Ya Know, The Greeks Invented French Food!

Pin It Now! One of my favorite movies of all time is My Big Fat Greek Wedding. It is so witty and charming and contains some side-splitting humor. Simply fabulous.

"Give me a word, any word, and I show you that the root of that word is Greek"

In the not-so-distant past, one of my BFFs (it’s still socially acceptable to use that term, right? Past the age of twelve?), Natalie of Oven Love posted a galette that was to die for. When I got home from work yesterday, I was absolutely hunkering to make one. It was so yummy looking with all of that zucchini.. And I have TONS of zucchini at home begging to be eaten.

Know what else I had that has been begging to be eaten? RED MEAT. Oh man.

Naturally, I had to make a galette and eat red meat. What sane person doesn’t want to do that on a Wednesday night?

Know what else I have that is super yummy? Feta cheese. Lots of it.

Sooo.. I stood in the kitchen realizing I was going to be making a dish that contained ground beef, zucchini, and feta- seemingly Greek- while being baked within a super yummy Frenchy galette crust.

What came of this? A fusion dish. Well, hey, chefs do it all the time. Combine two ethnic dishes to create a new-super-awesome level of awesomeness and flavor.

What to call this fusion? Greek and French. FREEK! Hmm.. No, a Freek dish sounds like something that would be hard to sell. GRENCH! Well... um, that sounds like a malady that doughboys caught while fighting in the trenches of Normandy. “Dearest Mother, I was pulled off of the front lines, as I have caught a bad case of Grench. Your dearest son, Albie.” No. That won’t work either. So we’re still left with Freek.

I present to you, one Freeky dish.


A Greek Galette
Dough Recipe- Courtesy: Martha Stewart
Yields: 2 Galettes, Feeds: about 4 people


Ingredients for the dough:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cornmeal
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cold, cut into small pieces
1/4 to 1/2 cup ice water

Directions for the dough:
1. "Place the flour, cornmeal, salt, and sugar in the bowl of a food processor, and pulse several times to combine. Add the butter, and process, until the mixture resembles coarse meal, about 10 seconds. With the machine running, pour the ice water through the feed tube in a slow, steady stream, until the dough just holds together (do not process for more than 30 seconds).
2. Turn out dough onto a clean work surface. Divide in half, and place each half on a piece of plastic wrap. Flatten each to form a disk. Wrap, and refrigerate at least 1 hour or up to 1 day before using."

Ingredients for the filling:
1 lb ground beef
1/2 cup vidalia onion, chopped
1 TBS crushed mint
1 TBS basil
1 TBS olive oil
1 zucchini squash, sliced
2 1/4 cups feta cheese
1/2 cup Greek yogurt
1 small garlic clove, minced
freshly ground black pepper
Egg wash


Directions for the filling:
1. In a large frying pan, heat the olive oil over medium heat, and saute the onions for approximately 2 to 3 minutes. Add the ground beef, basil, and crushed mint. Cook meat until 3/4 of the way cooked through (Don't worry! It'll finish cooking in the oven).
2. In a food processor, combine the feta, Greek yogurt, garlic, and black pepper. Pulse until a cheesy paste has been made. Yum! Don't eat any! Save it for the galette!!

Assembling/Cooking the galette
1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
2. Roll out the dough to approximately 1/4 inch thickness and about 12 inches round.
3. Spread half of the cheesy mixture around the center of the rolled-out dough (should cover about 8 or 9 inches). Top with beef mixture and place zucchini or other yummy vegetables on top/around the sides.
4. Fold up the dough, each inch, creating a pleat, around the filling.
5. Brush the dough with an egg wash.
6. Drizzle olive oil over top of the galette.
7. Bake for approximately 30 to 40 minutes, or until the crust begins to brown.

Enjoy that darn good Freeky food.

"...there's a HOLE in this cake"