Caramelized Onion & Goat Cheese Galette

You might be interested in the history of the onion. If you are, well, you might also be on the wrong blog, because I’m not here to get into any of that.

But I do like ’em. I like the white onions. I like the sweet ones. I like the red ones. And I really like the green ones. And naturally, when you’re fond of a certain type of food, you look for ways to incorporate it into your meal plans. But just calling this an onion pie doesn’t have the same flair as a Caramelized Onion & Goat Cheese Galette, even though that’s basically what it is, right? An onion and goat cheese pie with a rustic, imperfect crust, which ironically sounds pretty perfect to me.

It all starts with about three pounds of sliced sweet onions. Other participating ingredients on hand include three ounces of softened goat cheese, (I used Baetje Farms), 1 1/2 tbsp of dijon mustard, a goodly amount of real butter, meaning a half stick, and a heaping tsp of salt and pepper.

A cast-iron pan is positioned over a two-zone fire, and once warmed, will melt all that glorious butter. When the butter is melted through but not quite browned, toss in the onions and minced garlic.

Now if you’re looking at this picture and thinking “Man, that’s way too much onion for that pan“, well, you have a good eye, because as it turns out, you’re right. So the onion mixture was divided and caramelized in two batches. Hey, live and learn, and adapt along the way ?.

Eventually, those onions did caramelize beautifully and were galette-ready. I used a store-bought crust, and it worked great, but obviously if you have the time and talent, a homemade crust would be awesome. But you probably already knew that. Either way, let’s roll and get it spread out in a rustic, non-judgmental shape. Drop chunks of the goat cheese onto the rolled out crust.

Stir the mustard, salt and pepper into the caramelized onions. Don’t be absent-minded like myself and forget the mustard (I did and added it a later step – You’ll see). Spread the mixture out evenly over the goat cheese and fold the crust edges up, overlapping as needed until you complete the circle, and brush the surface area with egg wash.

I left the galette on parchment paper and placed it into another cast iron pan to bake. Then, after going in to rotate the galette, I added the mustard that I had just noticed still sitting on the counter, all lonely and forgotten-like. See how I swirled it around a bit to at least make it look interesting? I like the appearance, I gotta say!

This caramelized onion and goat cheese galette turned out as good looking as it was tasty. An onion pie indeed, with a rich and creamy taste thanks to the goat cheese and just enough bite from the mustard. Sweet caramelized onions and goat cheese encased in a browned flaky pastry, cast iron grilled over hardwood and kissed with hickory smoke. Lordy!

I could’ve eaten the galette myself, but you know, that whole sharing is caring thing…

Because Life Is Better Wood Fired