Tasty Tomato Galette

Hello, everyone! I am so very sorry that I have not posted anything new for a few days - I've been busy babysitting the five-year-old twins next door. We've had a blast together, jumping on the trampoline and playing hide-and-go-seek, but I've missed my blogging time. But now, I'm back. There's been no harm done. In fact, I'd say that something rather miraculous came out of my temporary silence.

When I first started The Avocado and Me, I wondered how my mentors were able to come up with so many recipes... all on their own! It's hard enough to create dishes when you are using wheat flour and sugar. Almond flour, coconut flour, and monk fruit just provide more challenges. So how is it that Carolyn Ketchum at All Day I Dream About Food and the staff at The Bulletproof Blog crank out new recipes so quickly? And how is it that they are almost all delicious?

Then I realized that fashioning scrumptious food is their job. And my job, as my parents are constantly reminding me, is to work hard in school. Time, therefore, is a big difference between Maya Epstein and, say, Mark Sisson. Experience is another factor. If you want to be an excellent chef, and feel confident in your kitchen creativity, you have to cook. A lot. You need to cook so that you can pick up tips and tricks, figure out how to work with seasonings, and learn the purpose of an egg as a binding agent. Once you've become really secure in cooking, you can start experimenting. Sometimes, your creations will be fantastic. But I can guarantee that other times, they will be complete disasters. Finally, I was frightened to fail. What if my cod turned out so abysmal that we had to go out for dinner instead? That would be downright embarrassing.

Now, I am no Julia Child or Ina Garten. But since I've started cooking dinner for my family five days a week, I'm much more self-assured in the kitchen. I've discovered the joys of inventing. All you need is inspiration, creativity, and an open mind. Oh, plus some towels for when you make a huge mess. And... there you go! Off to Cookingland! You can invent, you can invent, you can invent! I think I'll go watch Peter Pan after this post. Now doesn't that sound fun?

Maya's Tasty Tomato Galette - Serves 4 to 6
Ingredients

• 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese, part-skim
• 3/4 cups almond flour, fine
• 16.5 ounces of heirloom cherry tomatoes
• Fresh basil, minced
• 1/2 of a small sweet onion, thinly sliced
• A decent amount of grated Asiago cheese
• 1/2 tsp. garlic, minced
• Zest of one small lemon
• Olive oil
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Italian Herb seasoning, to taste

Execution

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. On a large, lined pan, combine your tomatoes, onion, garlic, and salt and pepper to taste. Also add Italian Herb seasoning to taste. Drizzle with olive oil. Roast in the oven for approximately 15 minutes. Line another, larger baking sheet. During the last five minutes or so of the tomato mixture's oven time, make your fathead dough. To do this, melt your mozzarella cheese in the microwave - about 2 minutes on high. Stir the cheese and add your almond flour. Stir the hot cheese and flour until a cohesive dough forms. This will take a few minutes. While still hot, roll out your dough between two sheets of parchment paper until a wide circle forms. When the tomato mixture is done in the oven, spoon it into the center of the dough. Leave enough room around the edges to fold the dough over the vegetables. Sprinkle a decent amount of your Asiago onto the tomatoes and onions.

Artfully (I use that term loosely - this meal is more rustic than fancy) fold the outer dough over the tomatoes and onions - my favorite way to do so can be seen in the pictures provided. I essentially fold a section of the dough over, and then another. Pretty simple. When you are finished folding the dough, quickly sprinkle it with the remaining Asiago and the lemon zest. Bake for about twenty minutes, or until the crust of the galette is a lovely, golden brown. When the dish has been removed from the oven, top it with minced basil. Let cool for a few minutes, and then serve! I suggest mashed cauliflower and green beans as sides. 

Please note that the bottom of this Tasty Tomato Galette is rather wet. So wet that Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood on the Great British Bake Off would be terribly displeased. To reduce this, my dad suggested either substituting roma tomatoes, or soaking up some of the tomato juice when moving them from the pan to the dough. Wetness aside, this galette is a masterpiece! You just wait for those heart-warming flavors to explode across your tongue. Enjoy!

Ciao!

-Maya

Photo by Edgar Castrejon on Unsplash, Photo by Maya Epstein, Photo by Maya Epstein, 

Photo by Dan Gold on Unsplash