Butternut Squash, Apple and Onion Galette With Pan-Roasted Chicken

January 17, 2010

Tonight, Liz made a spectacular meal for us. I’ve never had a galette before (I’m not even 100% sure how to pronounce it), but I want to tell you here and now: I love galettes. No matter how you pronounce them.

Let me start with a little backstory. We first saw mention of a galette over at Vanille, when we were picking up a few macarons. At the time, they were advertising a type of galette that was an actual pastry/cake, which also included a small “prize” baked in. Whoever found the prize (I believe it was something like a small crown made of porcelain) would then be able to redeem it at the store for some free macarons.

Apparently, hiding a small crown or prize inside galettes used to be a custom, with the person finding it “crowned king” and required to buy everyone a round of drinks (or something like that). Originally, the hidden “crowns” were vanilla beans or almonds… but because people are naturally cheapskates, some folks would end up swallowing the “crowns.” As a result, people began using prizes made out of material like porcelain.

For tonight’s meal, the galette Liz made was actually a Butternut Squash, Apple and Onion Galette with Stilton. Not really a pastry, but something that still involved a crust. A delicious, delicious crust.

Here are the ingredients, situated on the dough. All the vegetables are sitting on a bed of whole-grain mustard.

And this is the galette after it’s been folded up and placed in the oven. The combination of the crust and the melted blue cheese was stellar.

The main dish was Wolfgang Puck’s Pan-Roasted Chicken with Port and Whole-Grain Mustard. I had never seen a chicken butterflied before, but Liz was able to prep things without too much difficulty. What was really surprising to me is how quickly an entire chicken cooked (the recipe calls for searing the chicken on high heat, and then putting it in the oven for 10-20 minutes). Overall, it seemed to go really fast.

My meal: a slice of the galette and a bit of the pan-roasted chicken. Mmmmmm.

FYI both recipes came from a book by the Food Network called Food Network Favorites: Recipes from Our All-Star Chefs. We’ve just started to dip into this book, and my lord… if tonight’s meal was any indication, I can’t wait. In between stuffing my face with food, my every other comment was how good everything was. Liz’s reaction was to say “We can serve this to people!” Which is what she always says when she encounters a recipe we like, and would work well for entertaining guests.

Honestly, when I did a quick seach online I was surprised to find the two recipes fully available on the Food Network site. I’m delighted they’re available, as you can give these dishes a whirl if you’re so inclined. I have no qualms recommending this book, as these first two recipes really were out of this world.