My friend Leah shares my passion for cooking. She is the person who first told me about the Cambridge School of Culinary Arts, she introduced me to LA Burdick's chocolate shop in Harvard Square, and got me hooked on Asahi sushi in Brighton. She always lends a hand in my kitchen during my parties, and we often get together just to cook for each other and share recipes. It was her copy of Julie and Julia that I read and started to really love Julia Child. Once when I was sick, she appeared on my doorstep with a small tub of curried lentil soup she had made. God Bless Her! I could go on and on. In other words, Leah is my gourmet soul mate. During one of our evenings of cooking together (I believe we were trying a calzone recipe from this great vegetarian cookbook she has) she brought along an apple gallette she made for our dessert. It was beautiful; nice, golden, buttery crust folded and pleated around a mosaic of translucent apples. I whipped up some heavy cream with a touch of Baileys, but this tart needed no accompaniments. I swear to this day that it was the best apple gallette ever. The crust was perfect, flaky and tender. The apple's natural sweetness was just enough. I was in heaven.
Ever since that night, I have been trying to recreate Leah's masterpiece. She has shared her recipe, given me tips, and even made another gallette for my last dinner party. Well I'm still working on it, but last nights attempt got rave reviews. No whipped cream this time, but I did dress it with a bit of the ginger caramel sauce I had made previously for the chocolate covered pears.
Happy New Year to all. I'm looking forward to great things in 2009......big news is hopefully right around the corner. Stay tuned. :-)
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