Buckwheat Galettes - the Best Way to Eat Sausages!

Try wrapping your smoky grilled sausage in a fun and flavourful buckwheat galette; you'll never want to eat it in a dry old bun again! It's easy to hold, and all the fillings stay inside. Plus, these galettes are naturally gluten-free. (Skip to recipe.)

It is gloriously, beautifully, thrillingly SPRING!

The season of renewal has finally arrived in the north, and it came with trumpets blaring and blossoms blazing (and also bumblebees a-buzzing, weeds a-thriving, and mosquitoes a-pesting)!

All those months of whining and complaining about our bone-chilling days and never-ending winter seem a million miles away now. The sun has been beaming out its rays with extravagant abandon - we're wearing shorts and sandals, and the thermometer should be hitting 30°C this week. Barbecues are smoking and lunches are served on the deck. Best of all - we're in the garden, digging happily in the dirt.

I walk around the yard, inhaling the smells of spring: the gentle perfume of apple trees heavy with blossom, the earthy aroma of newly turned soil moist with decaying leaves, and the herbaceous bouquet of new growth popping up in every crevice, turning our little universe a million shades of luscious green.

I love it. I stand under the canopy of the blossoming apple tree, very still, me and my camera.

Slowly, the sounds of the world between the branches comes into focus, and I hear the buzzing and brumming of millions of little wings. Bumble bees, wasps, flies, and even a dragonfly are going about their all-important business; some pollinating, some feeding, and some just glorying in the beauty of this fantastic feast for the senses provided by Mother Nature.

It feels so good to be outside again. Breathing deeply of the fresh spring air and getting dirt under my fingernails are as therapeutic and rejuvenating as visit to a spa. Planting the garden is so very satisfying - investment in a whole season of pleasure and edible rewards to come. I just love looking at all the seed packets and thinking of the amazing life that is stored in those little brown seeds, just waiting for a kiss from the sun and a drop of rain.

Mom helped me plant the garden:

Raymond did the tilling. See him way back there, ducking to get the rototiller under the apple tree?

After a busy day gardening in the heat, we're all beat. There's not much energy left for anything too complicated. It's a treat to fire up the barbecue and grill a few sausages, then sit in the shade with our feet up and a cold glass of apple cider or lemonade in our hands.

Our new (but old) favourite way to eat our grilled sausages is the way they do it in northern France - wrapped in a delicious, lacy, buckwheat galette. These thin crepe-like pancakes are made of nutty-tasting buckwheat flour. I remember seeing them served like that on our visit to France a few years back, and had been meaning to try them myself, but the you know how it is - the years flew by!

Now that I've got into making these fantastic galettes, we've enjoyed them several times already. I love that you can whip up a batch of them ahead of time and have them ready to quickly reheat when you're firing up the grill. Lazy summer feasting.

Not to be confused with that rustic free-form fruit tart (like this rhubarb galette), buckwheat galettes are thin, crepe-like pancakes typically filled with savoury goodies like ham, cheese, or mushrooms. But I think their purpose as a vehicle for containing a sausage and any trimmings is the higher calling they were truly destined for. What a tasty vehicle they make.

The traditional galettes of Brittany are generally made with just buckwheat flour, water, and salt. I've taken the liberty of adding an egg to make them a bit sturdier and more pliable, and a bit of butter to keep them tender like regular crepes.

To be authentic to the French way of eating these sausages, you want to adorn them only with a good smear of Dijon mustard. However, the food police wouldn't come to carry you away if you should choose to add in a few strips of your favourite cheese and a couple spears of pickled asparagus or green beans. (In fact, the food police could probably be bought off with the offer of a couple galette-wrapped sausages for themselves.)

Happy Spring Barbecuing everyone!

* * * * *

Kitchen Frau Notes: Any kind of sausages work; bratwurst, Italian sausages, pork sausages, spicy sausages. You can grill them, pan-fry them, oven-roast them, or cook them on a stick over the campfire. You can make the buckwheat galettes ahead of time and take them along on your campout, or just have them ready in the fridge for a quick supper after work.

If you are cooking for someone with an egg allergy, you can just omit the egg. You can also omit the butter or replace it with oil. These galettes are pretty forgiving.

Either light or dark buckwheat flour work in this recipe. The galettes will not look as smooth as regular crepes. They are supposed to be lacy-looking.

Buckwheat Galettes with Sausages (Galette-saucisse)

gluten-free, for egg-free omit the egg, for dairy-free use oil instead of butter

• 1¾ cups (245gms) buckwheat flour
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 egg
• 2½ cups (600ml) water
• 2 tablespoons melted butter or coconut oil, plus more for cooking the galettes
• 8 of your favourite sausages; like bratwursts, Italian sausages, or pork sausages
• Dijon mustard or grainy mustard
• optional add-ins like cheese, pickled asparagus or beans, onions, etc.
• optional: sheets of wax paper or tin foil, torn into roughly 8-inch (20cm) squares, for serving the sausage rolls

Whisk the buckwheat flour, salt, egg, water, and melted butter together until there are no lumps.

Cover the batter and refrigerate it for at least 1 hour or up to overnight. Remove from the fridge and stir to combine, if the batter has separated.

Heat a large (preferably 12"/30cm) non-stick skillet over medium high heat. Add about 1 teaspoon of butter and heat it until it's bubbling and starting to brown. Spread the melted butter to evenly coat the bottom of the skillet. Pour in a ladleful (about 6 tablespoons) of the buckwheat galette batter. Quickly lift the pan, and tilt and swirl it around so the batter runs to fill the bottom of the skillet in an even layer. Return the skillet to the heat and cook the galette until it's browned and lacy on the underside. Flip the galette and cook the second side until there are several brown spots on the bottom. Don't worry if the first pancake is a bit of a dud - they usually are.

Remove the galette to a plate or a cast iron skillet to keep warm. Keep making more galettes the same way, adding a teaspoon of butter to the pan before each one, until the batter is used up.

Stack the buckwheat galettes on a plate and use them right away, or cover them with plastic wrap and refrigerate them for up to 5 days. To reheat, place the galettes one at a time in a hot skillet for about  30 seconds, or heat the whole stack in a skillet, covered with foil, on the warming rack of the barbecue.

To serve: smear a generous dollop of Dijon mustard in the center of the pancake. Place a sausage on top, and add any other fillings if you're using them. Fold the bottom third of the pancake up over the sausage, then roll the sides of the galette snugly over the sausage.

For serving, wrap up the bottom of each galette roll in a square of wax paper or foil to make it easier to hold and to keep your fingers from getting buttery.

Makes 8 galette-wrapped sausages.

Bon Appetit!

 

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