Brussels Sprouts Gallete with Rye Crust

Another day, another galette. Roll out dough, stuff it with what you'd like, fold up and bake, and a meal is present. After posting  the wild raspberry rye galette with the good, but not authentically relaxed crust last week, I felt like: well, why didn't I make the crust the way I knew it needed to be made, the long way, the double folded way, the twice-chilled way, the Kim Boyce way, to get the ultimate flakiness out of it? I felt  like I'd cheated, like I'd avoided the challenge. And  like someone who knows how well a vintage piece of furniture is made and but buys the cheaper replica anyway, I felt like I'd jumped the gun with the dough. So, I made it the proper-er way and gave it a savory filling while at it. And as we often find with things that sound daunting at first, they are not always what they seem, thankfully.

Brussels sprouts. They've been pretty popular over the past few years popping up in restaurants and specialty shops, pan-fried, on pizza, roasted, completely living up to being that thing people used to hate but now love. And yet it is not with that rationale that I chose to stuff the sprouts into a  rye tart with garlic, oregano, walnuts and parmesan, but out of sheer necessity of course. The rest of the veggies in the fridge were just kinda boring today. Except garlic.

The secret to the buttery rye dough that rolls out smooth and bakes up with its promised wonderful flakiness, is the allowance for the gluten to relax, twice, in the fridge, before it bakes. The other component is folding the dough like a letter before rolling it out. And, if you have an afternoon at home, you can do the steps as breaks. As for the filling, I went for simplicity: a tiny smear of dijon mustard on the bottom, a smattering of parmesan, toasted walnuts, and cooled, pan-fired brussels sprouts with garlic and fresh oregano. A hint of lemon, the tiniest dollops of feta, and that was it.

Play around but remember that this is a rustic savory pie, and an ample salting, and strong vegetal flavors are enough, for you don't want to overshadow the wonderful rye butter crust. I loved everything about this savory galette. While I only had a limited amount of sprouts on hand, you can certainly make the folding of the galette more shallow and less tucked, and increase the filling quantity.

I ate this for a late-ish Friday night dinner with red wine over echoes of light rain and couldn't help but feel notes of a quiet, we-always-make-from-scratch, country life in every bite. My life isn't that countryized by any means, but I love capturing the little pockets of it.


Brussels Sprouts Galette with Rye Crust

Rustic Rye Tart Dough:

1/2 c rye flour
1/2 c all purpose flour
1/2 Tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
6 T very cold unsalted butter, cut into 1 inch cubes
1/2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar. 
4 T ice water

Sift Dry ingredients into a bowl. Add butter on top of flour and work flour and butter between your fingers so the dough forms pea size crumbs. Add the cider vinegar, the water, working from the sides, gather dough to center so it forms a ball. Flatten it slightly into a disc, place in plastic wrap tightly, refrigerate an hour minimum.

Get out a rolling pin and lay a piece of parchment out. Sprinkle it with flour, lay the dough disk on the parchment, sprinkle with flour very lightly. Roll it into a rectangle.

Now, fold the dough like a letter, the left side in then the right on top of it.

Roll it out again into a rectangle, fold like a letter again. You are creating layers.

Wrap in plastic and refrigerate again for an hour minimum. Take it out, roll it out thinly but not too thin, in a circle.

While all this is refrigerating, etc., make the filling.

Sprouts Filling:

1/2 T whole grain mustard
1/4 c fresh grated parmesan
2 T chopped toasted walnuts
1/2 T olive oil or butter
Lemon juice
1 T fresh oregano leaves
Pinch pepper flakes
1 large clove garlic, smashed
Big handful brussells sprouts, quartered
Small handful baby spinach, chopped
Salt
Few dots of feta

Heat a skillet, drop olive oil in it. Smash the garlic clove with the side of a knife and your fist, so it is still intact but smushed. Let it fry in the pan for a few minutes on low heat with a pinch of salt, turn it over, add oregano, when oregano is bright green, add pepper flakes, scrape up the mix, transfer to bowl and squeeze about 1 T lemon juice in. Return skillet to heat and add Brussels sprouts, a pinch of salt and cover the pan. Let them cook a bit on low-med heat, adding a tiny bit of broth or water after a few minutes, then turn up the heat and let them brown a bit more, tossing them. When they are nicely caramelized and you can cut through them well, remove from heat. Transfer to the garlic mixture, add the chopped spinach and let the mixture cool while your tart dough continues resting. Important to let it cool.

When your tart dough is ready, preheat oven to 400 degrees, roll it out thin on parchment and spread mustard, then parmesan, then 3/4 of the walnuts. Add sprouts mix, the rest of the walnuts, and the feta. Sprinkle with a bit more salt and fold the sides up. Bake about 40 minutes, you want the top golden, the bottom firm. Cool at least 15 minutes before serving.

Makes 4 ample slices, serving 2 as a main or 4 as a side.