Chestnut and Artichoke Galette

This rustic galette is an easy mushroom tart that shows just enough of the beautiful Chestnut mushrooms to hold intrigue and promise. Great as an hors d’ oeuvres cut into small wedges or as a main dish served with soup or salad.

Pastry dough:
2 ¾ C flour
½ lb. chilled butter
1 ½ t sugar
1 ½ t salt
1 egg
¾ C milk
1 egg beaten for egg wash on pastry
Pulse ingredients in a food processor or use pastry cutter to make a fine meal. Beat the eggs with milk and pulse or mix in to lightly moisten the flour butter mixture. Form into two disks.
Filling:
2 large onions, chopped
2 T oil
¼ t dried thyme
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 lb. Chestnut mushrooms
1 lb. frozen artichoke hearts, thawed and quartered 
1 C black, pitted Kalamata olives or similar
¼ C parsley
1 T lemon zest
3/4 t salt
1 C ricotta
½ C crumbled feta to sprinkle on top)

Sauté onions in oil until tender. Add mushrooms, stir and cover pan, continue stirring occasionally for 15 minutes. Add garlic, thyme and artichokes, sauté together until tender for 10 minutes. Add olives, lemon, zest and parsley.

Roll out pastry dough. Brush with egg. Smooth 1 cup of the ricotta cheese over the bottom, leaving a 3 inch border. Layer the filling on the top and dot with crumbled feta. Fold up the edges and seal pleats with egg wash. Bake at 375°F for 30 minutes or until browned.

Makes 2 galettes, serving 12 as an appetizer

Roasting Chestnut Mushrooms Over the Open Fryer

by Mary Ellen Kozak

Chestnuts ready for harvest and roasting!

As a transplant from Michigan to Eastern Wisconsin, I learned quickly that the big, wet, living ditch of Lake Michigan changes more than just interstate traffic patterns. There are also dialect differences. A drinking fountain here is called a bubbler. A pop is soda,  and a grill is a fryer. A fryer is something you use all year, rain, snow or mosquitoes, and it resides just outside your back door for the easiest access.

A culinary feature of the Chestnut mushroom is that it can be grilled en-masse. The grilling of large, individual portabellas and shiitake is standard cooking procedure, but the relatively miniature Chestnut mushrooms cook in large handfuls, like enoki mushrooms or asparagus.  A preheated cast iron pan or grill pan  is a great cooking surface because the mushroom size is generally small and can cook to perfection without stewing them as will happen in a pan that is too small and too cold. Toss the mushrooms (including the long, crunchy stem) in a bit of oil or melt some butter in a pan and throw the mushrooms into the pan on the fryer. Stir. When they are crisped to your liking, sprinkle with salt and serve. 

One last comment about the Chestnut Mushroom. It is possibly the most beautiful mushroom you will ever grow indoors. Grow your own with one of our Table Top Farms.

Welcome winter with all the wonder that mushrooms bring. Happy Holidays!