LE CORDON BLEU UPDATES - 3

The past two weeks have been crazy busy here. So much stuff was happening at school and at home. Today, I am alone at home without Ian. It's Ian's first day away from home at a Montessori. He was so excited to go to school,play and eat snacks! Amma is here with us for a few more days and after that,our home will be very quiet during the day. As of today,all 3 of us are back to school. Jobin's school starts 2 days from now.He will be travelling quite extensively this year. 2015 is very eventful for us. I am so glad that Amma is here with us now. If you scroll down, you will see a few photographs that we took over the weekend for our Onam celebrations.

At school,we baked tons of Croissants,Puff Pastry treats,Brioche buns etc. The past two weeks were so delicious! Those chocolate eclairs were really to die for. I am still dreaming about them. I really have to start watching what I eat these days since the goodies we are taught at school is not that figure friendly! I also volunteered for Minnesota Cooks at the State Fair and got a chance to rub elbows with a lot of successful Chefs from the Twin Cities.

What we learnt for the past 2 weeks:
Challah Bread
Challah Bread rolls
Brioche sliders with Remoulade sauce
Cream Swans
Chocolate Eclairs
Paris - Breast
Profiteroles
Mushroom & Goat Gourges with Red Bell Pepper Coulis
Puff Pastry
Palmiers
Savoury Galette
Pithivier
Shrimps Newberg
Classic Croissants
Pain au Chocolat
Bear Claw
Different types of Danishes

Thank you all for hanging in there and reading the updates. I promise you,there will be a recipe coming up very soon! Amma has been spoiling us with all the cooking so there's nothing that I can show you of mine. Things will change very soon once Amma leaves ;-)

15 MINUTE HOMEMADE PUFF PASTRY

Before I begin with the post, I have some news for you. I am participating in a scholarship challenge held by the Institute of Culinary Education in New York for their Pastry & Baking Arts course. If you could take a moment to cast a vote for me,click here. It will help me a lot! You can vote everyday till March 28.If everything goes well as planned, I should join school this year.

A few days ago I was searching the internet for a quick puff pastry recipe a.k.a rough puff pastry. I have made both of them previously and I never tire from making them. Who doesn't like Chicken Puffs & Egg Puffs? When I made them earlier, I reused my chicken curry to make the filling. This time I was aiming for an Egg Puff but I made some Palmiers with it. They are just like the Britannia Little Hearts. So addictive!The Rough Puff Pastry I made earlier was for the famous Bangalore snack called Dilkhush.

Clotilde's recipe is so quick that you can make them in the last minute's notice.There is no chilling in between the rolling of the dough,which saves a lot of time. The end product was super flaky and buttery. Do not substitute butter for anything else as the flavour will alter if you do so. The bakery puffs we get back home is definately made with Dalda/Margarine. They taste greasy after a while. These,when made with pure sweet butter smells and tastes so good!

I would suggest an egg wash to give them a golden colour but make sure you don't let the egg wash drip down the cut sides as it will prevent the pastry from rising to it's maximum. We do buy our puff pastry,occasionally. The convenience is great but the price isn't,especially when you have to entertain a crowd with it. Now that I have found the quickest and the best one, I don't think I would return to the frozen packaged ones for convenience sake. You can wrap it well and store in the freezer for upto a month. Thaw and use as needed.

15 MINUTE PUFF PASTRY
Ingredients:
1 cup all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon fine salt
10 tablespoons cold unsalted butter,cubed
1/3 cup ice cold water

Method: In a medium sized bowl, add the flour and salt. Stir to mix.
Add the cubed butter to the flour and work it in using a pastry blender or knives till they are crumbly and when the butter is in uniform pieces all about the size of peas. Make a hole in the centre of the flour mix and pour in the water. Work it in using a fork to form a dough.

Dump it onto a floured cutting board and pat to form a rough square. The dough might look crumbly,that's just the way it should be. Using a rolling pin,roll out the dough into a 10 inch long rectangle.Fold the bottom third of the dough over the middle of the dough. Fold the upper third of the dough over the middle of the dough.Rotate the dough one-quarter turn and repeat. Use additional flour to prevent sticking. Repeat the process atleast 6 or 7 times more. Wrap the dough well in plastic and chill for a minimum of 1 hour in the fridge. Use as needed.

This was well recieved by everyone who tried it. I made Ian some plain puffs and he loved it! You can use this for every recipe which calls for frozen puff pastry.

So, don't forget to vote for me! Here's the link!

CURRIED CHICKEN PUFFS with HOMEMADE PUFF PASTRY

There could be certain small things which reminds you of your hometown bakeries,even if you are lost among modern decor and high end coffee shops, right? For me, these tiny things are things like puffs especially motta puffs (egg puffs),paper-il pothinja cake (sponge cake in candy wrappers), variety of biscuits (cookies are called as biscuits in India) and a lot of other sweet and savoury treats. I'm sure we can try and make them at home, but we might miss out that authentic taste of it. I really wanted to eat some 'nadan' chicken puffs sometime last week and I did, as you can see :) When I was a kid, I used to think, puffs were deep fried because they were oily! Now, I know how :)

When I was in India, I used to long to see readymade puff pastry in our local supermarket. Unfortunately, we never got any of those stuff and I am pretty sure we never will! :-) I used to dream then, of pushing my cart around each aisle and pulling out everything I wanted from the shelves.I still dream but certain conditions do apply! I keep telling myself,'Don't get used to readymade puff pastry or pie crust,when you go back to India, you will be denied of such luxuries'! For people here, it's not a luxury, but for people like us, yes it is. Ummm...they say,'Make hay while the sun shines'! and here I am making sure the hay doesn't get too dried fearing the days when there will be no sunlight.

