Thandai Peach Galette

We were on the bed, laying in our usual position, heads further away but legs tangled into each others. It was something that bothered him at first - my inability to sleep with my head dug into his arms. It is so theatrical, one can't really breathe comfortably that close, I can't breathe I would exclaim. He understood not just the need for physical space, but the space I needed to learn and grow, to fail and concur, to find my individuality as a tender and seemingly unsure twenty year old.

My man, has been the cornerstone of my life, accepting my weaknesses and spiking his endearing mellow grin on my successes. He has taught me to seek happiness in the littlest things - a good bargain at the store, a juicy sweet crate of peaches, an unexpected warm mug of tea, a call from an old friend. His continued and selfless friendship has made me independent of falling in the trap of failed, pretentious friendships that just pull you down in long run. 

When the day has been tough, he's made me egg for dinner.

As we crawled under covers, on our anniversary last week, kissing a final goodnight to our little sunshine, I dug my head into his chest, took deep breath to stay as long as I could. It has been marvellous seven years together, indeed.

Thandai Peach Galette

Thandai is Indian cold drink that is made with milk. What makes this beverage special is the spice and nut mix which is added to the cold milk. I took this spice mix and added it to some ricotta in this galette. The fennel, cardamom and black pepper extenuate the sweet, fruity accents of the peach. Usually, I would add saffron and rose petals to my thandai spice mix, but here I have omitted it to let the flavours of peach be dominate. Ricotta sets and forms a thin cheesecake like layer, which I think can easily be doubled here, but mascarpone would work as well. 

The other day, I served the galette (just a rustic tart really) with some salted caramel (which come to think of it, I always end up doing) and while we loved it, I think it overpowered the thandai flavour a bit. Either way, we loved it.

Thandai Peach Galette 

Ingredients 

For the pastry (Zoe Nathan's recipe from Food and Wine)

1 cup all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 stick butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces and chilled
3 tablespoons ice water

1 large egg yolk mixed with 2 tablespoons of water

For the filling 

125g ricotta
3 tablespoon Thandai spice mix (recipe follows)
2 tbsp sugar

2 large soft peaches or 3 small ones, peeled, seed removed, sliced into 1/4 inch wedges
1 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp pistachio dust

Thandai spice mix*

5-6 almonds, blanched and peeled
3-4 pistachio, blanched and peeled
2-3 cashew nuts, soaked
1/2 tsp fennel seeds
1 tsp magaz (melon seeds), soaked
1/2 tsp poppy seeds (optional), soaked
1/8 tsp cardamom powder or two fresh cardamom pods crushed, skin removed
3 black peppercorns 

Note

*Soak all the things under Thandai spice mix for at least an hour

Method 

Before you start with the recipe, keep your flour and cut butter in the freezer for 15-20 minutes. 

Pulse the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a food processor. Add the butter and keep pulsing till you get pea size crumbs. It doesn't have to be consistent pea size all around.

Sprinkle in the cold water and pulse just until the dough is moistened. You don't want to pulse too much at this point.

Turn the crumbs onto a work surface, and bring it together into a disk. Wrap the pastry in plastic and chill for 30 minutes.

On a work surface spread out parchment paper and flour it well. Roll out the pastry on it to an 11 inch round, about 1/4 inch thick. 

Transfer the pastry along with the parchment paper to a baking tray. Chill for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, grind all the ingredients under spice mix. Stir the thandai spice mix and sugar with ricotta and keep aside. You might want to add some more sugar based on preference. 

Spread out the ricotta on the pastry and arrange the peaches slightly over lappingly. Fold up the pastry over the peaches, leaving most of the peaches uncovered. Brush the pastry with the egg wash. Sprinkle the tart lightly with 1 tablespoon of the brown sugar and pistachio dust. Freeze the tart until solid for at least 4 hours or preferably overnight.

Preheat the oven to 190°C (375°F). Bake the tart directly from the freezer for an 1 hour (my oven has been acting all weird lately!) or until the pastry is deeply browned. Let it cool on a cooling rack. 

Serve with a  sprinkle of pistachio dust or salted caramel.