On Charred Veg

With goat cheese, obviously.

Welcome to the Friday post for paid subscribers, a first in a mini-series on things you can cook with store-bought ingredients. On Tuesday, all subscribers will receive an essay about restaurants I love. As always, check out my website to see more of my work.

Hello and happy Friday from a home covered in that fine, mineral grit that can only mean one thing: a project is underway! This particular project is our kitchen, and to say I’m excited about this would be the understatement of the century. However, as anyone who has ever undertaken any sort of home reno/demo project knows, it wears on you. Losing our kitchen is a huge adjustment. It also makes being a food stylist/photographer with a home studio really interesting (see below for BTS of my latest client project).

All of this to say: we are not cooking the way that we usually do over the next few weeks. This galette was one of the things that I made on the last day that our kitchen was fully functional, and it was a day full of compromises.

Normally, I pride myself on making things from scratch. I love being able to take raw(ish) ingredients and transform them into a dinner or a dessert. But when faced with limited time and limited methods of cooking, something’s gotta go, baby.

For the next few weeks, I’ll be out of my comfort zone and doing as much with prepared and packaged foods as possible. I was stressed about what this meant for my ~content~ and then realized: maybe you relate. Maybe cooking dinner every night isn’t an option for all of you. Maybe just maybe, you’re looking for some shortcuts too.

I’ve already written about my love for frozen puff pastry, so that’s where I started. From this galette, full of tangy goat cheese and lush broccolini, we’re headed to the land of cookie dough mix next week. Buckle up and take the shortcut. No shame!

Charred Broccolini and Lemon Galette