Today was a very frustrating day! It didn't start out badly.. We had a lecture today on Pate a Choux (pat ah chew-sorry I don't have the appropriate little marks that go over the letters so you can better figure out the pronunciation!). Literally translated it means "cabbage paste" (those French LOVE cabbage, lol, using it often as a term of endearment). The definition of Pate a Choux is a plain, crispy, baked paste that puffs to three times its original size when cooked. Chef Lexie also calls it "a vehicle for yummy goodness". Pate a Choux has four ingredients: Fat (usually butter), Liquid (usually water), Flour and Eggs.
The Method goes as follows:
1. Place the 1/2 cup of butter in a saucepan and melt it.
2. Add 3/4 cup of water and bring it to a "rockin' boil".
3. Add 1 cup of flour all at once and stir, stir, stir.
4. Stir and cook over a medium heat for at least several minutes-until the dough starts to move around the spoon as a ball, the finish goes from matt to shiny and a film forms on the bottom of the pan.
5. Move to a Kitchenaid (this can also be done by hand) and stir using the paddle attachment to dissipate the heat so you can add eggs.
6. Add 3-4 eggs, one at a time, beating until fully Incorporated.
7. Shape your dough into balls (cream puffs) or a log form (for eclairs). You can use a pastry bag for this and pipe the dough or drop by spoonfuls onto a parchment lined cookie sheet.
8. Bake in a HOT oven (425 degrees) until the puffs are dried thru completely (you can take one out and break it open to check this (this will take probably 30-40 minutes).
9. This dough does not keep well, especially when filled with pastry cream so is best made fresh before each use.
Applications for this dough are:
1. Eclairs which are oblong shaped Pate a Choux filled with pastry cream and frosted with chocolate ganache.
2. Cream Puffs which are round shaped Pate a Choux filled with pastry cream and topped with a caramel "hat".
3. Croquembouche, literally translated means "crack or crunch in the mouth". This is a conical shaped tower of cream puffs held together with caramel with a sugar "cage" drizzled over it. This is a traditional French wedding "cake".
4. Gougere which is a cheesy puff. Cheese is added to Pate a Choux after the egg stage. Dry cheese works best for this. It makes a great appetizer.
5. Paris-Brest, Pate a Choux piped into a ring shape and filled with pastry cream or fruit or whipped cream. This was created in honor of the bicycle race from Paris to Best.
6. Gateau St Honore which sounds really complicated but here goes: take Pate Brisee dough and form it into a disc and bake it flat. Make Pate a Choux and make a ring form, and also cream puffs and fill with pastry cream. Combine gelatin, pastry cream and Swiss or Italian meringue to form Creme Chibouste (a specific Bavarian cream). the Brisee goes on the bottom, put the ring on top of it and the cream puffs on top of that (using caramel as a "glue". Use chocolate and vanilla flavored Creme Chibouste to fill in the center of this dessert. Sounds like a lot of work! Pastry is making this for dessert tomorrow. We'll see how that goes, lol!
We paired up and each team made Pate a Choux, which we piped into eclair form (we had chocolate and vanilla filled eclairs for dessert today!). Once we finished this, it was back to our individual kitchens.
And this is the start of the frustration! Hot Plate made roasted Rabbit with Mustard Sauce, Broccolini and Pommes Dauphine. We took the rabbit thighs and stuffed them with pancetta that had been cubed and pre-cooked. The boned thigh meat was then wrapped around the pancetta cubes, tied into a neat little bundle, seared on the stovetop, then finished in the oven. The sauce was made with the pan drippings and rabbit stock, then finished with mustard and cream and herbs. My job was to make the Pommes Dauphine. We started with Pate a Choux that Chef Lexie had made as a demo for us during lecture. I peeled and boiled the potatoes ( I SHOULD have left them unpeeled to boil, then peeled them after they were cooked). Then I had to rice the boiled potatoes. What a pain! The first ricer was broken and didn't work. The rest of the ricers were old and rusty and did not work well. Some of the potato squished out the sides and I was NOT suppose to mix those snippets with my RICED potatoes, oh no! Once the potatoes were riced, I had to make mashed potatoes with them adding mild and butter and salt and pepper. Once that was done, I mixed the Choux and the mashed potatoes together. Then you stuff all that into a pastry bag with a round tip. You heat peanut oil to 350-370 degrees (we don't really have an accurate thermometer for hot oil). You pipe the potato mixture out in lengths of approximately 3-4 inches using a knife to cut off the stream of potato mixture, dropping it into the hot oil. My first few developed "hernias" which means the oil is too hot. The outside sears quickly then the inside starts to cook, puffs up and breaks thru the outer crust in one, sometimes two placed, like little hernias. I turned the fire down under the oil, it got too cool, I turned the fire up, it got too hot again. Some of the Pommes Dauphine cooked in oil that was not hot enough got too greasy so could not be used. By the time I made 100 of these, I couldn't even LOOK at them any more!! Pommes Dauphine would not be my first choice for potatoes (I have finally met a potato I did not like!). No picture today!
Anyway.....it's time for me to study for my exam tomorrow morning. We got our tests back from last week. I got a 98. Not bad! Tomorrow we also start our first round of "Iron Chef". We were broken down into teams of two. We will be given one hour to plan, make and plate a meal which our chef instructors will then judge. Becklien and I are a team but are not up for a couple of weeks. The three winning teams will compete against each other for one winning team. We'll see how it goes!
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