I made this batch of puff pastry way back in July and froze it. I completely forgot about it till I cleaned my freezer  and there it was, well wrapped and frozen like a brick! I was not sure whether it will thaw successfully. Luckily it did and I baked a sample batch. The pastry puffed up so beautifully and filled our little apartment with a wonderful aroma.

I used a leftover chicken curry as  filling.You can use whatever you like.

CURRIED CHICKEN PUFFS with HOMEMADE PUFF PASTRY
                                      
HOMEMADE PUFF PASTRY
Recipe taken from Baking with Julia by Dorie Greenspan,page no:46
Original recipe belongs to Michel Richard

Ingredients:
2 1/2 c unbleached all purpose flour ( You can use all purpose flour/maida too)
1 1/4 c cake flour ( To make cake flour at home: For 1 cup of cake flour , use 3/4 c all purpose flour with 2 tbsp cornstarch/cornflour)
1 tbsp salt
1 1/4 c ice water
4 sticks/1 lb/454 g of very cold unsalted butter

Method:
Mixing the dough:
Put the all purpose flour, cake flour and salt together and whisk together.
Add all the water at once and mix till it forms a ball. You can use a food processor for these steps. The dough will be very moist and pliable and will hold together when squeezed between your fingers.
Remove the dough from the machine,form into a ball,and, with a small sharp knife, slash the top in a tic-tac-toe pattern.Wrap the dough in a damp towel and refrigerate for 5 minutes (don't skimp on it!).
Meanwhile place the butter between 2 sheets of plastic wrap and beat it with a rolling pin until it flattens into a square that's about 1" thick.Take care that the butter remains cool and firm; if it has softened or become oily, chill it before continuing.

Incorporating the butter:
Unwrap the dough and place it on a work surface dusted with all purpose flour.With the rolling pin,press on the dough to flatten it and then roll into a 10" square.Keep the top and bottom of the dough well floured to prevent sticking and lift the dough and move it around frequently.Starting from the center of the square, roll out over each corner to create a thick center pad with "ears" or flaps.
Place the cold butter in the middle of the dough and fold the ears over the butter, stretching them as needed so that they overlap slightly and encase the butter completely.You should have a package that's about 8" square.

The dough must be cold at all times. If your room is warm and you feel that the butter has softened,wrap the dough with a plastic wrap and chill it.

Making the turns:
I don't think I can do justice to you guys by typing out the method, so why don't you all go ahead and watch Michel in action? Do come back

Freezing the puff pastry:
It can be frozen at any stage, ideally after completing the six turns,roll it out into a flat sheet, chill it on a parchement -lined baking sheet ,and then, when it is cold, wrap it for freezer. I didn't do any of that, I just wrapped the dough (after 6 full turns) in cling film and then packed it in a ziplock bag and froze it for more than 6 months! :)
When you need to use it,thaw the dough, still wrapped , in the refrigerator.

How I made the Curried Chicken Puffs:

Since I froze the pastry in bulk and not the sheet form, I let it thaw on the counter in room temperature. Use any chicken/vegetable filling of your choice.

Pre-heat the oven to 425F/220C and position the rack in the middle.

Dust your work surface with flour, lightly.Cut out a small portion of the puff pastry and roll it out into 1/4" thickness, evenly. Try to keep it in a rectangular or square shape to avoid wastage.

Divide them further into squares using a sharp knife.Keep the filling in the center ,fold over and seal the edges using water. Place the filled pastry on a parchment/butter paper lined baking sheet.

Beat a whole egg and brush lightly on top of the filled pastry and bake for 25-30 mins or till the top is nice and golden.

Let it cool slightly as it gets crunchy when it cools.

If you are looking for some chicken filling ideas, you can have a look at my Kuttanadan Chicken Roast & Indian Samosa!

Verdict: It cannot get any more perfect than this for me, I am sure. It had such a wonderful crunch and the filling complemented really well. Jobin loved it and gave me a big thumbs up! Every evening after I made it, for almost a week, he used to come back from work and ask me for these crunchy puffs :)

Please don't go by the length of the recipe, it's really easy and the results are mindblowing! So get your rolling pins out, people! I am making another batch of puff pastry this week :)

I am sending these delicious Curried Chicken Puffs to Kerala Kitchen - a monthly event co-hosted by my dear blogger friend 'R' of  Magpie's Recipes and yours truly.So every time you make a Kerala 'inspired' dish, think of us, think of our event and send your entries to magpiemails AT gmail DOT com and make this event a success! There are many badges (Top Dish,Best Pic & Top Contributor )awaiting you!