Monthly Archives: October 2011

Fall Vegetable Galette

Butter

So it’s officially fall and I am officially in the mood for warm drinks, warm sweaters, warm food, and sick days.

I don’t mean that I want to actually get sick.  No thank you, the reality of being sick is terrible, and that’s definitely not what I’m wishing for.  However, there is something nice about having sick days.  Those days when you’re sort of under the weather; enough to not feel good enough to get out of bed for school or work, but still feeling good enough to eat soup in bed and catch up on mindless television or read.

Crust

And, yes, I know that I’m being romantic about sick days.  I know that it’s actually stressful to miss school and work and that most of the time I just feel crappy enough to be dissatisfied with the bad television.  But I can’t help but wish for one of those romantic, perfect, pajama pants kind of sick days.  I want to nap on the couch and eat soup!  I want to watch movies and sleep during the time when I’m usually sitting in class or making glitter art at work.

And I guess I can do that without actually being sick or taking a sick day.  I could turn a cold, blustery Saturday into a pseudo-sick day.  And maybe I will.  Maybe I’ll convert a Saturday into a bum-on-the-couch-urday.   But if it stays so sunny and beautiful here there’s little chance that I’ll give up a perfectly lovely Saturday outside for a blanket based tv fest inside… I’ll keep you all updated.

Veg

In the meantime, while I’m busy mind-warring between my inner introvert and inner extrovert, I’m going to share this tasty vegetable galette.  It’s the kind of dish that tastes warm and fresh just out of the oven, and then again flaky and comforting the next morning right out of the fridge.  It’s the kind of dish that helps me transition happily (who am I kidding, I love this season) into fall.  I’m not one to pass up a flaky crust any time of the year, but I think galettes are especially perfect during the fall.  I don’t have any reasons to back up that assertion, I’m just a sucker for fall and a sucker for pie.

We got a big beautiful bunch of vegetables this past week.  I didn’t post anything for The Thursday Stash, though, because I was feeling self-conscious about the fact that I’ve posted a lot of Thursday Stash updates without any recipes lately.  So I skipped the stash, I gave you the Baba Ghanoush, and now I’m moving right into another recipe.  But trust me when I say that this past week’s box was deee-vine.  And I really wanted to take advantage of the bounty for a family dinner with my friends.

Pie

So I found this recipe for the crust and then pre-cooked some veggies and cooked it all up to create a galette that is rustic, simple, and tasty.  Without further ado, here it is:

Galette

Fall Vegetable Galette
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Recipe type: Main
Author: Ashley @ The Drunk Squash, crust by Once Upon a Cutting Board
What Do You Need?
  • Dough
  • 2 1/2 cups flour
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 cup cold butter in small pieces
  • 1/4 cup ice water (or a little more)
  • Innards
  • 1 small summer squash, chopped (or about 1 cup chopped squash-any kind)
  • olive oil
  • 3 small radishes, chopped
  • 1 small turnip, chopped
  • 1 onion, sliced
  • about 1/3 cup finely chopped head of broccoli
  • 2 tbsp goat cheese
  • salt and pepper
  • dried basil
Make it Happen
Dough
  1. Pulse flour and salt briefly in food processor.
  2. Add butter and process, mixture should look coarse and the butter should be smaller than pea-sized.
  3. Add water slowly while processing. It should begin to come together and you should be able to press the dough into a solid ball. (add more water as needed to reach this state)
  4. Shape dough into a disc and store in the fridge for at least 1 hour, or overnight.
Galette
  1. Take dough out of the oven and let it warm up enough that it is pliable.
  2. Preheat oven to 400F.
  3. Toss chopped squash, radishes, and turnip with a little bit of olive oil and salt and pepper, then put in a dish or on a baking sheet and put in the oven for about ten minutes or until the pieces soften.
  4. Heat up a pan on medium heat and add a little bit of olive oil and then the onion slices. Add salt and pepper. You want to cook the onion until translucent.
  5. In the meantime, roll out the dough until you have a large circle. You want it to be about 1/4 of an inch thick.
  6. Spread the goat cheese onto the center of the dough in a circle. If you want, add a little dried basil at this point.
  7. Then, layer the vegetables on in your favorite order. I went with squash, radishes and turnip, broccoli, and then onion.
  8. Then you want to fold your edges over. Galettes are fun because they are supposed to look imperfect. If the dough tears, just pinch it back together.
  9. Turn the oven down to 375F and then plop the galette in there. Let it cook for about forty-five minutes to an hour, depending on how done your crust looks.

Slice

Yes, it looks like a long recipe, but if you make the crust the day beforehand it’s really not bad.  Just some chopping and pre-cooking and then the long wait for the galette to finally be ready for chow time.  Whether or not you’re in a sick day mood, this makes a beautiful meal to share or to keep all to your selfish self.  This time I shared it, but next time it’s all mine, baby.

