Breakfast Buckwheat Pancakes with Bacon, Egg and Cheese

The French call this a “galette complète”, which unsurprisingly translates to “complete galette”.  Traditionally this is a buckwheat pancake filled with egg, ham and cheese, Comté or Gruyère being the most popular.

I prefer to think that it’s called a complete galette because you can throw everything including the kitchen sink into it. A great way to use up leftovers and a great way to start the weekend.

I posted a dinner-style galette with pear, bacon, blue cheese and walnuts a while back.

This breakfast rendition of the galette complète includes crispy lardons instead of ham, and adds left over mushrooms, rocket leaves and cooked green beans. Mix and match with whatever small bite-sized leftovers you have that only need reheating on top of the galette. Obviously you can make this vegetarian too.

Although not conventional, I find that a domed lid over the galette creates steam that helps to cook the egg and melt the cheese before everything else dies while waiting.

The edges of the galette are traditionally folded in over the filling into a square shape, leaving the beautiful runny egg yolk exposed.

THE RECIPE

Breakfast Buckwheat Galette Complète with Bacon, Egg and Cheese (pp – GF LC RSF)

Ingredients

1 ready-made buckwheat galette (I used Reflets de France)

1 (duck) egg

1 small handful of crispy-fried lardons (bacon or pancetta)

1 small handful of cooked sliced mushrooms

1 small handful of cooked green beans, cut into matchstick length (or any other left over cooked veg you’ve got, optional)

1 small handful of Gruyère or Comté cheese, grated

A few rocket or spinach leaves

A little coconut oil, rapeseed oil or butter

S&P

Method

Heat a large cast iron skillet or sturdy non-stick frying pan over medium-high heat. Rub allover with your fat of choice using a little kitchen paper. You just need a light coating.

Add the buckwheat galette, pretty side up, and heat for a minute or so. Turn it over.

Crack the egg into the middle. Use a palet knife to carefully spread the white out all over the rest of the gallete best you can whilst leaving the yolk nicely in the middle.

Turn the heat to medium low. Add the rest of the ingredients around the yolk leaving the edges of the galette free, finishing with the cheese and a few green leaves. Season.

Cover with a large domed lid to aid cooking of the egg. The galette is ready when the white has set and the yolk is still nice and runny, like a fried egg yolk would be.

Now fold 4 “edges” over the filling, so the galette is square, leaving the yolk exposed. Press down on the folded in edges to ensure they stick down and give it another 20-30 seconds before serving.

I gilded the lily by serving this with some leaves and basil roasted cherry tomatoes, as it was nearer lunchtime than breakfast. But to be fair, this needs nothing to accompany it, except perhaps a 2nd one.