Easy as ..pie?

Recently, my partner and I were introduced to a brilliant and unique method of reheating leftovers or "used food" as my Aunty Karen calls it. She is one of the best cooks I know. If anything is left unclaimed from her incredible meals, she calls it "used food". Making a savory galette is the perfect way to present "used food" in a fresh and creative way. In case you don't know, a galette is just like a pie, except you don't use a pie plate and you just put it straight onto a baking sheet and fold up the sides.

It does however, require a bit of preparation. The dough of the pastry takes time to rest in between steps. This is important to allow the gluten to relax or keep the butter from melting prematurely. You want the butter to still be solid when your dough goes into the oven to get those lovely flakes.

Personally I am not super experienced with making pastry dough and I wouldn't say it is exactly one of my strong suits. I don't really find it difficult, it is just a technique/ skill that I am not super familiar with.

Once you have your dough ready, it is time for you to choose your filling. As I said the beauty of this dish is that you can put almost anything in it and it makes such a great left over vessel. If you don't have anything laying around in the fridge that you want to use I would recommend doing some kind of potato base with some spices or herbs and extra toppings. Anything from a curry to cauliflower and cheese the sky really is the limit. Just make sure that no matter what you choose, you add some kind of binder and extra fluid, if it is necessary. Things like cheese, sour cream, or crème fraîche are all great choices.

My partner and I chose to fill ours with a potato curry. After slicing our potatoes, we put them in the microwave for a bit to help soften them up and start the cooking process. It is important to remember to adapt recipes like this. Everything needs a different amount of energy over a certain amount of time to cook properly. Unfortunately, we didn't do it long enough, and our potatoes ended up a little firm. I love experimenting in the kitchen and taking risks is part of that! After their trip to the microwave, we tossed them in lots of spices to really get that curry flavor going. We were a little pressed for time, but I would have loved to add something like cauliflower or even eggplant to it to add a little more variety and texture. Then we mixed in our crème fraîche, which is what we chose as our binder.

Once it came out of the oven the shell had turned a brilliant golden brown and the flakes were magnificent. While our filling looked great, as I said we had a bit of a learning opportunity, our potatoes were a bit too firm still. I hope that you can learn from us and don't be afraid to continue exploring the wonderful world of food!