Cabbage and Mushroom Galette with Horseradish Sauce

I had a big, lovely head of green cabbage from my CSA, and I wanted to use it for something other than slaw. At first, I considered this Hungarian cabbage strudel, and I still may try that eventually. But, then I saw the recipe for cabbage and mushroom galette in Vegetarian Cooking for Everone, and that was how this cabbage was meant to be used. This savory galette is made with a yeasted tart dough, filled with sauteed cabbage and mushrooms, and given a little kick with the horseradish sour cream sauce. I have to tell you about the dough first. It’s a lot like a pizza dough except that an egg is added. The dough was mixed and left to rise for about an hour, and that one, little egg made the dough very tender. It was less elastic than pizza dough when being shaped, and it was flakier than pizza crust once baked. This was a tart dough I’ll definitely use again.

For the filling, minced onion and sliced shitakes were sauteed in butter with thyme and dill. Then, the sliced cabbage was added with a little water, and the saute pan was covered while the cabbage cooked for about 15 minutes. The cover was removed, and the heat was raised to evaporate remaining moisture from the pan. Last, parsley, a chopped hard-boiled egg, and some sour cream were stirred into the vegetables. At this point, I transferred this mixture to a bowl and left it in the refrigerator for a few hours. I had also rolled out the dough into an oblong, rectangular-ish shape, placed it on a baking sheet, covered it with a kitchen towel, and placed that in the refrigerator as well. At dinner time, I assembled the tart while the oven warmed. The filling was placed on the tart dough leaving a border of a few inches. The border was folded up and over the filling and was brushed with melted butter. For a savory tart, I like to spinkle the top edges with sea salt. The tart baked for about 30 minutes while I made the horseradish sauce.

The recipe in the book suggests peeling and chopping fresh horseradish root and then partially pureeing it in a food processor with water. Then, it was to be drained and combined with the other ingredients in the sauce. I took a lazier approach and simply peeled the horseradish and grated it on a microplane into a bowl of sour cream. Then, I added chopped chives, salt and pepper, and white wine vinegar. You could also just use prepared horseradish and skip the added vinegar in the sauce, but I do like the bite of just-grated, fresh horseradish. The sauce was perfect with the cabbage and mushroom filling, and this hearty galette was perfect for fall.