Layered in flavor: Puff pastry makes for a popular menu item, in any language

Nation's Restaurant News, Feb 28, 2000 by Florence Fabricant

Puff pastry may not have the same sense of exquisite gourmandise as pate feuilletee, but in savories as well as desserts, the layered pastry invariably is listed in English even though the term can engender confusion with cream puff pastry or pate choux.

Perhaps that's why in the long run it seems easier to stick with puff pastry. Aside from details of language, the pastry is an incredibly useful resource. Some operations carefully craft it in house, but plenty of others rely on well-made, commercially prepared versions. It's being used as an underpinning, a topping and a casing to contain and enhance a dish. And as long as hot sauces do not soak it for more than a few minutes, it maintains its golden crispness.

Actually, it seems that puff pastry is being used less for desserts and more for savory dishes, in appetizers and as main-course side dishes. The following are a few examples:

* Oyster puff pastry at Hippolyte's Cafe in Keyport, N.J.

* Lobster, shrimp and spinach puff pastry with caviar-herb emulsion at Kosta's in Cleveland.

* Wood-grilled beef medallions layered with puff pastry with pancetta and spinach with blood-orange hollandaise at Michael Timothy's in Nashua, N.H.

Mushrooms are a favorite ingredient in puff pastry preparations. Here are some examples.

* Char-grilled filet of beef on puff pastry topped with mushroom and shallot compote and artichoke hearts at Yo Yo Grill in Omaha, Neb.

* Baked forest mushrooms and wild garlic cream in warm puff pastry at Stars Bar & Dining Room in Seattle.

* Sweetbreads and black truffles in puff pastry with wild mushrooms and leeks at Atlas in Manhattan.

Some operations have gone back to using vol-auvent, the classic puff pastry case usually designed for savories. No confusing French accents are involved in the spelling but, inevitably, a more detailed description follows the name of the dish, as in these instances:

* Vol au vent de fruits de mer: mixed seafood in creamy white wine sauce in puff pastry shell at Bistro Provence in Houston.

* Vol au vent ris de veau: sweetbreads in morel sauce, in puff pastry at Le Marais in Manhattan.

"En croute" is another way to handle the descriptions, as with Baked crab Raquel en croute: sauteed crab with sherry, herbs and Mornay sauce in puff pastry topped with hollandaise sauce at Adele's in Carson City, Nev.

As for the dessert list, with Napoleons made from everything but puff pastry -- slices of dried fruit and layers of phyllo are two examples -- it pays to specify when puff pastry figures in the confection. Here are a few restaurants that clarify the matter:

* Warm Granny Smith apple tart in a puff pastry with fromage blanc sorbet at Rat's in Hamilton, N.J.

* Almond-cardamom panna cotta with caramelized puff pastry and frangipane at Azie in San Francisco.

* Caramelized apples on golden puff pastry with browned butter-hazelnut sauce, apple-balsamic reduction and vanilla bean ice cream at Montage in San Francisco.

Puff pastry even is being put to work to enhance the cheese course, as in the following:

* Baked Brie on puff pastry with a pear and dried berry compote at The Independent in Manhattan.

* Baked black truffle mutton button, sheep's milk cheese filled with black truffle puree and baked in puff pastry with foie gras vinaigrette, baked to order at Atlas in Manhattan.

Puff pastry may be rich and luxurious enough on its own, but it even can handle the addition of truffles and foie gras sauce.