One of the first “really impressive” meals I made for Steve was Beef Wellington, the classic dish involving a filet mignon wrapped in puff pastry with mushroom duxelle and pâté. It was Valentine’s Day, so I even put a little puffy heart on top (love). While it’s obvious there have been many, many, many more impressive meals since then (right Steve? RIGHT STEVE??) the evening still stands out as a huge personal victory, partly because I tackled an intimidating recipe and made it work. As I’m often known to do on Valentine’s Days of lore, I spend the entire day in the kitchen slaving over a hot stove, and by dinner time I’m sweaty, cranky and smell like beef. But that’s what I love about cooking – making other people happy. Sure, I love to create an amazing meal for myself, seeing it from start to finish like some sort of marble carving, but I much prefer to cook for others. In fact, several times in my life I have cooked a nice big meal and suddenly found myself not hungry, choosing to enjoy the look on my guests’ faces instead. Now that I think about it, I probably didn’t eat because the food was poisoned or spoiled or something, and, as the chef, naturally kept that information to myself.
Back to Beef Wellington. At the time, I had used a store-bought puff pastry, but had I known puff pastry is completely doable from scratch I would have considered it! That’s exactly what we made in class: puff pastry from scratch. It requires several steps that seem unnecessary, like entombing a block of butter in the dough, and rolling the dough out, folding it a particular way and rolling it out again. However, in the end the reasoning becomes clear: the butter/dough alternation and endless folds ensure that the flaky, crusty layers are formed properly. Fascinating, right??
-crickets-
Maybe a little cream puff discussion will reel in your attention. That’s right ladies and gentlemen, we produced sheet pan upon sheet pan of homemade cream puffs. Hand-whipped cream and all, there’s really no other way! The dough is called pâte a choux, and it’s piped into small rounds that, when baked, hollow out into light, airy balls. Using the same dough, we piped out éclairs and Paris-brest, a classic wreath-shaped pastry sprinkled with almonds. I chose to flavor my whipped creams with espresso (for the cream puffs and éclairs) and praline (for the wreaths). Chef had fondant warming on the bain-marie, and we finished our éclairs with a nice dip in the frosting. These are classic, hand-made pastries, and are very different from the store-bought, preservative-laden ones many families are used to. Home-made is always the way to go, though. Always.
I'm ready to admit that I have a soft spot in my heart for croissants. The obsession kind of snuck up on me, taking me by surprise with its flaky, buttery softness that seems to read my inner thoughts and feelings. They call to me, softly and seductively, and I know that I can safely envelope myself in their warmy goodness, always the same and always perfect. My love affair with croissants started a few short years ago, and has intensified since working at the bank - we have a gifted chef who runs a fantastic cafeteria. It helps that the cafeteria’s prices are unbelievable: I can buy a filling and well-rounded lunch for $5, while the normal Manhattan lunch costs about $10, on a good day. With my intense schedule, I started grabbing breakfast in the cafeteria as well, and now find myself knee-deep in a destructive croissant addiction from which I’m not sure any breakfast cereal or oat can pull me. I knew I had a problem when I got legitimately angry, like, seconds away from throwing a hissy fit when I discovered they had run out of croissants this morning. I stewed at my desk all morning, my mouth was foaming and my pulse was quick. I had to fix this! Give me something yeasty and puffy, anything for cripe’s sake! I eventually found reprieve in a $4 designer croissant from a Wall Street bakery down the street. I was ashamed to fork over that money, but it was the right pastry at the right time. My blood pressure is finally back to normal, at least until tomorrow morning…
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