Cook this: Flaky rye and three-cheese galette with asparagus salad from Grist

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Our cookbook of the week is Grist: A Practical Guide to Cooking Grains, Beans, Seeds, and Legumes by Abra Berens. Tomorrow, we’ll feature an interview with the author.

To try another recipe from the book, check out: Cranberry bean salad with roasted carrots and mojo de ajo; and hoecakes with fresh mozzarella, tomato and soybeans.

Full-flavoured rye flour makes Abra Berens’ flaky three-cheese galette extra special.

“What I love about this is you can make it with just standard white flour and have a very delicious flaky pastry,” says the chef and former farmer.

“Or, I wanted to add in some of the rye flour, which gives it a nuttiness and a denseness. And a really lovely brown, flecked appearance.”

The dough recipe is an example of how much she’s benefited from learning from chefs in her life, Berens adds.

Paula Haney, owner of Hoosier Mama Pie Company in Chicago, Ill., learned it from “legendary” pastry chef Della Gossett of Spago, and shared the wealth with Berens.

“It was nice to be able to give a nod to the legacy of that recipe,” she says.

Top the galettes with asparagus salad as written. Or, if you’re still eagerly awaiting spring’s first spears, try thinly sliced celery and bacon, or mushrooms and kale, Berens suggests.

“The three-cheese filling is a perfect base for a ton of different things. (This) recipe is also really good with raspberries baked on top, or alongside shaved apples for kind of like a sweet and savoury cheese course,” she adds.

In the summertime, Berens recommends serving tomatoes and cucumbers alongside, or radishes on top.

“It’s sort of like how pizza can be a vehicle for any number of things,” she says.

“(This) one feels like a real stable, back-pocket recipe. And then you can gussy it up with whatever you have on hand.”

FLAKY RYE + THREE-CHEESE GALETTE W/ ASPARAGUS SALAD

For the pastry dough:
6 oz (170 g) all-purpose flour
4 oz (115 g) rye flour
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp sugar
6 oz (170 g) butter, cut into cubes
6 oz (170 g) cream cheese, at room temperature

For the filling:
6 oz (170 g) cream cheese
6 oz (170 g) cheddar, grated
2 oz (65 g) ricotta
1 tbsp whole-grain mustard
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
8 oz (225 g) asparagus, trimmed and washed
1/4 cup (65 mL) Lemon Parsley Mojo (recipe follows)

Step 1

To make the dough: Combine the flours, salt and sugar. Rub or cut in the butter until it is in pea-size pieces. Add the cream cheese and bring together into a slightly shaggy dough. Divide in half and pat into rounds, wrap in plastic and chill for at least 30 minutes (or freeze for later use).

Step 2

To make the filling: Combine the cheeses, mustard, salt and pepper. Adjust the seasoning as desired and set aside.

Step 3

Roll each ball into a 1/4 in (6 mm) thick round of dough, roughly 14 in (35 cm) in diameter. Spread the cheese filling to 2 in (5 cm) from the edge of the pastry round. Fold up the edges of the dough to form the galette and press the points of each fold to seal. Chill or freeze the galettes for at least 30 minutes.

Step 4

Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C).

Step 5

Bake the galettes until the pastry is cooked through, about 20 minutes.

Step 6

Shave the asparagus into thin ribbons with a mandoline, sharp knife or vegetable peeler and dress with the mojo.

Step 7

When the galettes come out of the oven, let cool for 5 minutes then slice and top with the asparagus salad.

Serves: 4

LEMON PARSLEY MOJO

1 cup (250 mL) olive oil
2 lemons (3 oz/90 mL), zest and juice
10 sprigs parsley, about 2 oz (60 g), or 1 cup
 (60 g)chopped parsley
1/2 tsp salt

Step 1

Combine all the ingredients to make a chunky, oily paste.

Makes: roughly 1 1/2 cups (340 mL)

Recipes and image reprinted from Grist: A Practical Guide to Cooking Grains, Beans, Seeds, and Legumes by Abra Berens, illustrated by Lucy Engelman, photographs by EE Berger © 2021. Reproduced by permission of Chronicle Books. All rights reserved.

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