[Sca-cooks] galette and chestnuts (was Thanksgiving)

[ranvaig at columbus.rr.com]

Sorry, I typed this days ago, but forgot to hit send.  Good luck 
healing, Stefan.

>What is mushroom galette?

Galette can mean a flat cake or a crepe... but the kind I meant is a 
freeform rustic pie.  Some recipes call for pie crust or puff pastry, 
but I use a crust that is half way between pizza dough and pie dough. 
Rich but not too rich.

Fillings can be sweet or savory. Pears and Frangipane (almonds, 
sugar, and eggs) is nice.  Pears, onions, and blue cheese was good 
too.  I didn't write down the mushroom filling but it was a layer of 
cream cheese and eggs, then a layer of mushrooms sauteed with an 
onion, and a layer of cheese.   You want about an inch of filling.

Galette crust

3 c flour
1 T dry yeast
1 T sugar
2 eggs
1/2 stick of butter
water
Mix the yeast, sugar, and 1/4 water, let proof 10 min.
Put flour and butter in a food process or work in butter by hand
Add eggs and mix well, mix in enough water to make a soft dough.

Roll out until it is a few inches bigger than your pan.  Spray a 
pizza pan with cooking spray, and place the dough in it, with the 
edges hanging over.  Put the filling in the crust and spread out 
evenly.  Fold the edges over the filling, making folds as necessary. 
Brush the crust with milk.
This makes one large galette, or two smaller ones.
Bake at 400 until crust is golden, and done on the bottom.  

Here is a somewhat similar recipe, with a picture.
http://food.yahoo.com/recipes/eatingwell/346/mushroom-and-leek-galette
http://www.flickr.com/photos/smitten/274202460/  - another picture
http://www.vegetarianepicure.com/newrecipes/nov01.html - another recipe

>Another chestnut recipe. You'd think they grew on trees or 
>something. :-) How do you braise chestnuts? How does the result 
>differ from roasting or baking them?

First roast, bake, or boil to get the chestnuts out of the shells.  I 
did that the night before. It takes rather a long time to pick out 
all of the papery skin that is inside the shell.  Toss any that are 
moldy or have bite marks.  When we ate, I tossed them in butter and a 
slosh of wine and cooked until they were warm.   They ended up rather 
rich and a bit redundant for thanksgiving.  I think I'd make them for 
a different meal, next time.

I looked at this recipe.. but didn't really follow it.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_13575,00.html

Ranvaig