Wild Mushroom and Chevre Galette

Great for a light lunch or summer appetizer, this savoury French pastry will melt in your mouth

Credit: Flickr/Sherri Vokey

This French dish is the perfect addition to a summer salad

This delicious French-style dish is just the appie you need for those belle summer gatherings

This medley of mushrooms layered on a pâte brisée pastry and baked crisp is a perfect appetizer or a light summer lunch married with a mâche salad. Bon Appétit!

Ingredients

Pâte Brisée:

  • 1-¼ cups unbleached flour
  • Pinch of Kosher salt
  • 7-½ Tbsp. cold unsalted butter
  • 6 Tbsp. ice water

Filling:

  • 3 Tbsp. unsalted butter
  • 4 large shallots, diced
  • 1 leek, white part only, finely sliced
  • 2 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1 tsp. Côte d’Azur Spice 2.0 chili paste
  • 1 tsp. Major chicken stock paste, undiluted
  • 5 cups sliced mixed fresh mushrooms
  • (shiitake, chanterelle, portobello, shimeji or your own favourites)
  • 1 cup dried mushrooms, like cèpes or porcini
  • (soaked in hot water to reconstitute)
  • ⅓ cup marsala wine
  • ½ cup whipping cream
  • 3 Tbsp. fresh tarragon (or 2 tsp. dried)
  • ½ cup finely chopped parsley
  • 100 grams Philly cream cheese (not reduced-fat version)
  • Ground pepper to taste

Extras:

  • 6 plain soda crackers
  • 100 grams goat cheese (chèvre)
  • Finely chopped parsley for garnish

Instructions

1. To make the pastry, sift the flour and salt into a bowl. Cut in the cold butter with a pastry blender until the butter pieces are a bit larger than the size of peas.

2. Add the ice water all at once and mix dough together as quickly as possible. (Overworking the dough makes it tough.) Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for 15 minutes.

3. To make the filling, place the butter in a large sauté pan and turn heat to medium. Add shallots and leek and sauté until soft but not brown. Add garlic, chili paste and stock paste; stir to dissolve. Add the fresh mushrooms to the pan and turn heat to medium-high.

4. Shake the pan and begin to sauté. Add marsala and continue to cook driving off the moisture.

5. Squeeze the water from the soaking dried mushrooms. Roughly chop the soaked mushrooms and add to the pan. Once most of the liquid has cooked away, add tarragon, parsley and cream cheese. Stir to combine. Add a big grind of pepper and taste for seasoning. Set filling aside to cool.

6. Roll out the chilled pastry into an irregular rustic circle and transfer to a baking sheet. Crumble the soda crackers evenly over the pastry base.

7. Once the mushroom mixture is cool, spread it over the pastry circle leaving a 2-inch border. Fold pastry edge back over the galette and chill for 20 minutes.

8. Preheat the oven to 400°F. Bake the galette for 25 minutes or until the pastry is golden brown.

9. Crumble the goat cheese over the galette, garnish with additional chopped parsley and serve warm.

Serves 6-8.

Listen to Caren McSherry Thursdays between 11 a.m. and 11:40 a.m. on CKNW 98.

Originally published in TVW. For daily programming updates and on-screen Entertainment news, subscribe to the free TVW e-newsletters, or purchase a subscription to the weekly magazine.