Week 4: Puff (not the magic dragon)
This last week has not been a great week in my personal life, so this update will probably be a little short. Sorry about that.
This week’s focus was puff, and oh boy, this was really not what I needed with a damaged wrist. The amount of rolling that I had to do, I could literally see the bruising being pulled further down my arm as I pushed my forearms over the rolling pin trying my best to get my puff pastry to roll out. Rolling puff pastry is a great work out if you want one!
Part of my plum and almond jalousie, didn’t feel the need to bring home the whole 2 feet.
The chef’s 2 foot whole jalousie.
On Thursday we made plum, almond and ginger jalousie. A jalousie is a type of blind or shutter with rows of angled slats, and apparently that’s where the name for this pastry comes from, as that is what the lattice work is supposed to look like. The chef in our demonstration told us quite a rude story about where the term jalousie comes from, a bit too rude and bizarre to share here. My mother reads this after all.
My jalousie went down pretty well, and I might well make it again with something other than almonds, as I am not a huge fan.
Above: The chef’s mille feuille.
Right: My cut up mille feuille. I really need to remember to take pictures of my food at the end of practicals…
Caught in the act… (Credit: Khyati, “@_the _misfit” on instagram)
Our Friday practical was spent making mille feuille. It was flipping nice. AS you can tell from the candid my classmate Khyati got. If it doesn’t all fit in the box, it shouldn’t go to waste right? I really enjoyed this practical to be honest and think it was probably one of my best practicals so far in terms of how I did, not to toot my own horn. It always helps when we’re making something that I immediately want to ram in my face.
Hope you guys all had a good week! There’ll be a recipe coming in the next couple of days using puff pastry, but a recipe that you can do really easily at home with store bought puff pastry. Will post a recipe for make your own puff underneath, but to be honest, store bought is absolutely fine if you don’t have two hours or the upper arm strength to roll it out while making it. I would not recommend.