Blueberry galette and publications

Somehow, my life revolves around publications. As a teenager, I used to publish articles in the school magazine. Nothing too fancy, but it was fun and it gave me the opportunity to write about whatever I wanted (more or less). A few years later, while in college, I published poems and short stories in a Catalan website. I wrote always with a nickname, just because I'm not ready for the world to associate my verbal ramblings to myself. Then all the sudden, for some reason, I stopped writing. 

Wait wait, don't be too sad. The artsy part of myself didn't get lost, it just changed instruments. I certainly forgot about pens, papers and keyboards, but I discovered cameras. My dad and one of my sisters are both great photographers, so I guess the transition was meant to happen. 

By the end of college, I was all into metal music. The only one to blame is my friend M, who plays in a band and introduced me to several other bands. I loved going to shows and taking pictures, all with a point and shoot and no photo editing. Still, the shots were decent and I ended up being pretty much the official photographer of my friends' bands. 

But change doesn't stop. I finished college, moved to the US, to a variety of music styles and to a lab at M.I.T.. In the academic world, science is all about publications. People need to know what you're doing in order to establish collaborations, give you money and such things. So I spent my one year project working on tons of experiments that eventually found their place in three papers.  (I'm not gonna go on with what my research was about but if you're interested I'll be happy to tell you more about it). 

After that project, I found a job, started my PhD applications and this blog. At first it was only about publishing posts. Then I took the photography of the recipes more seriously and started sending my pictures to Foodgawker and Tastespotting. The first has already published some of my pictures. Getting published in Tastespotting proved very difficult, but I finally got published this week! I know lots of my fellow bloggers get published there. For them it's probably no big deal. To me it is. It proves that no matter if it's science or photography, perseverance takes you places. 

I made this galette for 4th of July while staying at my friends' place. (Excuse the pictures of the finished product, they are not exactly ideal). They all loved it. My friend S asked me to publish the recipe ASAP, so here it goes. Easy and delicious. According to S, very tasty. Maybe he liked it so much because it has some bourbon in it. Oh, and best of news, I got told yesterday that another one of our papers has been accepted for publication. I hope to be publishing many more recipes  and papers in the upcoming years. Now, galette.

Blueberry galette
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Pate brisee:
adapted from Martha Stewart via Smitten Kitchen
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1 stick butter, very cold, cut into pieces
1/4 cup water, freezing

In a bowl, combine, flour, sugar and salt. Stir in the butter pieces and work them into the dough. I used my hands, you can use a pastry blender. If you're making this in summer you'll want to work fast to prevent the butter from softening. Once the mix resembles coarse pebbles, add the cold water and keep on working the dough until it comes together as a ball. Wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least one hour.

Filling
3/4 pint blueberries (or as many as you can fit in your dough)
3 tablespoons bourbon
1 tablespoon of sugar

Wash your blueberries. Toss them together with the bourbon and sugar and let them sit in the fridge while you refrigerate your dough.

Assemble the galette

Preheat your oven to 375 F
Roll your dough into a disc (I did it with my hands because my friends don't have a rolling pin, works just fine). Leaving a 2 inch border, place your blueberries on the dough. Brush the edges with egg wash and then fold them over the fruit to form a seam. Brush the outside part of the seam with more egg wash and sprinkle with some sugar. Transfer to a baking sheet and bake for about 25 minutes, until the crust is golden brown and the fruit filling is bubbly. Serve cold or at room temperature.