It's funny how refinement of a palate can mean embracing the more rustic side to food. When I first began cooking, I thought that French food was a paradigm to strive towards. I realized that the food I still loved most was uncut edges and cracked tops. In some ways, it's a lack of stress in baking, a lackadaisical approach to the homemade that still intrigues me. It's the extra butter, the egg wash that tans, and the layers of hearty flavors that I gravitate more towards.

Recipes like this are more my style, and I learned that through the trial and error of hubris and pretension when it comes to cooking.

I look to the Midwestern casseroles my mother made, how economical and in different shades of cheddar cheese and golden potatoes. I think of how they stayed on the oven top to be picked at throughout the day with fingertips and by the forkful. I think about how natural it was to look at food for how it felt and not what it always looked like. If that was a lesson my mother taught me, it was in the space between conscious need and survival instinct: get dinner on the table and get laundry done and go to sleep for tomorrow.

So I've taken what came so natural to me and added a few French elements and came up with this tart - cracked and rustic and good throughout the day. With the help of Maille and Silpat, it was an instant hint when the in-laws came over to help with yard work this weekend and I remember how far we've come together, my partner and I.

Salade Nicoise Slab Tart

Ingredients:

2 medium-sized Yukon Gold or similar potato
15-20 green beans
2 eggs + 1 for egg wash
1/4 cup oil
1/2 TB lemon zest
2 teaspoon Maille mustard (I used their acacia honey and orange blossom for a brighter flavor against the fish)
5 cornichon, minced (Here I used their Cornichons with cayenne chil i for some heat)
1/2 TB shallot or garlic (or a combo), minced
2 cans of high quality tuna, drained
1/2 heirloom tomato, sliced
2 sheets puff pastry, thawed

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425*F and lay out your baking sheet with your Silpat
In a large pot of boiling salted water, simmer potatoes, green beans, and 2 eggs for 8 minutes
Strain
While those are boiling, whisk together oil, zest, mustard, cornichons, shallots/garlic until well blended
Pour over tuna and stir
Shell eggs when everything is cool to the touch
Roll puff pastry out onto a floured work surface and lay a layer of green beans, then potatoes, egg, tuna, and tomato. Repeat with remaining ingredients, leaving about an inch margin
In a small bowl, whisk together additional egg yolk with a TB of water and brush a bit around the edge of the bottom puff pastry
Place second sheet on top, pressing edge with a fork and crimp a bit to keep its shape
Brush top with more egg wash
Bake for 30 minutes or until puffed and golden brown

Today I bring you two recipes, the last ones of the summer. They’re reiterations of a dish I ate in church basements and birthday parties. At a beach in New Jersey once and at a middle school graduation. The strawberry pretzel salad. My mother made it the night my sister said she was pregnant; it’s always been her favorite. It’s a dish that’s as economical as it is regional, as chimeric as it is delicious. A hodgepodge of flavors, strawberry Jell-O and crushed pretzels, a layer of sweetened cream cheese and set in a casserole dish. Salad in the loosest sense of the word. And here it is as a galette and as a handpie. For a different take on the dessert I ate by the bowlful, the taste of chlorine still on my lips from the three lazy months I could sit by the pool with no responsibility to keep me up at night.

Strawberry Pretzel Salad: as Handpies and Galettes

If you are unfamiliar with this dish, here is a pretty good version of it. The below two recipes are two sides of the same coin and can be made for any time of year. Frozen strawberries, while a good substitute, seem to yield a slightly thinner filling.

For the Crust: Use this recipe for either of the below recipes

Ingredients:

4 TB unsalted butter, very cold
3 TB shortening, very cold
1 ½ cup AP flour
¼ cup white sugar
½ TB pure vanilla extract
2 to 4 TB ice water

Directions:

In a food processor, pulse together butter, shortening, flour, almond meal, and white sugar until fats are pea-sized
Add vanilla extract and pulse once or twice
With motor running, pour water into feeding tube in a gradual stream until a dough forms. You may need additional couple teaspoon or two of ice water until dough clumps and begins to pull away from edges of the bowl
Turn out onto a floured work surface and divide into two discs
Wrap both discs in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes to rest

Ingredients for the Handpie/Galette filling: Use this recipe for either of the below recipes

3 cups strawberries, roughly chopped and hulled
½ cup white sugar
1/8 cup dark beer (I used Yuengling)
2 TB water
Pinch of salt
1 TB orange juice
A slurry of cornstarch (1 TB cornstarch whisked in 1 TB water) – do not make until cherries are reduced by half

Directions for the Handpie/Galette filling:

In a medium sauce pan, combine strawberries, sugar, beer, salt, water, and juice, stir with a spoon to ensure liquid is covering everything
On medium heat, allow for strawberries to release their juices and for sugar to dissolve
Continue heating until juices simmer and reduce by half (during this time, whisk together your slurry)
Reduce heat to low and vigorously whisk in the slurry
Mixture will begin to thicken and continue thickening as it coo

Assembly of Handpies:

Preheat your oven to 400*F
Prepare baking sheets with parchment paper
Take one disc of dough out of the fridge and roll out onto a heavily-floured work surface into a rough rectangle that is about 8” by 10” (this will vary slightly, so don’t stress it too much)
Using a sharp knife, cut your dough into rectangles. For a guide, I used a 3”x4” index card, but you can measure with a ruler if you so choose
With each rectangle, carefully place onto your prepared baking sheets. You should have 9 rectangles total (if using the very scientific Index Card Method)
Now, re-flour your board and roll out your second disc of dough
Measure and cut your rectangles out again, but do not immediately place on your sheets
At this point, you will have to do three things in succession: make an egg wash to brush edges of the dough, spoon in some of your strawberry filling onto each rectangle (I’d say about 2 TB per pie, but this is based on preference mostly), and place second top dough layer on top
Do this for each pie
Crimp the edges of each pie with a fork, pressing slightly to seal
Brush tops of pies with remaining egg wash and sprinkle with a little sugar
Using a paring knife, cut a couple small nicks in the top crust to vent dough
Bake for 25 minutes or until golden brown on the edges and tops
Allow to cool completely before adding your topping
Make a glaze of 4 oz softened cream cheese, 1 ½ cup confectioner’s sugar, and 3 TB milk – whisk until pourable but viscous. Pour over your handpies. Top each pie with crushed pretzel chunks
Enjoy within 2 days for best taste and qualit

Assembly of Galette:

Preheat your oven to 400*F
Prepare 2 baking sheets with parchment paper
Take disc of dough out of fridge and roll onto a heavily-floured work surface into a large circle about ¼ inch in thickness
Spoon half of your strawberry into center and spread around the surface of your dough, leaving about a two-inch margin
Make an egg wash and brush along your margin, crimp edges inward
Repeat with second disc of dough
Bake for 30-35 minutes until edges are golden brown
Allow to cool completely before topping with your glaze (4 oz softened cream cheese, 1 ½ cup confectioner’s sugar, and 3 TB milk) and crushed pretzels
Cut and serve immediately. Leftovers can be saved for up to two days.