A bunch of roses - puff pastry with chicken filling - tutorial

 

That was a gift by the boys for their dad, on Father's Day.

 

It was a working day and all that I knew on my way back home from work was that I need to make something for him, but , what was that going to be..well...i didn't know...

 

Couldn't go for a very elaborate meal as I had just few hours to decide, execute and complete the process. A cupcake bouquet..that was my initial thoughts, with icing resembling flowers.

 

Anyways, just on an instinct, decided to get one of these...

 

.....the rotessorie chicken . It is available literally at every corner here and the best part is that its the most handy when in times of "timeless cooking" .

(no wonder we call it "narkathilae koyi"..in malayalam..)

Anyways, it was almost 6 pm and i still hadn't decided what I need to make. Had the chicken, and so, gave up the idea of the cupcake bouquet. It definitely will take some time, and my husband need to go to bed early these days as its summer and being in the Construction field, his work begins at 4 am in the morning.

 

And you..are in that kind of a state where you are just walk around, doing nothing... looking at things, believing that some idea would eventually  bloom in your mind.

 

Digging into the freezer, saw this pack of puff pastry sheets, unopened, and almost nearing the expiry date in a few months time. So, puff pastry and chicken...need to come up something with these two. Chicken puffs ?? Chicken roll ?? Aaah..not cool enough as a gift, yeah ? At some point, your mind takes you to a bouquet of roses made of flattened left over bread, which you had come across on some blog, but couldn't recollect when and where. Alright..that's it...decided..and the time was ooh..way past 6:30 pm. Had to get moving fast.

Thats how it goes :

Thaw the puff pastry sheets.

Sprinkle some wheat flour (atta ) on the rolling board and on the pin, lest the pastry sheet goes stuck to the surface.

Cut circles of few various sizes. Larger one for bigger flower, smaller circle for small flowers.

Remove the skin and mince the grilled chicken ..really small. That's some hands silently grabing a few bites off the cutting board. And for the knife..well..yeah 1 i am still old fashioned in many ways. We call these knifes "pichatthi" in malayalam, and I stil prefer to use these types compared to the new stylish ones. My father gets these cusotm made and does a few pieces extra for me, to bring over to Kuwait.  

 

Mix the finely cut chicken pieces with few tsp's of (well.whatever sauces/ dressing that you can find !)..easier to put it that way. I used the ones above.

 

Dust a plain surface with flour, place the pastry circle and make cuts on it.

 Number of cuts = number of petals.

Place a spoon ful of the chicken mix at the centre.

Wrap each petal cut around the chicken filling.

 

Apply some water at the edges of the petals for them to stick together.

 

Shape the edges of the petals slightly outside to resemble roses. Your flower is now done.

 

For the basket...

 

 

Cut thin strips of the pastry sheet and weave .

 

 

Trim the edges off in a semi-circular shape and place a thin rolled strip of the pastry along the edges to form a border. Transfer carefully, to the baking tray.

Cut small leaves of the remaining rolled pastry and assemble the basket.

 

oooh..sorriee !!!

Egg wash

 

 

i know..this does seem yuck !!!..but , it definitely is doing a good job; cant you see :D

 

Pre-heat the oven to 150 deg C and bake till golden brown.

 

 

The kids made sure that they did a good part of the making by themselves, coz, it was THEIR gift, and with me clicking all the way in between...did end up taking quite a lot of time doing this that we had to pull the DAD out of the bed to receive his gift. Anyways, it was defintiely not past 12 pm, so it was still the Father's Day.