I made a Fruit Tart and had an extra sheet of puff pastry. I made Leek & Potato Soup and had an extra leek. I wanted something quick and easy to accompany leftover soup for dinner. I opened the fridge and there they were, leek and puff pastry, side-by-side. Potatoes were in the pantry. Ingredients? Check!
I have never made a galette. I think I’ve only tasted one once and it contained roasted squash. So, not the same, but similar. How hard could it be?
One of my fav foodie sites is Food 52, and they have this thing about no-recipe cooking. So do most home cooks, but our (my) version of no-recipe cooking is boiled pasta and canned sauce, salad, or whatever is in the freezer. Theirs is, thankfully, more inspirational. Although I’ve definitely had my share of failed attempts while following recipes, I’m also not above winging it once in a while.
So I read a bunch of recipes, and then went for it. Here’s what I did…
Flour a parchment-lined cookie sheet and roll out the puff pastry. Preheat oven to 350.
Thinly slice 2 medium potatoes. I used Russet, but I’d bet most any potato you like would work. A mandoline would probably make this easier, but I’m afraid of mandolines as I’m fairly certain I would manage to clumsily slice off all my fingertips. So I use a knife, slowly, and aim for evenly thin slices. Put them in a pot of boiling water and cook for about 5 minutes.
Slice 1 leek, white and light green parts, in circles. Rinse really well to remove all dirt. In a saute pan, heat 1 Tbsp olive oil and add leek. Press 2 cloves of garlic and add to pan. Sprinkle with some Trader Joe’s 21 Seasoning Salute. Cook, stirring frequently, for about 5 minutes.
Leeks and potatoes should be done at roughly the same time. Rinse potatoes under cold water, then pat dry.
Leaving a little room around the edges, lay potato slices in rows. No need to be OCD about it, you just want even filling. I tucked thinner slices between and around thicker slices and used up all but the little round ends of my potatoes. I could’ve used those, too, but I fed them to my bunny (yes, really, we have a bunny and when I wonder, “Will she like xyz?” I think, “Peter Rabbit did…”).
Here’s the one thing I didn’t do and wish I had: chop up some fresh rosemary and sprinkle it under and between layers of potatoes before adding leeks. Next time…
Tuck pastry edges up and over the potato edges, then top potatoes with leeks. Pop it in the oven for about 30-ish minutes, checking periodically to make sure it’s baking evenly. My oven was a little hot, so I turned it down and rotated the pan.
The results? It needed the rosemary, or at least a little more seasoning. The leeks were crazy good, and so more might have been good, too. The kids were distracted and a crabby so they tolerated but didn’t love it (well, they prefer fruit tart, so potato tart seemed odd and fancy-sounding galette didn’t impress them even a little bit).
I, however, thought it worked nicely. And was so easy. And paired perfectly with the soup. And would be a fantastic addition to whatever potluck dinner I host or attend next. It looks kinda fancy, and might just be peasant food. Whatever. It’s all good!
