Le Cordon Bleu - Instruction #6; Practical #6

Instruction #6 – Commonly Used Dough – Part 3

• Puff pastry completion
• Puff pastry with leeks, poached eggs with Albufera Sauce
• Sweet short pastry: Seasonal fruit tart

Instruction #6 was braised leeks, poached egg, and red peppers with an Albufera sauce and reduced veal stock – in puff pastry. The same puff pastry that we started in the previous practical. That means if we messed up in practical #5, practical #6 was going to suffer as well. Equaling, two bad marks.

I was a bit sleepy for my 8:30 a.m., Monday morning, practical, but staying organized and moving as confident as possible I worked through the recipes.

First, turning the puff pastry one last time. Then began to reduce the chicken and veal stocks. Washed the leeks and red pepper. And julienne the leeks.

My knife skills have improved to where I can julienne items regular (as the chef’s say, meaning ‘uniform’)…the speed has yet to come. I will say though, my speed has increased, but still far from where it should be.

Once the leeks were julienne I proceeded to braise them with a bit of water and, what else? Butter. Brunoise the red pepper. Roll out the puff pastry, cut into fancy shapes, and into the oven.

During the 20 minutes the puff pastry baked, I began to prepare my Albufera sauce. Adding cream, salt, white pepper, and Madeira to the reduced chicken stock. Strained both stocks/sauces. And readied myself for the poached eggs.

Bringing some water and white vinegar to a gentle boil, I broke 4 eggs into a bowl separately. Dashed with a bit more white vinegar. Then gently slide the eggs into the boiling water, one-by-one. Rolling the egg around with a spoon to form a nice little package.

Eyeing the puff pastry, making sure it wasn’t burning.

Roll the egg around.

Eye the puff pastry.

Roll the egg around. Finished! Out with a skimmer and into some ice cold water to stop the cooking. Dry on some paper-towel. Trim the edges with a pairing knife.

After cleaning my station and putting my unnecessary equipment away my puff pastry was finished. It looked like the leaning tower of Pisa. About twice as tall as all the others. Chef Poupard looked at me and we smiled. He asked me if I knew why… “It was too thick,” I replied. With a giggle in his eye he nodded.

I took my warm plate from my oven (hot food is always served on hot plates). Placed a half, hollowed out puff pastry in the center. Filled with leeks which were finished with a bit of salt, white pepper, and cream. Placed a poached egg on top. Drizzled with Albufera sauce. Dab of reduced veal stock. Sprinkle of red peppers. Then I leaned the top of the puff pastry just so. Drizzled some more sauce around the outside of the plate. And presented it to the chef.

Reminding me about the thickness of the dough he continued to taste. The egg was perfect. The leeks a bit over-salted. The sauce was great. And the red peppers were nicely cut. All-in-all a pretty good – not great, but pretty good.

Sweet short pastry: Seasonal fruit tart