipur). What surprised me, even more, was that she wanted me to be one of the guest chefs headlining my event!! The offer was unreal. Hosting my event seemed like a challenge that I wasn’t expecting but once I received it, there was no reason why I needed to turn it down.
The first hurdle to begin work on this dinner was to create a six-course recipe. The original idea was to create a curated course that had both vegetarian and meat options (this ham & cheese galette was part of the meat option). We went through two rounds of testing which resulted in us nixing the non-vegetarian offering to keep a single menu for the whole event. This made sense (and thank god for it) because the kitchen infrastructure we received was awful. By “we,” I mean me and my amazing sous chef, Natasha. It had been a little less than a month of seeing each other that we decided to make the trip to Jaipur together. This was a big step for any relationship but something as new as ours was daunting and I love her to have taken this plunge. The original plan was for me to cook all through Saturday for service on Sunday. However, when we realized that our prep kitchen had no functioning fridge, one tiny toy of an oven, and was an hour away from our service site; Natasha graciously offered to work with me on prepping the 35 caramelized mushroom and onion mini galettes (which we had to make in batches of 6 each baked for 30 minutes), 35 peach mini galettes, and panko chickpea burgers (all recipes that you can find on the blog!). We began work at 1 pm, and left the kitchen for our hotel at 1 am. Natasha and worked for 12 hours straight in the heat with tiny faulty equipment. We created assembly lines to expedite the process and found a way to chill and reuse the pie dough in an industrial ice cream freezer (because there was no fridge in the kitchen). We worked through all the challenges imaginable, and magically so— right up to the actual day of cooking where we had to cook a whole course of burgers in blackout with the flashlight of 6 phones and some really (thankfully) patient patrons.
Natasha was a dream to work with, even when I was stressing, sweating, and crying along the way. Working with her made me realized how determined she can be when she loves what she does and I truly appreciate that she decided to do with someone who she knew for 3 weeks. The day of the event flew by. We reached the kitchen by 10 in the morning and began our mise en place, cleaning out plates, and decide plating while wrangling a set of confused service staff, and yet another faulty kitchen with a vintage fridge that we had to keep shut with duct tape, and two ovens of which one decided to stop working.
The event was outright beautiful. Tanissha did a great job of setting up the event and ensuring every seat was filled (we ended up serving 27 patrons, as compared to the 20 that we had planned on). There were a lot of things that I would liked to have changed, but I am so so glad that this was the experience I had. Even with all the challenges, we were able to produce a seamless experience for our guests and I cannot wait to replicate this again (and again and again).
With pie season creeping up, it’s only fair, to begin with something savory. Like this crafty (read: “carby”) adaptation of a ham and cheese sandwich— a ham and cheese mini galette that’s made with a Parmesan pie crust, a base of homemade pesto, ham slices that sits under beautiful melted cheddar cheese! If you are trying to get into making pies, THIS is your entry point. Make make make!
Glimpses from the week
Recipe
Ingredients
Makes 10 mini galettes
Pie crust
1 cup of all purpose flour
1/2 cup of parmesan (or any other hard cheese like Cheddar) grated
250 grams of unsalted butter, cold and cubed
2 to 4 tablespoons of ice cold water
1/4 teaspoon of salt
Filling
250 gram of ham salami
250 grams white cheddar cheese
For the pesto
1 Cup Fresh Basil
1/3 Pine Nuts
1/3 Cup Olive Oil
2 Cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
1/2 Cup Parmesan (though I have tried it with Gouda, Manchego, and Mozzarella all tastes good)
1/2 a lemon
Salt to taste
Topping
1 large egg
1 tablespoon of heavy cream or whole milk
Method
Pie Dough
Mix dry ingredients— flour, cheese, and salter together. Add the chilled butter and work it with your hands. Breaking down the butter with your fingers and thumbs into smaller pieces (the size of a pea). As you work on it, add cold water to mix the flour together and prevent the butter from melting.
Put dough on the lightly floured counter and pat it together to make one uniform piece. Flatten into a disk, wrap in plastic and chill for 2 hours.
Heat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius (356 degrees Fahrenheit). Roll the dough out to a 12-inch (30 cm) round. Using a round cap or pastry cutter (about 3 inched in diameter) make cuts. Don’t worry if it’s uneven. It goes with the rustic vibe! Transfer to a rimmed baking sheet lined with parchment paper and chill while preparing the filling.
Filling
For the pesto
Wash the basil well rinsing about 3 times and submerge water as you prepare all the other ingredients. In the meantime, start boiling water and cook pasta as per the instructions.
Start by emulsifying the fats. Add the pine nuts, olive oil, and garlic into a food processor and pulse until the nuts are well ground into a paste
Add the basil lightly draining the water, along with cheese, salt & pepper. Pulse until a thick green paste is formed. Approximately a minute. Check in the middle for consistency. Finish by adding lemon juice and mixing with a spoon.
Assembly
Place 2 teaspoons of the pesto on the pie base spread it evenly. Add triangular cut-outs of the ham on top and then thin slices on top. I usually put 4-5 thin slices for a great melt.
Gently fold the pastry over the filling, pleating to hold it in. Again, imperfect is totally fine. Brush the crust generously with one beaten egg and heavy cream.
Bake for 35 to 45 minutes, until the crust is golden. Cool for at least 20 minutes (prime Instagram picture time). Serve warm or at room temperature.
