Black bean galette with smoked sun-dried tomatoes and chipotle

The ever so agreeable Two Hearted

I have an unhealthy obsession with galette dough. It has all but five ingredients, and it just never fails. It's got bite, it's flaky without compromise, and it is remarkably forgiving when it's rolled out. It takes a bit of patience to get the technique down. I prefer hand mashing the ice cold butter in with my hand and a fork, but a stand mixer or hand mixer would make this convenient dough, ready much faster. If you make this and live in a hot climate, ice the counter down with ice or ice packs, before you roll it out. It'll help keep the butter in solid form.

This galette has black beans, smoked sun-dried tomatoes, and queso quesadilla, but you can also just follow the fast and furious black beans empanada post for another version of this exact recipe. The smoked sun-dried tomatoes taste like bacon! I kid you not! They are so delicious! The queso quesadilla is similar to a medium white cheddar (or an oude gouda) and a mont jack or light cheddar could be used instead. Serve with a smoky hot salsa, and salad. Leftovers can last up to a week in the fridge.


Black bean galette with smoked sun-dried tomatoes and chipotle.  
Yield: 6 servings, large-ish wedges, but more likely to serve 4 hungry people.
Ingredients:
1 recipe galette dough
2-3 tbsp tomato chunks, or pizza sauce
2 cups cooked black beans, or 1 14 oz can black beans rinsed and drained
1 green onion, 2-3 green onions if small, chopped fine
handful cilantro chopped
zest of a lime
1 chipotle pepper, chopped fine plus 1 and 1/2 tbsp adobo sauce
1-2 tsp cumin
1-2 tbsp smoked sun dried tomatoes, roughly chopped
4 oz quesadilla cheese (queso quesadilla or mont jack and cheddar blend), sliced thinly or grated.


Directions:
If you have an hour or so, prep the galette dough and store it in the fridge until you've assembled the pie ingredients. It should take less than an hour to prep. This step can be assembled ahead of time.

Preheat the oven to 375º F/190º C. For the filling, place all ingredients, except the cheese, in a large mixing bowl and stir to combine. Adjust the seasonings for taste.

When ready, roll out the galette dough on the counter up to 14" in diameter, about 1/4" thick. Once rolled out, fold into quarters and place on the back of a baking sheet. Unfold the quarters, you want the edges to hang off the baking sheet. Spoon a few tomato chunks onto the rolled out galette dough, and make a circle about 10" wide. This should be a very thin layer. Spoon the black bean mixture on top, top with the cheese, and fold the galette onto itself making pleats as you fold up. Bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes, or until golden brown. Let stand a few minutes before cutting and serving.

Thank you Sara: A Bell's Two Hearted accompanies this quite well. I could nerd out on the acidity and the complimentary mouth feel of light hop presence matching the spiciness of the chipotle, but I had this along with a Victory Prima Pils, and while they were both delicious, the Two Hearted felt like it held up to the galette. Mmm Two Hearted. Mmmm.

Rum Swizz

Yesterday, I was scanning my reader sipping on a huge glass of water chock full of crushed ice, when I came across David Lebovitz's ice post. His musings on expat life in Paris always draw me in, and his recipes are fantastic, but his post was hilarious to me because it was a post totally on the novelty of ice. The comments generated below his post show a fierce defense of ice all the time, or bewilderment. Ice, a problem, really? I had to appreciate the care and awareness in which he writes after acquiring an icemaker.

When abroad, ice was something to miss. There are few countries like the US that have such a married love affair with ice (and lots of it) + beverage (of your choice).  Ice, in cubed or crushed form, was one of those things that were annoying to miss because it's convenience and luxury were never noticed until the freezer revealed your stash as a dozen teaspoon sized cubes. Now, I appreciate how novel unlimited ice feels.

Which brings me to my next refreshing, porch-sitting (and in those cute shoezles pictured above), watch the sun go down, and feel the heat let up a bit cocktail: the rum swizzle. And make that with lots of ice.

