pâte feuilletée

who says one can't have puff pastry for dinner????
BECAUSE I SAY YOU CAN!

Anyone who knows me know that I just love, I may even be a little obsessive about, BAKING! It is just the best thing in my opinion so anything I can put in the oven gets a star in my book. So of course during my struggle to cook what do I do?
I BAKE!

So, while I'm trying to find the best of the best of regional cuisine I have found myself loving the basics of French cooking with whatever yummy things I can find in my fridge... and if you have even seen the inside of my fridge it is barren. A few tomatoes here, some wilted turnip greens there, my boyfriend's bacon (I don't eat meat... which may come as a struggle when I really get going on this French cooking thing, I mean meat is pretty unavoidable.) So I found a recipe that called for puff pastry filled with veggies (and maybe bacon), easily enough right? well it actually was.

PUFF PASTRY has earned its self a pretty scary name but it really is not too bad... you just have to know the science.
*When rolling out the dough it is KEY to not let your butter melt into the dough. You must work fast so the butter keeps its shape in the dough, leaving little pockets of butter that are the mystery and magic of this famed dough. The reason is that when the dough is cooked the butter melts away leaving yummy little air pockets that create the flaky crust. Simple enough right?
Butter=Flaky! Yay!
It is also important that your butter is not concentrated in one spot because then the dough will not be flaky, pretty obvious right?
But a little tricky to execute, you want to make sure you have cold butter cut up into small pieces that you can place on to you dough evenly. Not one big hunk of warm butter. YUCK. Then folding the dough over the butter so that the layer of butter is in between layers of dough, another key point. Then once its all rolled up and the butter in nestled between your yummy dough your off to a great start!

*I did not include a recipe because I have yet to find one that I really want to share with all you, you know really fool proof one, so keep tuned because French cuisine is nothing with out the lovely pâte feuilletée!*

These pictures do not include the butter adding stage, only the basic dough making part.

Now, where exactly did I go with this delious idea of puff pastry?
I filled it with veggies! Of course, you gotta use what you have some how. However, it just so happens that i also had a box of butter :)
I shaped my veggies in to a cylinder using the famed prep bowl as a mold and look what I got:

AMAZING!!!

Then for my love (the meat eater) I wrapped these little treats with a slice of bacon. Finally the fun part. Covering them with the puff pastry...
And surprisingly they were really good. For anyone feeling inspired by this idea of a recipe I would go ahead and change a few things
1. I would have cooked the tomatoes and/or left them whole... they were a little too juicy (however totally delicious) and made the edges of the dough soggy
2. I would have added a bottom layer of dough, just for more enjoyment!
3. I would have cooked the bacon on a different pan because i am convinced that some bacon grease got onto my lovly vegitairian dinner... but...shhh dont tell... i ate it any ways...

AND FINALLY! it was super good.


enjoy.

Struggles

I have been feeling a little set back with my original vision of exploring the history and cuisine of one region per week. The main problem; I CANT FIND THE RIGHT BOOKS! I though I had hit the gold mine with my last post and book search but nope. After reading further into the books I was lost. They had good history, and science, but nothing that I set out to learn. But I learned that, do I get a gold star? So basically this is what I have decided: I still am going to find out everything I can about those regions I posted, starting next week. But in the mean time I’m going to go on a wild book chase down to Powell’s in Portland on Monday! Which should be really fun, I love books. Especially cook books! Right now I have some great books and some great ideas I’m just missing some key pieces to my puzzle so please hang tight as I try to find everything I need to make my class and this blog run as smoothly as possible...

And I have a good feeling it will because today a friend handed me "The Food of France" by Waverly Root that just happens to have chapters dedicated to regional cuisine! Can you say perfect! I’m very excited about that.
If you have any book suggestions please comment and let me know, preferably by Monday!
Wish me luck!

By the way, this is a hard search. I have already accumulated a TON of books, but it is hard to sift through all the lovely French cook books and history of food books to find the ones of importance. Much harder than i ever would have anticipated...

Reading List

After spending an afternoon submersed in the cookbook section at my local bookstore, I came out with a plan of action for my remaining nine weeks in the quarter and though I would get a head start by letting you know where I will be going, and what I hope to cook. Of course there is always room for change. My journey will take me to some of my favorite and some of the most well known regions in France, only by reading and cooking I’m not traveling until the spring. I will spend a week learning about regional dishes, history of the cuisine and the general love of food France is known for. Just for a little back round I lived in Grenoble, France when I was 15-16 and fell in love with food while I was there, so for me doing this blog is really a dream come true.
I have not picked a solid order but I will be learning about these regions:

Normandie
Provence
Ile de France
Alsace/Lorraine
Dauphine Savoie
Bourgogne

I will be reading six different books, and others if I find them:

A Goose in Toulouse by Mort Rosenblum
The Paris Cafe Cookbook by Daniel Young
Grand Livre de la France a Table by Pierre Bordas (in French)
Long Ago in France by M.F.K Fisher
Le Meilleur de la Cuisine Francaise edited by Philippe Lamboley (in French)
Molecular Gastronomy by Herve This

I will talk more about the books when it comes time to read them but for now get prepared to explore France through the eye of food and find out all it has to offer...