Simple Peach Galette

The finished galette

This great looking, and tasting, dessert is also amazingly simple to make. Just a few ingredients, and most of them are pre-made, so it is very simple.

This type of pastry is called a Galette in France. The name is given in general to flat, round, crusty cakes. Well, mine isn't round, but... it's still a galette.

The thing that makes this simple is that the pastry is pre-made, and the peaches come from a can or jar. Just a few other ingredients, and it is done. You can usually find the pastry crust frozen; they can be round, square, and various types. The one I used here is a "puff pastry" meaning it is several layers, and it gets very nice, crusty and crispy when it bakes. A regular pie crust of course would be fine.. and I read a recipe once by the wonderful chef Jacques Pepin, where he actually used a flour tortilla for the crust! How cool is that?



Ingredients:
- Jar of peaches in syrup; save 1/4 cup of the syrup
- Puff pastry - pre-made; usually these are found in a frozen food section
- A few tablespoons of preserves - I used apricot in this recipe
- A few tablespoons of butter
- 1 tablespoon of brown sugar
- 1 oz shot of Cachaca; whiskey or cognac is a great substitute
- parchment paper for baking

The ingredients

Procedure:
- Melt butter, stir in brown sugar, 1/4 syrup from the peaches, and cachaca - simmer this slowly to reduce by about 1/3 or 1/2... watching it to make sure it does not thicken too much or burn; you want the consistancy to be a bit thick so it coats the peaches nicely.
- Lay out the pastry on the parchment paper, and smear on apricot preserves. Fold the edges of the pastry to form a barrier so the juices don't run over the edge. See the picture.
- Arrange the peaches. Also see the picture of the arranged peaches.
- Pour the reduce syrup over the peaches, and sprinkle with a little more brown sugar.
- Bake at 350F for 20-30 minutes; watching it carefully to see it brown nicely. I like to bake on top of parchment paper; this will guarantee that it wont stick on the baking pan and get ruined.
- You can sprinkle some cinnamon on top if desired.

The preserves on the pastry

Arranging the peaches

Impromptu Avocado-Tomatoe Salad

This idea came up from some left over veggies sitting around... It is easy & delicious. We were having steaks, and wanted a cool, refreshing salad to go with.

Ingredients:
- Avocado
- Corn
- Cucumber
- Tomato
- Balsamic Vinegar

Procedure:
- All the veggies should be cut into small pieces to get an attractive mix of ingredients.
- So, dice a couple tomatoes, a cucumber, and an avocado
- For the corn, we had a left over corn-on-the-cob from the day before. I sliced this off the cob, and sauteed over high heat in a little oil. Any kind of oil is fine. Just brown the corn, and let it cool a bit before mixing so it doesn't cook the other veggies.
- Mix everything in a bowl, season however you like (a little salt and pepper for us), and drizzle with a good Balsamic vinegar.

That's all there is to it.

Baked Tomato Pasta

I created this very simple recipe when I moved to California in 1990. As my daughters have grown up, this has always been their favorite family dish. We still make it all the time. The recipe hasn't changed much in the last 22 years.

The secret ingredient is the kind of tomatoes. They need to be a kind of tomato that bakes and caramelizes properly. Roma tomatoes work the best. Sometimes these are also called Italian plum tomatoes. I have tried others, and they require different baking times and temperatures, and sometimes aren't as sweet - so try to find Roma tomatoes.

When the tomatoes are baking, they will taste best if they are cooked just to the point of caramelizing -  they almost look like they are going to burn - then they are perfect. They will taste very sweet.

Ingredients:
- Roma tomatoes, about a dozen
- Parsley
- Garlic
- Olive Oil
- Butter
- Parmigiana cheese
- Fine, long pasta - angel hair or thin linguini

Procedure:
- Slice the tomatoes lengthwise (see picture - Anna is doing a good job on the tomatoes) and place cut side up in a baking dish
- Finely chop about 1/2 cup of parsley, chop several cloves garlic, if you like garlic, 5-6 cloves is pretty good. We usually chop a little extra garlic and save it for garlic bread.
- Season the tomatoes with salt and pepper
- Mix the parsley, a few tablespoons of oil, and garlic together. Spoon about 1/2 of the parsley-garlic-oil mixture over the cut tops of the tomatoes.
- Drizzle the tomatoes and parsley with a little extra olive oil, a few more tablespoons. 
- Bake the tomatoes with the parsley mixture in the oven at 425 degrees F about 60 minutes. Towards the end of the time, watch the tomatoes, they should be very dark, soft and caramelized. Careful, they can burn, you want to bake them right up to the point before they burn.

My Recipe Notebook from 1990!

- While the tomatoes are baking, boil the pasta - it helps to get the past done around the same time as the tomatoes so the pasta is still warm.
- Remove the tomatoes from the oven, toss in a few tablespoons of butter. Mash a couple of the tomatoes, leave a few whole, however you want it is fine.
- Toss the pasta into the tomato dish and mix thoroughly
- Toss over the remaining parsley-garlic mixture, and sprinkle on Parmigiana cheese.
- It's ready to serve!!