Pastry into Savory

[filipe]

I'm trying to sketch up a menu for my "restaurant to be"'s 1st dinner. I have some clear ideas about what i want to cook, but I'm stucked with 2/3 of one idea that I had I think could work very well.

I wanted to start with an amuse bouche tray, with three items. But i wanted ALL of them to look VERY SIMILAR to pastry items. But once you've bite them you'll found a savory taste contrasting to the looks.

1/3 of the tray (1 item) is solved - actually, that's how the whole idea started. It will be an half-size éclair. The stuffing will be a chicken paste/paté seasoned with basil, lemon and thyme, and the frosting will be a very dark chocolate+chilli ganache.

It would nice if the three items could be related to every-day portuguese kitchen flavours (chicken piri-piri for the eclairs, probably sardines for another item, and codfish/pork/beef for the third one).

Anyway, the help I need concerns to the pastry-items that could be "transformed " (let's call it Extreme Makeover : The Kitchen Edition) into savory items without loosing their original pastry looks, so that "the secret" would only be revealed on the first bite, making everyone feel like they're going to start their meal by dessert...

Can anyone help me with this?

Edited November 6, 2007 by filipe (log)

[Matsu]

I wanted to start with an amuse bouche tray, with three items. But i wanted ALL of them to look VERY SIMILAR to pastry items. But once you've bite them you'll found a savory taste contrasting to the looks.

Can anyone help me with this?

←

How about a mini quiche with Portuguese sausage in a tart shell...make it look like a mini custard tart. If you are making eclairs you could easily make mini cream puff shells as well - maybe use a savory horseradish whip cream with a beef filling...

[Dan Ryan]

Bacalhao creme brulee sounds good to me.

And maybe a millefeuille of sardine mousse, although you might want to go with a pork dish rather than repeat the fish theme...

[rooftop1000]

On a recent show on The Food Network a chef was challenged to do just this thing for a dinner. One item they made was basicaly a meatloaf that looked like choclate cake. They pureed ground beef with a Very dark Mole Barbeque sauce and also made a chicken mousse (could use pork and shrimp) and layered them in a pan to look like a filled chocolate cake, and served slices with more of the sauce on the plate.

His dessert that show was a "hot dog" of flash frozen strawberry ice cream in a sponge cake bun with poppy seeds dressed with fruit to look like a Chicago Style Hot Dog

tracey

ok I found the link...there was also cauliflower ice cream..

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/re...6_79536,00.html

Edited November 7, 2007 by rooftop1000 (log)

[filipe]

Thanks for the tips

The meatloaf/chocolate cake idea seems pretty nice.

At Fauchon they did the opposite : they made club-sandwiches but instead of bread and savory stuffing they've used layers of cake with sweet fillings in between them, cutted triangular shape, like club sandwiches, and sold inside those triangular shaped boxes used at these pick'n'eat shops.

[emilyr]

I like savory or herb-y french toast. With cheeses. Maybe with seared foie gras? Or a savory jelly?

[Tri2Cook]

I did a savory version of something traditionally sweet for a catering job last week. Smoked salmon chiboust. I didn't try to make it look like a pastry item but it wouldn't have been difficult to do. Smoked salmon and mascarpone in the processor 'til smooth. Dissolve some soaked gelatin sheets in a "pastry cream" of cream, egg yolk, cornstarch and a little lemon juice, cool a little and mix into the salmon. Fold in Italian meringue made with boiled maple syrup and adjust with lemon juice, salt and pepper. It went over very well but I'm going to play around with it a bit in the future.

[fanny_the_fairy]

Savoury cannelés and madeleines work well.