Roasted Red Pepper & Egg Galette

Days have become relatively warmer, though nights are still chilly, marked with cool wind blow at some days. We are welcoming Spring here with all open arms. It’s a relief from dreary cold winter days and feels refreshing and back to life. Red colorful and juicy strawberries are back in season. And we’ve started eating them a lot.

The color red doesn’t stop there, rather it excites us in another form. Lovely, vibrant, juicy and wonderfully colorful  red pepper have flooded the vegetable carts and shelves in market. I am completely smitten off, both with their vibrant red color and the amazing sweet flavor.

And they roast so well. I personally like them roasted, and so Muhummara (roasted red bell pepper and walnut dip) has become my favorite party dip alongside bowls of olive oil covered hummus. Roasting the red pepper had been playing on my mind, but I wanted to try out something new this time besides bunging them into chips and dips platter.

So while I was flipping through the amazingly colorful and refreshing recipes from Ottolenghi’s Jerusalem, I straight away fell into love with these beautiful little treats. Ottolenghi is a genius when it comes to tossing fresh ingredients to make highly colorful treats, appetizing both to eyes and to the taste buds. The contrast of the red peppers and the egg yolk make these pastries stunningly beautiful. And they nonetheless taste brilliant. As a suggested alternative by Ottolenghi, I made two of the galettes with  crumbled feta, reolacing eggs. And both tasted brilliant. We had them in Sunday brunch, we simply loved them.

Ingredients

4 medium red peppers {halved, deseeded and cut into thin strips}
3 small red onions {halved and cut into small wedges}
4 thyme sprigs
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
6 tbsp olive oil
1 1/2 tbsp parsley leaves
1 1/2 tbsp coriander leaves
250 gm puff pastry
30 gm sour cream
4 eggs, plus 1 lightly beaten egg
salt and black pepper

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 190 degree C. In a large bowl, mix peppers and onions with thyme leaves, ground spices, olive oil and a good pinch of salt. Spread out in a roasting tray and roast for 55 minutes, stirring couple of times during cooking.
2. Remove from oven and stir in the fresh herbs. Adjust the seasoning and set aside. Turn the oven to 200 degree C.
3. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the puff pastry to about 5 mm and cut out  four 15 x 15 cm squares. Prick all over the squares and place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Leave to rest in fridge for at least 30 minutes.
4. Remove the pastry from fridge and brush the top and sides with beaten egg. Using the back of a spoon spread half a tbsp sour cream over the pastry, leaving 0.5 cm border around the edges. Arrange the pepper and onion mixture on top of the sour cream, leaving the edges clean to rise and making a well in the center.
5. Bake the galettes for 15 minutes. Take the baking sheet out of the oven and carefully crack an egg into the well in the center of each pastry. Return to the oven and cook for another 7-8 minutes, until the eggs are set.
6. Sprinkle with cracked pepper, remaining herbs and drizzle with olive oil and serve hot.