Thursday 3 April 2014

Beef and Feta Galette Recipe

A galette is a type of freeform pasty or pie. This is a great recipe for using up leftover ingredients from my Vegetarian Dinner Party. It was relatively quick, easy, and served four of us, pre-pub! 

The pastry is surprisingly simple for a time when you haven't got any ready-to-roll handy, and seems healthier by using olive oil instead of butter. I would probably blind-bake it next time though, to make sure it was cooked through thoroughly, although this may detract from the lovely shaping. 
A lovely Greek-inspired rustic looking dish!

Beef and Feta Galette


Serves: 4

Prep: ~1 hour (including chilling the pastry)

Cook: ~1 hour 15 mins

Ingredients: 

For the Pastry:
1 cup (~130 g) Flour
1/4 cup (~55 ml) Olive oil
1/4 cup (~60 ml) Water
pinch of salt

For the Filling:
500g minced beef
1 tbsp olive oil
2 onions, thinly sliced
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 tbsp dried oregano
100g feta cheese, roughly chopped
4 sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
2 tbsp stuffed olives, sliced
100 ml double cream
1 egg white


Method:

To make the pastry: sift the flour into a bowl with a pinch of salt. Make a well in the centre and slowly add the olive oil and mix it until it becomes crumbly. Add in the water and mix until it becomes a soft dough. Roll into a ball and refrigerate for 30 minutes. 

For the topping, heat the oil in a pan to moderate and stir fry the onions and garlic until soft. Add the mince and oregano and cook for 10-15 minutes until browned all over and even slightly crispy. Remove from the heat and allow to cool.

Heat the oven to 180 C. 

Roll out your pastry to about 30 cm round. Lightly grease a 25 cm tin and lay the pastry inside letting it flop over the sides, but don't press it in. You can bake the pastry for about 15 minutes here if you like, to ensure it's cooked through - cover in baking paper and ceramic beans. It will mean it won't fold over your topping so well later though, so shape it nicely now. Crumble the feta over the pastry base (cooked, or not), then smooth over the beef mixture and sprinkle with the sun-dried tomatoes and olives. Fold the (non-cooked) pasty over the edges now in a rustic, uneven, carefree manner. If you've pre-cooked it, it will stick up in a jaunty fashion, which is also lovely!

Finally beat together the cream and egg white and pour it over the filling. 

Bake in the oven for about 45 minutes.

Serve with green salad, and/or crusty bread. And plenty of red wine...

No comments:

Post a Comment

Comments make the blogging world go round. Please let me know your thoughts, thank you!