Caramelized Onion, Apple, and Cheddar Sourdough Galette

At the end of the summer I made a DELICIOUS savory sourdough crust tomato, cheddar, and caramelized onion galette for dinner. While eating it I fast-forwarded in my mind to when local apples would be in season because if you swap out those tomatoes for apples, all of the rest of the flavors still go together really well.

With Thanksgiving upon us, I’m thinking a galette makes more sense than a traditional pie this year. It especially makes more sense if you want the taste of a pie but don’t want to make a whole pie just for two or three people. With a galette, you can have a sloppy crust and make a smaller size, a win-win for someone like me who is not particularly good at making a decorative crust and who is having Thanksgiving at home for just the two of us. The galette in this post was meant to be savory, but you can take this idea and fill it with traditional sweet apple pie, cherry pie, etc.

Just like with my tomato “pie” I followed the recipe for the crust and baking instructions from The Perfect Loaf.

First I caramelized some onions in butter. I had an unrolled ball of crust in my freezer from my previous galette that I pulled out and put in my fridge the night before. While the onions caramelized, I brought the dough up to temp and then rolled it out on parchment paper and put it back in the fridge to chill again. I can’t recall which apples I used, but they were local to Colorado. I sliced them really thinly because my intention was not to make a syrupy sweet cinnamon-sugar pie filling that requires cooking down the apples and chilling them before filling your pie. For this dish I wanted the apples to just cook through while the galette cooked.

When it was about time to make dinner, I pulled the crust from the fridge and smeared the caramelized onions in a circle in the center, leaving about 4 inch edges from when you fold that on top. I layered apples and cheddar cheese with a little salt, pepper, and thyme from the garden. Bacon would actually go really well with this I’m just thinking now as I’m typing. Fold the edges up and press them a little to form one solid crust. The Perfect Loaf suggests an egg wash which I did as well as sprinkle a little salt since it was savory.

I served my apple onion cheddar galette with arugula from the garden.

I’m not sure if I’ll make a savory “pie” like this that will taste divine with my caramelized onion gravy that I’ve been making for more than a decade now, or a sweet version for Thanksgiving this year. In one form or another though a galette will be on our small menu.

Savory Watermelon Summer Salad

THIS is what summer dreams are made of!

I love watermelon- grilled, juiced, frozen into ice cubes for cocktails- it’s versatile. A savory summer salad is a fun way to enjoy the quintessential summer melon.

For this recipe I used a small seedless watermelon, so it made enough for 5 or 6 side salads. Just serving two people? Cut back, or make the whole thing and eat it over a few days. I seasoned and “dressed” the watermelon separately and then assembled the salads individually so none of the greens were left soaking in the citrus juice. There are also a lot of possible substitutions: Don’t have arugula? Spinach could work. No shallot? Try a red onion. No idea what cotija cheese is? Try a chevre or feta cheese. It’s versatile, so play around and enjoy something new.

Ingredients

• One seedless watermelon
• juice of 2 limes
• 1/2 shallot, finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• Arugula
• basil
• mint
• squash blossoms
• cotija cheese
• olive oil
• salt
• pepper

Cut up the watermelon into bite sized cubes. Add the chopped shallot, squeeze lime juice on top, sprinkle paprika, and toss to coat. Portion into a bowl and add some arugula, basil, mint, slices of squash blossoms if you have them, and some cotija (or feta) cheese. Drizzle some high quality olive oil and salt and pepper to taste.

Enjoy!

Arugula Ristorante- Fresh, Local, Seasonal Fine Dining

A few years ago an extremely successful Boulder businessman entered into a conversation with me about my then-nascent culinary tourism business Local Table Tours. He told me that successful businesses re-evaluate and re-invent themselves in seven year cycles. Over the years I held on to that insight as my third, fourth, fifth and sixth years of business came and went. I was eager to fast-forward to see what happens around year seven. Well, I’m now in my seventh year of owning and operating Local Table Tours, and there are undeniable changes that started with coordinating large group corporate events in year number six. I think it’s time I meet up with this man again over some wine to discuss the second seven-year cycle… but this blog post isn’t about me. It’s about Arugula, a seven year old Boulder restaurant that’s NOT located downtown and that is relaunching itself this year and doing extraordinary things for our local food and beverage scene.

I mention my discussion of seven year business cycles because the owner of Arugula, Alec Schuler, invited a dining room full of food writers to taste some new spring creations and to see his recently remodeled space. Course after delicious course came out with a bit of a description of what was on the plate, what it was paired with, and why. Shortly before the last course he mentioned this was his seventh year owning Arugula and he had decided to freshen up the dining room and re-vamp the menu. My ears perked. Seven years sounds like just about the right time to do that.

Chef Alec is undoubtedly passionate about his craft. Tangerine, his breakfast/brunch spot right next door, is one of the busiest places in town and folks line up to wait for his food. Arugula, open for dinner at 5 and serving lunch Wednesdays through Fridays, provides a fine dining experience that is fresh, local, and seasonal. This is one worth driving to, folks. It’s sometimes worth leaving downtown Boulder and I assure you, the corner of 28th and Iris offers free parking in addition to excellent food.

I’m including some photos I shot at our dinner, but I’m not inspired to write a typical food blog post where I tell you how great each thing was. Know this: everything I ate was worth eating again, but the twice-weekly changing menu means that’s not likely to happen any time soon. I’d more prefer to suggest straying from Pearl Street every now and then and discover a taste of Boulder not explored by tourists or the majority of locals. There are some fantastic chefs and restauranteurs in North, South, and East Boulder, but many are over-looked or ignored because the draw of Pearl Street and downtown Boulder is sometimes a force to be reckoned with. I for one know the next time I decide where to go for dinner it will be Arugula.

Hillside Farmacy, Austin

After a hot, sunny, Texas-summer-time bike ride on b-cycles, we gave up our quest for the BBQ joint we planned on visiting and ducked into the nearest restaurant we saw: Hillside Farmacy.

The Hillside Farmacy is a New American restaurant and specialty grocer housed in the old Hillside Drugstore building, and has been beautifully restored using the original pharmacy cabinetry. Walking inside feels like taking a step back in time, and can taste like that, too. The beverage menu features homemade fountain sodas, such as a traditional Brooklyn Egg Cream as well as punch, which you can order by the glass (1 cup) or bowl (20 cups). We opted for a couple glasses of this refreshing concoction of gin, bubbles, hibiscus syrup, and grapefruit juice.

A salad and sandwich sounded perfect to me, so I went for “the beets” with fennel, chévre vinaigrette, red onion, arugula, and radish.

Familiar flavors I’ve had many times, yet always one of my favorites. For my sandwich, I tries something a little more unique- the “Thank You.”

Roasted chicken, mozzarella, strawberry jam, sprouts, and aioli. I have one word: YUM.

Hillside Farmacy works with a number of local Austin farms, and sells a nice selection of hand crafted food items such as hot sauces, jams, and Texas rice. This sophisticated yet unpretentious eatery was a pleasant surprise.