Rum Swizzle
Yield: 1 drink poured into a Collins or pint glass. A Mason jar would showcase this drink nicely.
2 oz of dark rum
freshly squeezed juice of half a medium lime, plus a lime round for garnish (can sub in lemons)
1 tbsp Cointreau or triple sec
1/2 cup ginger beer or ginger ale

Fill a cocktail shaker 2/3 full of ice and pour the rum, lime juice, and Cointreau over the cubes. Shake together a few times. Pour this mixture into a glass, filled to the brim with ice cubes. Top with a lime slice, ginger ale, and give it a quick stir with a swizzle or straw. Serve immediately.

p.s. I have my eye on these ice cream recipes. Shoezles. What?! It rhymes with noodles.

Campari cocktail

I have the best drink you have to try. That is if you like bitter finishes and drinks with a bit of bite. I'm dedicating this to a good friend in Leuven. I think they would appreciate this just as much as a kir. Maybe, now I can convince said friend to return to the blogging world. Because I do miss you. 


Campari cocktail
Yield: 1 cocktail, served in a martini glass. 

2 oz Campari

2 tbsp Grand Marnier

an orange peel as garnish

ice and cocktail shaker

Directions:

Fill a martini glass with ice and water and set aside. Pour the Campari and Grand Marnier in a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake until your hands are frozen and the ice sounds like it's broken up a bit. Pour out the water in the martini glass and strain the contents of the cocktail shaker into the chilled martini glass. Garnish with an orange peel and serve immediately.

June MoMe

Here is June's Month of Meals it is also posted below.


The monthly meal is the plan, but I’ve found myself severely distracted in the past month. When I had posted May’s MoMe, I had just landed in the states and was trying hard to keep my mental goal of posting a month of meals. As that visit eventually turned into a full move back to the states, I’ve been distracted by the abundance of these ingredients: cilantro, black beans, corn tortillas, jalapenos and peppers, jars of various brands of salsa, American craft brews, and my in-laws’ well stocked bar. I picked up a lot of healthy looking squash at the farmers’ market (patty pan, summer, zucchini) which makes its way into several meals. The shared meal plan is without the accompanying grocery list.

I recently picked up and read through Jennifer Reese’s (aka The Tipsy Baker) Make the Bread, Buy the Butter. I liked it, a lot. Her writing style is quirky and funny, and her approach is less about the whole organic experience, and more about just trying because if you’re already a pretty good home cook, why not try to make things that were probably not processed and made readily available 30 years ago? So far yogurt making has gone homemade. Peanut butter is made from scratch by roasting and grinding peanuts with a bit of a neutral oil, and I made two batches of brine pickles and vinegar based pickles (out of summer squash and zucchini). Beer was brewed, a sourdough starter thrived, and peanut butter cookies along with half a dozen bread loaves were baked.


June MoMe
Week 1:

1. Black bean soup and cornbread. To the batter of the cornbread add 1 chopped jalapeno and 1 cup of shredded cheese. Garnish black bean soup with yogurt or sour cream.  
2. Fish tacos.
3. Hummus and tabouleh with pita bread.
4. Mushroom etouffee with lightly grilled summer squash.
5. Pan-fried cornmeal crusted patty pan squash with blackened seasoning served over a salad.

Week 2:

1. Greek zucchini fritters.
2. Soba with edamame, tofu, and greens.
3. Asian-style tofu served over stir fried summer and zucchini squash served over brown rice. (replace salmon with tofu in recipe, or prepare as is).
4. tex-mex veg burgers.
5. Pizza with salad.
6. Lemon risotto rice pudding with rhubarb compote.

Week 3:

1. Black bean empanadas with a salad and salsa.
2. Thai-tuna cakes over salad (leftovers can be used as taco filling the next day).
3. Thai-tuna tacos with sprouts, radishes, and fresh lime.
4. Chile con queso, mixed bean chili, and margarita night
5. Greek-style cappellini pasta with pan-fried cornmeal crusted patty pan squash.

Week 4:

1. Indian-style lentils with zucchini and steamed corn tortillas (sub in lentils instead of yellow split peas).
2. Tacos with Indian-style lentils as stuffing served with normal taco fixins. I won’t judge you if you make margaritas again.
3. Belgian beer braised mushroom stew your choice to serve with fries or not. Tastes good with a salad and farmers’ market green beans.
4. Vidalia onion soup with wild rice.
5. Burek with yogurt. What a lovely blog check out her strawberry and pistachio galette.