Palmiers and Pinwheels

 So the rest of the Puff Pastry dough was baked into Palmiers and Pinwheels.

4 - Five Folding of the Puff Pastry, benching 20 minutes between each roll definitely helped with relaxing the dough and keeping the butter block in the dough.  And see the wonderful result of layers and layers of lamination.

Some people like the Palmiers baked till the sugar is caramelized completely, and also to extend the shelf life.  My Palmiers and Pinwheels are baked till Golden Brown and retained sugar crystals.

More pictures can be viewed at http://picasaweb.google.com/pastrydavinci

Stir-Fried Shanghai Noodles with Shrimps

We love to order "Chow Mien" at our favorite seafood restaurant in Fremont - especially my grand-kids.  They love "noodles".  Three dishes for $18?  Not baaad.  We can feed the entire family and still got enough to take doggy bag home.  After a while though, it's time to try your own.  We found this new 99 Ranch Market in Mountain View (CA).  It's loaded with variety of Oriental noodles.  Anything from dry, instant, to fresh noodles from Japan to Taiwan to China, they got few of each.  Our goal is to find the right fresh noodles for the stir-fry to make the "Chow Mien".  As you might already know "Chow Mien" is Chinese fried noodles usually prepared with some vegetables, meat, and sauce, and it is expressed in "Cantonese" dialect.  In Mandarin, it would be pronounced more like "Tsao Mien".  Regardless, I found this Stir-Fry Shanghai Noodles.   You can practically add any kind of vegetables and meat to stir fry with it.  Since this is fresh noodles, not egg noodles, the noodles will be soft vs. "pan fried noodles" that is usually prepared with "egg" based thin noodles.  I am sure you know a lot more about the noodles than I do, but I used the following ingredients:

2 TBsp dark soy sauce
1-1/2 TBsp light soy sauce... I just used Low Sodium soy sauce we bought for both
1TBsp OYSTER sauce
1/2 tsp sugar
1/8 tsp ground white pepper or black pepper
1/2 tsp of pre-chopped garlic in the jar  - if fresh, three cloves, chopped
1 tsp of minced ginger  (I keep them frozen, so I can use it anytime)
1/2 lb of raw shrimps - Rinsed in salt water and strained or you can use Chicken pieces
1 bunch of green onions, washed and chopped
1/4 head small Cabbage, finely Julienned or cut thinly
2 cups of fresh bean sprouts, washed and strained
3 Dry Shiitake Mushrooms, rehydrated in Hot Boiling water. Sliced.  Save the Stock.
Any other veges you want to put in.

MIX soy sauce, oyster sauce, salt, and pepper together.  Set aside

Pour 3 TBsp of cooking oil in the hot wok.
Add garlic and ginger.  Stir to bring out aroma, then add green onion.  3 min.
Add Raw Shrimps (or Chicken)
Stir fried until cooked. (Not translucent anymore)
I also add a bit of chili flakes, but you can do it for your own bowl later.
WITHOUT TAKING OUT THE OIL IN THE WOK, Take out the shrimps.... try to leave as much oil in the Wok as possible.  If not enough oil to fry the vegetables, add 1 TBsp more of cooking oil.

Add Cabbage and stir-fry just until it turns translucent.  Make sure there is enough cooking oil to coat the cabbages lightly all around.  Do not over cook.    Stir fry for 3-4 min. 
(Raw cabbage seems to develop gas for many people.)
Add Bean sprouts, mushrooms, and any other veges.  Stir fry for 30 seconds.
Remove to large bowl and set aside.

In the same Wok:
Add the fresh Noodles and recommended amount of liquid on the package, e.g. 6 oz water + mushroom stock -- amount of stock from rehydrated Shiitake mushroom.
Cook the noodle until the stock goes down to 1/3 cup or something like that.  

(Some people prefer the noodles with lots of sauce, but just make sure it is not like a soup.  After all, this is Stir-fry noodles.)
Add Vegetables, Sauce Mixtures, Shrimps to combine with noodles.  

Stir Fry until everything is coated with sauce mixture.  3 to 5 minutes.
Done.

Serves 5

 

Also, there are lot more pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/pastrydavinci

Blueberries on the Cloud Puff Tart

So, here is what I decided to do with the rest of the Puff Pastry dough. 
I wanted to make another Pineapple Tatin, but out of luck.  No more fresh pineapple.
In my effort to find a way to preserve the Puff Pastry's "Puffiness" even after topping it with the goodies, I came up with an idea.  I am sure others have done the same because I have seen puff pastry being used for Pate puff, but in much smaller size, of course.  So, I shaped the dough to fit my 10 " round Tart Pan - Puff Tart Shell is formed, chilled, sprinkled the top with some sugar and egg washed the top, and baked at 425'F.  Beautiful.  It puffed up like an awakening giant stretching upwards.   The sugar and egg wash coating was to help in giving some shine and flavor and not depend entirely on the pastry cream of some sort for the sweetness.  To cut down on the overall usage of sugar, I decided on the beautiful puffy Whip Cream for the topping.  That's it.  Pressed down on the puffed shell with the palm of my hands to make the well in the center (surprisingly, the shell sprang back... no problem.)  Whip cream whipped up with just a tablespoon or so of sugar to taste.  Frozen blueberries are -- I saved a pint of wonderful large fresh blueberries from the summer, frozen -- dipped in the simple syrup flavored with Raspberry Liqueur.

Then, I assembled my Blueberries on the Cloud Puff Tart.   Taste of the fresh puff pastry is just wonderful.   I loved the Puffy pastry coated with sugar.  The combination of lightly sweetened whip cream and raspberry liqueur syrup coated blueberries tasted great. 
So, here are the pictures.