Red Pepper Baba Ghanoush

Ingredients

I want to make a promise right here and right now: no more laziness.  If there are any of you out there who are still reading this, I owe you a big one, because I have been a terrible poster lately.  But it ends here and now.  No longer will I be the “maybe tomorrow, maybe next week, maybe next month” Drunk Squash.  Nope, I’m going to make a concerted effort to get back into SOME KIND of groove.  I’m going to make the food, I’m going to take those pictures, and then I’m going to write those jovial, clever, effervescent blog posts.

I find that if I announce a goal I’m more likely to follow through with it.  When I decided that I was going to run a half-marathon, I told everybody I knew (you too, dear reader) so that I’d be accountable.  And, lo and behold, I ran that half-marathon.

Sliced

So here’s my newest goal:  AT LEAST 1 Drunk Squash post per week from now until mid-December.  And I know that one post a week is hardly a concerted effort to some people (I’m looking at you, hourly blog posters.  If only I could be so verbose.), however, what with my thesis and education classes underway I’m just attempting to be realistic.  Plus, one post a week is a lot better than what I’ve been doing lately, so get excited folks.

Anyways, I decided to turn over this new bright and shiny leaf with an old red sauce.  That sounds weird, but go with it.

So I don’t know if you remember those turmeric polenta fries of yore?  I wrote about them, oh, about sixty-five years ago.  Or, if you’d rather scroll down, a mere two posts below this one.  Isn’t that sad?  I posted that recipe on September 19th.  Oh well, though, let’s move into the future.  Back to the polenta fries.

Lineup

So I told you about those lovely polenta fries but didn’t get a chance to write about their equally enchanting and saucy partner, The Red Pepper Baba Ghanoush.

I’d never eaten or made Baba Ghanoush before, but I was intensely interested in the mushy, roastey spread.  I learned that it basically consists of eggplant, olive oil, and some other stuff.  The other stuff, apparently, is seasoning and other vegetables.  Obviously I am not the Baba Ghanoush expert, so I would take this recipe with a grain of salt and not introduce it to your friends as a “classic Baba Ghanoush,” however, I can testify to its smokey spiciness and the pleasure it brings accompanied with polenta fries.  And I’m completely positive that it would make an amazing spread inside a wrap, on top of rice or beans, mixed into quinoa, or pretty much in any other creative combo you can imagine.

Perdy

Surprisingly, this Baba Ghanoush was not made with vegetables from my CSA box.  As I was planning to make polenta fries, the genius idea of pairing them with a roasted red pepper sauce popped into my head and then refused to get out.  And then the idea of adding eggplant attached itself to this sauce-plan.  Don’t ask me why I became obsessed with this idea, sometimes my tastebuds take over my brain.

But anyway, I had neither red pepper nor eggplant, so I decided to make a trip to ye olde Farmer Joe’s.  Whilst there I grabbed a spicy pepper as well to give the sauce some heat.  I also grabbed a shallot because I’m obsessed with onion-breath.  The total for this recipe was about three dollars I think.  It definitely fit within my cheapo student budget.

Although it isn’t technically a “CSA recipe,” these were some fresh, taste-bud-pleasing vegetables.  If you don’t have/can’t access a CSA program I highly recommend farmer’s markets and local grocery stores that specialize in local and organic foods.  This isn’t a commercial, I’m just one of those vegetarians that really really like vegetables.  This affinity is made easier by eating fresh vegetables that have all that good earth flavor on lock, and by being lucky enough to have ACCESS to that good food.  (Urban farms are also great for those who have low budgets or difficulty with access to healthy produce-that too is a privilege!)

But anyways, instead of waxing poetic about my vegetable dreams, I’ll just give you the recipe.  You should know that it’s going to be hard to start eating this without stopping.  I’m just preparing you.

Food Processed

Red Pepper Baba Ghanoush
5.0 from 1 reviews
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Recipe type: Sauce
Author: Ashley @ The Drunk Squash
Prep time: 3 mins
Cook time: 25 mins
Total time: 28 mins
What Do You Need?
  • 1 medium-sized eggplant
  • 2 red bell peppers
  • 1 spicy pepper (serranos are good)
  • 1 shallot
  • olive oil
  • salt
  • black pepper
Make it Happen
  1. Preheat oven to 400F.
  2. Cut open bell peppers and spicy pepper, remove seeds (save spicy seeds if you want to add some kick to the spread).
  3. Place all peppers (skin side up) and the full, uncut eggplant on a sheet in the oven.
  4. Let all roast until the pepper skins have blackened and the eggplant is starting to collapse.
  5. Remove peppers and eggplant from oven and place inside a plastic bag.
  6. Close the bag and let them marinate in their own heat for ten minutes or until cool.
  7. Remove peppers and eggplant from bag, de-skin, and chop into chunks of appropriate size for your blender or food processor.
  8. Pre-chop your shallot (doesn’t have to be too precise).
  9. Blend or food-process the chunks of pepper, eggplant, and shallot with at least 1 tablespoon of olive oil (add more to your own liking). This would be a good time to throw in those spicy seeds, as well.
  10. Add salt and pepper to taste.
  11. You’re going to end up with a mushy, soft spread. It shouldn’t be runny, but also not too chunky. Use as dip or spread!

Spread

Go forth, dear readers, spread the love and devour that Baba Ghanoush!