The puff pastry was puffy

Thank God!

Thursday's diligent rolling and folding of the dough paid off today when we made a delicious dessert item.
We rolled out the dough, baked it and watched it rise. Then after a cooling off period we whipped up some Creme Patissiere, spread it over the pastry, and covered it with layers of fresh fruit.
In the end an apricot glaze made the whole thing shiny and delicious.

It was a proud moment because this was of those things I never saw myself making.
Besides that it just tasted good.

Our main dish today was a Pot Au Feu (kinda like a beef stew)and it too turned out nicely.

Today was special too because we had a great substitute teacher. Chef Pascal is a Frenchman who does believe in learning by doing.
So no endless monologues describing techniques but rather "here's the carrot show me what you do with it and if you don't do it right I'll show you again".

I have to admit that I am looking forward to the end of level 1 - we are all calling it "bootcamp" - and moving on to new responsibilities...and a new teacher.

So a lot of you guys out there ask me about equipment. What knife do I like, what's the best stand up mixer and why is copper so much better than stainless steel? (It isn't always).

Today I want to talk about the Furi East/West knife that I mentioned in yesterday's post.
I love this knife because even though it has a fairly thin blade it is very stiff.(Unlike the Wuesthof Santoku which always felt a bit flimsy to me).
A lot of chefs out there find Santokus to be a fad that no one really needs. True, nothing a santoku does that a regular chef's knife can't.
But still, I like the way the knife handles, how it chops rather than slices.

At the end of the day, it all comes down to technique and skill but it is nice to have the right tool for the job.
Furi knives have the added advantage of being very easy to clean because blade and handle are in one solid piece so that there is no little crevices that are hard to clean.
Here, look at them...

http://www.furitechnics.com.au/