Roll it out

Today was a short day but that doesn't mean we can sit back and relax, on the other hand, the next 3 days will be quite exhausting with Restaurant service Wednesday evening and Thursday afternoon and the Regional Menu: Alsace on Friday; not to mention being Chef of the Week, making sure all the produce is in the fridge, everyone has what they need, making sure everything is cleaned up and put back at the end of the day as well - but you really can't do it without the rest of your group who support you and have your back throughout the whole process, without them it would be impossible!


Before tackling dense recipes for the public, we continued on to our next group of foods based on puff pastry. Puff pastry is light, flaky dough that is made by repeatedly layering pastry dough and butter to form a thin dough that puffs in the oven. It takes several "turns" to make the puff pastry perfect with letting it rest 10-15 minutes between turns, meaning rolling it out and folding it into a book (the basic recipe for a mille-feuille as well). The puff pastry dough is then cut accordingly - either rectangle or circle, the ingredient is added in the middle and another puff pastry is added as the cover alongside egg wash to make that nice brown glaze all around. 

The first was an allumette au fromage (rectangle pastry) which is a puff pastry baked in the oven with a layer or cheese and Sauce Mornay in the middle. I'm not a big fan of cheese but it generally turned out well.

                   

                                      

The second was a 

Petit Pâté (a round puff pastry) stuffed with a mixture of ground veal and pork, egg yolk, salt and pepper, Madeira wine and minced shallots - it reminded me of a Shanghainese Dumpling! Yum! It was my favorite of the two.

I apologize for blogging a very short entry but need my rest for the next 3 days, starting with our second dinner service tomorrow (and most probably an absent entry tomorrow). A big good luck for Group B, get some rest, and I know we'll do great! See you on the other side!