Pastry Chef Mohammed Kessrrwani shows me how make a great French Mille-feuille

The friendly staff at Paul, MGM Muscat

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote my first two blog posts on Paul, Muscat. With Eid rapidly approaching, I  decided to write my third and final post on Paul where Pastry Chef Mohammed Kessrwani shows me how to make the best  Mille-feuille and hope you enjoy reading this one as well.Even better, if you decide to try this out as your very own 'Eid Special.'

Paul is a French chain of bakeries and café restaurants established in 1889 in the city of Croix, in Northern France by Charlemagne Mayot. Today, there are over 500 franchised Paul bakery/café restaurants in many countries worldwide, viz.France, Spain, Belgium and the United Kingdom,  among others.This year Paul came to Muscat and has rapidly proved to be a very welcome addition to the range of restaurants present here.

Having a sweet tooth and being fond of baking myself, I'd specially asked to meet the Pastry Chef and that was how I found myself in the kitchens of Paul Muscat at 0730 hours and when I entered, was surprised to see Chef Mohammed Kessrwani already hard at work! 

                                

                           Chef Mohammed Kessrwani is all smiles

Welcoming me and making sure I was wearing a cap to cover my hair, he positioned me where I could watch him clearly and had no objections to being photographed at his work station. My first impression was,'Gosh he looks so young!" ! And that was proved to be right when I learnt that he was 29 and had been working in Pastry for the last 14 years.

I shadowed Chef Mohammed for two days and am delighted with all that I got to see and learn. On the second morning, I was invited by the Chef to watch an exclusive session on how to make a  great Mille-feuille and was then treated to a Demo of the vanilla strawberry version.

The mille-feuille ( "thousand leaves") vanilla custard slice, also known as the 'Napoleon' is a pastry of French origin. Traditionally, a mille-feuille is made up of three layers of puff  pastry(pâte feuilletée), alternating with two layers of pastry cream (crème pâtissière), but sometimes whipped cream or jam are substituted. The top pastry layer is dusted with  confectioner's sugar  and sometimes cocoa, or pulverized seeds (e.g. roasted almonds). Alternately, the top is glazed with icing or fondant in alternating white  (icing) and  brown  (chocolate)  stripes  and combed to get the effect of lines or striations.

The pastry sheets ready to be worked on

Piping the vanilla cream

Since Paul has strict standards, the basic pastry sheets for the Mille-feuille reach the Muscat restaurant as frozen sheets and every morning when he comes in, Chef Mohammed takes out the required quantity and thaws them till they are at the right temperature. After making the vanilla or as the case may be, the chocolate cream, he starts piping it, neatly but very firmly, around the outer edges and works his way inwards, till the entire sheet is neatly covered.

Beautifully set and Chef starts to top with fresh strawberries

Working patiently, Chef Mohammed  covers the entire surface with the beautifully sliced fresh strawberries and then adds a light glaze to the finished product that goes a long way in adding to the appeal. Reminding me that we all eat with our eyes first, he pops the tray into the refrigerator for about 20 mins to give it a chance to set.

Exactly twenty minutes later, the alarm goes off and he gently takes the tray out and neatly slices the set pastry- a Vanilla Strawberry Mille-feuille into 24 portions and voila, a great new batch is ready!


Sometime later, the Mille-feuille make their way to the front of the shop where customers feast their eyes, before placing their orders for their goodies or best of all, sit down for coffee,  chat and a strawberry Mille-feuille with a friend!
 

Chicken Tikkas, Channa Masala and a superb bread Basket at Passage to India

We started with the Achari Chicken Tikka

Followed by Channa Masala and a delightful mixed bread basket

Over the last week, a few readers have asked me if this blog is primarily meant for French cuisine to which my answer has been - this blog will cover anything interesting that I want to share in the fields of - Food,  fun travel and art, in addition to some real 'food for thought' on occasion.

Today, I'm talking about a recent visit to a well known restaurant in Muscat. Called 'Passage to India',  its one of the best places to go for Indian as well as a fascinating range of Chinese cuisine.As far as we are concerned its one stop away from home and the place that we head to when we want to tuck into a delicious and hearty Indian meal.

Top of that list would have to be the 'Achari Chicken tikka' which is cooked in their  Tandoor . A tandoor is a  clay oven used in cooking and baking. The tandoor is used for cooking in Southern, Central and Western Asia as well as in the Caucasian region.The heat for a tandoor was traditionally generated by a charcoal or wood fire, burning within the tandoor itself, thus exposing the food to live-fire, radiant heat  cooking, as well as  hot-air, convection cooking and smoking by the fat and food juices that drip on to the charcoal. Temperatures in a tandoor can approach 480°C (900°F), and it is common for tandoor ovens to remain lit for long periods to maintain the high cooking temperature. The tandoor design is something of a transitional form between a makeshift earth oven and and the horizontal-plan masonry oven. At Passage to India, they have a really great Tandoor, just look at the pics just below and you can clearly see it. 

