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ALL THE OTHER DINNERS OF NOVEMBER When Halloween is over, we all think of one dinner. What will we do for Thanksgiving, what will we eat, how will we cook it, who will come over? It's a great holiday. a harvest festival, in which we celebrate our survival, our good luck, our bounty. We do it with the people we love, so we celebrate family and community - and any time we gather to express gratitude and to share, we celebrate what's best in us. The dinner table is a metaphor for civilization, Marion Cunningham wrote. We feel that as we make plans to share our Thanksgiving with our family, our friends - our tribe. I've designed my share of Thanksgiving menus and recipes over the years, and it's always fun. There's an excellent one in The New Vegetarian Epicure, and another in the November 1999 issue of Gourmet magazine. But what about the other twenty-nine nights of November? We still sit down to eat, still feed the family, maybe even have a dinner party. Nights are cold, and a good home-cooked meal is a cheering thing. The changing weather brought on a taste for baking in me, and in the last few weeks, I've made several delicious galettes in answer to the question that never goes away: what's for dinner? A galette, if you were about to ask, is a type of pie: a big, hearty, bread-like pastry filled with any tasty thing you'd like to put in it, and baked to a shiny golden-brown perfection. I think it's better than pizza and better than quiche. The crust of a galette is made from a simple olive oil bread dough, rolled out thinly in a large oval. A generous amount of some savory filling is spread over most of it, and the edges are pulled up in a loosely folded rim, for a casual and rustic shape. The dough is brushed with an egg yolk wash and the pie is baked - yielding a warm kitchen, lovely smells, and a delicious dinner. The first galette I made when I got in my wintry mood had the flavors of the Polish foods of my childhood - cabbage, onions and mushrooms. We ate it for dinner, and late that evening both my teenage boys came back for another fat wedge to help them with their homework. The next morning they polished off what was left for breakfast. After the vanishing mushroom galette, I had to make another. I roasted diced butternut squash and onions, mixed them up with some raisins and pine nuts, and layered the vegetables over goat cheese. It was a very pretty galette, perfectly seasonal, and just right with a bowl of green soup. For something so attractive, a galette is very practical. It can be filled with whatever appeals to you. So far I've made my fillings from scratch, but leftover roasted vegetables sound good, and I'm also thinking about a filling of mashed potatoes and farmer cheese, with roasted poblano chiles mixed in. As long as the mixture is not too soupy, it should work. Furthermore, a galette is delicious hot, warm, or at room temperature, so it can be made ahead. It makes a fine meal accompanied only by a simple salad, a bowl of soup, or even just some sliced pear or apple. You don't need much with it because it's quite a lot in itself. In fact, you could do worse than a wedge of galette and a glass of wine. The galettes in this month's "new recipes" keep well for a couple of days at room temperature, though it's hard to keep one longer than a day. And just because a galette makes a good weeknight dinner, does not mean it can't go out to a party. It's a beautiful thing and because the crust is not crumbly, it's sturdy enough to travel well, making it one of the best potluck dishes. The work involved in making these galettes is the pleasantest kind: it's the sort of dish that lets us really enjoy cooking - kneading bread dough for a few minutes, sautéing vegetables until they smell sweet and rich, assembling something beautiful. If you don't bake bread, and think there's something mysterious about it, here's your chance to dive in and see how simple and downright relaxing it is. You mix up a small batch of dough (that takes less than five minutes). It looks lumpy and ragged, but never mind - you knead it for a while. Why haven't I done this before, you ask yourself. Pretty soon you have a lovely, shiny, springy ball of dough. You put this dough into a bowl, cover it, and do other things for an hour. It swells up in a very satisfying way. Now you get to punch your fist into it - if you have children, they will fight for the chance to do this. It deflates around your fist, and you lay the flattened round of dough on a floured board and roll it out. There you are. Now you layer on some good, savory filling, turn up the sides - and you've done it. Brush it with egg yolk wash, put it in the oven, and about forty minutes later triumphantly take out a spectacular pie. It's something to be thankful for on any night. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. Be well, and let me know what great dishes you cooked for your tribe. |