Rhubarb-Raspberry French Galette

Jun9

I made a French galette the other day. Thinned out the rhubarb in the garden and got some raspberries from the market although it is great with strawberries too. A galette is like a pie only you don’t have to be so careful about putting the dough in a pie tin and you can put almost any fruit for them. Here’s how I did it.

First I cut about 2 cups rhubarb from the garden (cut leaves off-use only stalks) into 1-2 inch pieces and added 1 tablespoon lemon juice and lots of sugar because rhubarb is so sour (about 1 cup). The variety of rhubarb in my garden is called Victoria, a green variety although there are many other varieties. Then I added 2 tablespoons flour and stirred it up in a bowl. Lastly I added 1 cup of raspberries and gently folded them in to keep them intact.

Make the dough. I use Debra Madison’s recipe from ‘Seasonal Fruit Desserts’. The recipe makes the lightest flakiest crust I’ve ever made.

After refrigerating it for about 30 minutes, I roll it out thin approximately round or oval. This is what I love about galettes – you don’t have to be perfect in its shape. Kinda like a farmhouse pie.

Now transfer the dough to a cookie sheet that has parchment paper on it (to keep from sticking)

Here it is ready for the filling.

Put the rhubarb-raspberry mixture in the middle and fold up the sides. Sprinkle crust with a little sugar. Bake for about 50-55 minutes at 375°F. Check it often. If you see it starting to burn, cover it loosely with foil to keep crust from burning.

I couldn’t even get a picture before it was half eaten!

Vegetable Garden July 4, 2011

Jul4

Happy July 4th! Here’s a look at the main garden so far this summer. This year is definitely slower than this time last year due to lack of precipitation but with the monsoons here, it should take off this month and kick butt. To see last year’s garden at this time, go here.

The cukes I’ve had to replant due to something eating the seedlings several times even though I’ve covered it with row cover..

I have 2 Costata Romanesco zucchini plants. The leaves are very delicate compared to other zucchini types. Hope we don’t get hail. I grow it because I think this is the best tasting zuke ever. I read about this Costata Romanesco in one of Debra Madison’s vegetarian cook books-‘Local Flavors’. She lives in Santa Fe and has several vegetarian cookbooks out. Great books on what tasty things you can create with your veggies. I’m not a vegetarian but am always looking for new ways to use my vegggies so I don’t get bored.

We didn’t get ANY strawberries this year because I almost lost them all when we had that -25°F this winter. I have June bearing strawberries so I know the time has past. I had just a few plants this spring that survived but the strawberry patch is coming back nicely. Next year I will cover them with straw before winter to help insulate them.

This variety of pole bean is called ‘Emerite’ from John Scheepers. It is a new variety for me. I also have my favorite, ‘Rattlesnake’ beans and another new bush variety called, Verandon, which is a french fillet style of bean. I made a teepee out of bamboo. Notice the row cover in the background covering some of the cucumbers.

Here is the eggplant patches. They are doing well. The patch in the foreground has ‘Fairy’ eggplants in them, a variety that get 3″ long and are my favorite. Their skin is always tender and they are never bitter. You don’t have to soak them in salt water like some varieties-and they are beautiful-purple fading to white. I like to saute them in olive oil and throw them in a stir fry with noodles.

The patch in the back with me are a new variety of eggplant called ‘Rosa Bianca’ and next to it are 4 ‘Peperonchino’ peppers that are growing well.

This year I planted rhubarb among the asparagus plants. I found them this spring at one of the nurseries and they were the sorriest plants I’ve ever seen at that time. They say they grow well with asparagus. Now they are beautiful! Seem to like their location. On the left is row cover I use to help protect new flower seedlings. I take it off in the day and back on at night. Once they get a little bigger, I take it off completely.

The biggest disappointment of the garden so far. The ‘Shishito’ peppers are still slow but finally don’t look sick any more. Still small and something ate some of them so they are really small but they will come back. Some of them are producing buds. No wonder they are so expensive at the SF Farmers market-they are not so easy to grow..

Overall I am very pleased with the tomatoes this year. They are doing well. Everything is done except for my scheduled organic fungicide spraying every 10 days-especially now that the monsoons appear to be here. I’ve only lost 2 tomato plants and another 3 are suspicious. I will cover those with some row cover in case they have something contagious but if I think they are dying I will pull them pronto. Notice this picture taken from the some angle as on May 15th below-when I first planted them-they have come a long way!

It has proved to be a more challenging year what with the lack of rain for so many months but I feel confident for all of us with some more rain we will have a good garden this year.