The word ‘Tikka’ means bits, pieces or chunks. ‘Chicken Tikka’ is an easy-to-cook dish in which chicken chunks are marinated in special spices and then grilled on skewers. This is one of India's most popular dishes. Chicken Tikka can also be made into Chicken Tikka Masala, a tasty gravy dish.

After  having placed our order, I went into the well lit and designed Tandoor area where I could watch how efficiently and deftly the Chef made the Kababs as well the Rotis after that.Because these are Achari( pickle flavoured tikkas) a small quantity of pickle went into the tikka mix which was then speared onto  a long iron stick which is what goes into the Tandoor. 15 minutes later the tikkas were ready, out, sizzling, smelling absolutely divine and that was when I realized that it is the aroma of tandoori food that goes a very long way in building up a great appetite. Honestly speaking, I wasn't really too hungry at that point having fished a late breakfast, but that aroma- it really did make me hungry!

I've photographed the various steps and you can see how meticulously the platter is prepared. Scroll down and check them out...

The Tikkas  are speared onto an iron stick and go into the iron Tandoor, while the dough is ready for the 'Rotis'

Once the Kababs are ready, the iron is dipped into cold water so that they can be easily removed

Onto the serving plate and lightly brushed with butter

Voila, customer delight!

And  that is my plate, one that I tucked into before heading back to see hoe the Channa Masala and the bread basket was to be made

The Rotis in progress


The dough is already prepared in the shape of balls ( mis-en-place) and all the chef has to do at this point is to roll them out and put them into the Tandoor






In the main Kitchen the Channa masala is being prepared

The Final Touches

What I really appreciated is the final touch, everything had to be 'just so"!

This is what the tray looked like 

  

And it was finally at our table. 

We thoroughly enjoyed that meal and since it was just Avi and myself, we clearly realized that there was no way that we could either finish that meal or order any dessert! So we headed back home, carrying a takeaway  bag with us, happy and content-

Our idea of a really good weekend lunch!..

Why we adore French macarons and Laduree ...

The incomparable Laduree Macaron Tower

Show me one person who doesn't adore  a macaron and I will show you Peter Pan!

There is just something about a macaron with its crispy outer crust and its deliciously moist filling that the mere thought of it is enough for a person's mouth to start watering. It is mildly moist and when you bite into it, it simply melts in the mouth.All macarons are fabulous but there is something even more special about French macarons and that is what I will try and briefly touch upon here.

According to the Wikipedia, a ‘macaron’ is a sweet meringue based confection made with eggs, icing sugar, granulated sugar, almond powder, orground almond and food colouring.  It is also called Luxemburgerli. The macaron is commonly filled with ganache, buttercream or jam filling  sandwiched between two bicuits. The name is derived from the Italianword macarone, maccarone or maccherone, the Italian meringue.

The confection is characterised by smooth, squared top, ruffled circumference (referred to as the "foot" or "pied"), and flat base.  Macarons can be found in a wide variety of flavors that range from the traditional raspberry, chocolate to the new. (foie gras, matcha)

And if we are talking about French macarons, no post can be complete without mentioning Laduree, the ultimate destination for a 'foodie's  Paris visit.

The true story of the Laduree macaron starts with Pierre Sesfontaines, second cousin of Louis Ernest Laduree, who at the beginning of the 20th century, first thought of taking two macaron shells and joining them with a delicious ganache filling.

To read more details, you will need to visit this site and I can assure you that you will love what you read!

http://www.laduree.fr/en/histoire/macaron

On the three occasions I visited this Laduree, I literally found myself spoilt for choice- did I want the macarons or did I want one or all of these decadent goodies? Believe me when I tell you that for that moment in time, all that one can think, feel and of course see, is this mouthwatering spread, that just cries out to be eaten. One box of macarons just isn't enough, and that's also when you think of friends and family who might be looking forward to goodies from Laduree and you ask the sales girl for a second and then quite possibly a third....and a fourth box as well

Looking at these pieces and thinking they look better than jewels 

Entering Laduree in the Carousel, next to the Louvre

Just before I sign off for today, I must give you the best tip that I can think of.

The tradition of Laduree is one that will go on and on and one of the most important  things is that of sitting down together to enjoy a delicious cake. And that's exactly why Laduree is inviting all cake lovers to join the Laduree Club. 

Here's where you can sign up for the newsletter which apart from giving you all news updates about Laduree, will offer you exclusive recipes, tips and tricks from the world renowned chefs.

http://www.laduree.fr/en/club/newsletter

Why wait...?