Plum and Blue Cheese Gallette

This recipe has blue cheese in it so you know it's definitely not from my mom.  Most Thais do not like cheese and even less a stinky blue cheese like the one I'm using in this recipe.  My father and I are one of the few exceptions and as far as we're concerned, the stinkier, the better!

Cheese is something he and I really bond over while my mother, older brother and little sister look away in disgust.  It just really isn't their thing.  Some of the best memories I have with my father is when he takes the entire family out for brunch at the famous Cafe Lalo in the Upper West Side.  Yep, the very same one that Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan filmed in for You've Got Mail.  It's the scene where they were supposed to meet for the first time and Tom Hanks' character realizes that he's been anonymously corresponding with the woman whose life he just ruined.  Queue the dramatic background music!

Anyways, whenever my dad takes us there for brunch, the two of us would pour over the cheese menu and pick a couple to try.  And the fact that the cheese plate comes with quince paste, fresh olive oil and rosemary toast and a tiny glass of fruit wine (raspberry was always my favorite) made it THAT much more awesome.  It was here that my dad taught me that fruit and cheese is a match made in heaven.

So this Plum and Blue Cheese Gallette goes out to you, Dad!

- Darin

Photo courtesy of Alan Hsu, who really needs to do all of our food photography from now, seeing as how my mom and I completely SUCK compared to him!  Thanks Alan!

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Plum and Blue Cheese Gallette

1 Pate Brisee (the best recipe I've tried is Elise's from Simply Recipes with one slight change.  I substitute the water with vodka, a neat trick from America's Test Kitchen!)
5-10 Plums (depending on the size of the plums and how thinly you manage to slice them.  I'd try for 1/2" but you can go up to 1" if you're feeling lazy but I wouldn't recommend any bigger than that)
2 tsp. Lemon Juice (if your Plums are tart/not very ripe like mine were, you can feel free to skip this)
1/3 cup Sugar
1/4 tsp. Cinnamon
1/4 cup Blue Cheese (you can go cheap for this)

1) Preheat the oven to 400F.  Take the pate brisee out of the fridge and let it sit for 5 mins to get to room temp.

2) In a large bowl, combine the plum slices and sugar, lemon juice, and cinnamon.  GENTLY toss and let it macerate while you roll out your dough.

3) Roll out the dough into a 10" circle.  Feel free to be liberal with the flour as it will thicken the plum juice up into a nice sauce.

4) Starting from at least 1" in from the edge, arrange the plum slices in a circle, working from the outside in.

5) Gently fold over the edge of the dough over the first row of plums to create a nice rustic crust.

6)  Drizzle the macerated plum juice over the pie, just enough so that it will stay moist while baking, but not make the gallette soggy.  I know that is a really vague instruction but it will really depend on how ripe your plums are as the more ripe they are, the more juice there will be from macerating.

7)  Crumble the blue cheese over top followed by a sprinkle of sugar to finish.

8) Bake for 20 minutes (but start checking at 15).  Let it cool and enjoy!