Ottolenghi's Sweet Potato Galettes

Kate called the house the other afternoon, as she was walking home from the market. She was all about these little sweet potato galettes that she was going to make for a small dinner party she was having at her apartment. The recipe was coming straight from the first Ottolenghi cook book. As she was talking about them, I began to think that that recipe seemed all too familiar and when I went to my copy of the cook book, I found the recipe marked with a post-it note. Yup, mother and daughter think alike sometimes ...especially when it comes to food!



Since she got me thinking on the recipe, I decided to make the galettes for an light supper.  Galettes and a simple side vegetable ... the perfect meatless meal. The hardest part about making these little tarts is peeling and chopping the sweet potatoes. The rest of the work involves making a small dice of spicy hot pepper, rolling out a couple puff pastry sheets and constructing sides to the tarts that will contain the potatoes, jalapeno pepper mince, pumpkin seeds, and goat cheese clumps. The rest is an easy bake and soft slather of garlic-y olive oil. Seriously. These are simple to make!

Making this dish with tart goat cheese was a bit much for SB's tender sensibilities. He would have preferred a more mellow cheese element, but I loved it. The combination of the tart cheese, sweet potato, salty pumpkin seeds and spicy kick of the minced jalapeno pepper made my mouth zing! I really liked the different flavour kicks in each bite.

Here's the recipe ... it's a perfect share for this week's pot luck challenge at I Heart Cooking Club.

Yotam Ottolenghi's Sweet Potato Galettes

slightly adapted for my kitchen

Makes 3 - 9 x 5 inch galettes

Ingredients:

3 sweet potatoes

a pinch red pepper flakes

1 box prepared puff pastry sheets

1 egg, slightly beaten

6 tbsp. Greek yogurt

4 tbsp. tart goat cheese

2 tbsp. salted pumpkin seeds

1 small jalapeno pepper, minced seeds and all

3 tbsp. olive oil, divided

1 large clove garlic

1 tbsp. flat leaf parsley, chopped

Kosher salt and coarsely ground black pepper

Making the Galettes:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

2. Peel the sweet potatoes and slice them into coins about a quarter inch thick. Toss them in a bowl with 2 tbsp. of the olive oil and the red pepper flakes. 

3. Spread the coins in one layer on a large cookie sheet. Toss the unpeeled clove of garlic in the remains of the oil in the bowl and add it to the cookie sheet with the potato coins. Cover tightly with foil. Bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes. 

4. While the potatoes and garlic roast, roll out one sheet of the puff pastry and cut it in half to form 2 rectangles about 9 x 5 inches. Place the rectangles on a parchment paper-lined cookie sheet. Roll out the second puff pastry sheet and repeat. Place a third rectangle on the cookie sheet. Using the fourth rectangle, cut  6 long strips to form edges for the long sides of the galette bases. Then, cut short strips to form the end edges for the galettes. 

5. Lay the strips in place and chill the galette forms for about a half hour.

6. Remove the sweet potatoes from the oven, take the foil off the pan and let the potatoes cool so you can handle them. While they cool, chop the jalapeno and peel the roasted garlic clove.

7. Place the roasted garlic in a small bowl with the remaining olive oil measure and the chopped parsley and smash to make a paste. Set aside.

8. To construct the galettes: brush the edges of the galette with the beaten egg, spread the yogurt on the bottoms of the galettes, arrange the sweet potato coins atop the yogurt. Sprinkle on the minced jalapeno and the pumpkin seeds. Drop small plops of goat cheese over top. Sprinkle on Kosher salt and black pepper.

9. Bake the galettes for 25 minutes in the prepared oven.

10. Remove the galettes from the oven and brush the tops with the olive oil, garlic and parsley slurry.

11. Serve piping hot.

... before baking ...

... table ready ...