Leek & Blue Cheese Galette with a Hazelnut Crust

Serves

6 People

Cooking Time

90 minutes

Season

Autumn

Winter

Spring

Dietary

Vegetarian

This is a rich and surprisingly easy dish to put together, Galette pastry is much more rustic and relaxed than a more structured tart, which means it's forgiving, it doesn't have to look perfect and you don't even need a tart tin. It's an ideal way to use up that Christmas cheese so we used a mix of Stilton and Gorgonzola but it would work well with most salty cheeses, like goats or feta.

Ingredients

For the pastry:
50g hazelnuts
100g plain flour
85g butter cut into cubes
Flakey sea salt

For the galette filling:
2 tablespoons of olive oil
3 leeks, rinsed and finely sliced
4 garlic cloves, crushed
1 small potato
75g blue cheese
Milk for brushing

Method

1- To make the pastry, place the hazelnuts in a food processor and blitz until fine crumbs. If you don't have a food processor you can use a pestle and mortar or you can bash them in a bag with a rolling pin. Add the the flour, butter, a pinch of salt and a tablespoon or two of water and pulse, or mix if doing it by hand, so it comes together as a rough dough. Shape it into a ball, flatten a little and then wrap in a plastic bag and refrigerate for at least an hour. This ensures the dough relaxes and makes for a flakier pastry.

2- In the meantime, make the filling. Heat the olive oil in a pan and add the leeks, the garlic and a generous pinch of salt . Cook on a gentle heat until soft, stirring occasionally so they don't catch or brown. Take your time, this will take 20 minutes or so.

3- Next slice the potato as thinly as possible, use a mandolin if you have one or a very sharp knife. Pre-heat the oven to 180c.

4- After an hour, roll out the pastry on to a sheet of baking parchment. Add a little flour on top so the rolling pin doesn't stick and roll out to a rough circle - the beauty of a galette is it can be a little more rustic so it doesn't have to be neat. Then slide the pastry, still on the baking paper, on to a flat baking tray.

5- Top the pastry with the leeks, arrange the sliced potato on top and dot the cheese all over, leaving a 2cm border around the edge. Fold the edge of the pastry over, you can pinch it together to make a crust and brush with a little milk if you like. Bake in the oven for around 30 minutes or until the pastry is golden around the edge.