9/23 Huzzah for Pastry!

Lemon Curd Tart
Recipe by Jim Dodge
Picture by Tiffany Tassin 

            I felt like pastry day was like going to a warm familiar place where I had some idea of what was going on today. I had worked with similar ingredients, had manipulated them before and had some idea of what the end result would be. The best part was that everything turned out better than I had expected. Don’t get me wrong, there were some supreme messes and a tragic butter splooge out but all in all I felt like I was able to learn new techniques, adapt when I needed to and fix problems when they arose. There was something comforting about having familiar dough in my hands. I don’t know if it was the magic of having Chef there, the tools at my disposal or my actual skill (lets be serious, I really doubt this one) but the dough was smooth, pliable and I was able to manipulate it how I wanted (for the most part). Most of the errors I think will be smoothed out with practice but all in all I felt pretty good about what was done. Not to mention we didn’t have a table full of meat at the end of the day!!

            I also felt like I could use the recipes that were provided and be able to use them as a foundation for my own personal creations. Unlike a recipe that needs to be followed or a steak that can really only be cooked a few ways I felt like I could easily take the puff pastry or the tart dough and use it for a whole host of delicious treats.

            On an unrelated note, I thought it was interesting that Chef Doge talked about the pastry being a “sin.” I think this is just the Gastronomy student in me coming out but it was very interesting to hear a man who works exclusively with pastry for a living refer to it as such. There are so many sides of the argument none of which I feel like chronicling here but I will be interested to see how other pastry chefs relate and refer to their craft. How could a tart be any more “sinful” than the AMAZING duck and chicken liver mouse full of butter and duck fat?  Why do we inherently equate desert with sin? What does that say about how we eat?

I am proud of being able to see that I was doing something wrong and asking for help and learning the best way to fix it.

I should work on… practice makes perfect.

Take always

·      The feel of flour in your hands feels amazing.

·      Be careful how you clean a rolling pin

·      Have several rolling pins- they all do different things

·      Be careful how thin you roll the dough