An ode to puff pastry shells with ragout
With an expensive product or complicated preparation method, you can easily impress everyone, but sometimes it’s a simple, humble product you’re actually craving the most. Right? That’s why today I’m paying tribute to an underrated retro classic: puff pastry shells with ragout.
I’m a sucker for anything retro. I’ll always choose a drinks board with cubes of cheese, liver sausage and ossenworst over one with trendy, expensive hams. My favorite dessert is rice pudding, although a good slice of marble cake also makes me incredibly happy. Or a puff pastry shell filled with rich, creamy ragout. Mmmm…
Plop
It started back in high school. I would sometimes buy those ready-made tins of ragout. Plop, straight into the pan, warm up the pastry shells and my divine snack was a fact. By now I’ve moved away from ready-made (when it comes to ragout, that is) and make my own ragout. But the combination of crisp, warm puff pastry and creamy, rich ragout is still something I dream about.
Ready-made
I do still buy the pastry shells ready-made, by the way. I’ve made them myself a few times, but Holtkamp simply does it much better, and I also sometimes buy the supermarket version. The ragout, on the other hand, is at its very best when you make it yourself. Our cookbook features an incredible chicken ragout with sweetbreads, poached meatballs and Dutch shrimp. If you have the time and feel like it, make that one.
Chicken, veal or vegetarian
Other favorites include simple chicken ragout, veal ragout or vegetarian mushroom ragout. Ragout is made with a roux, which makes the sauce wonderfully thick, and that texture immediately takes me back to the past. Even though my grandmother never made puff pastry shells, and neither did my mother, really. But there’s something about puff pastry shells with ragout that gives me the ultimate old-fashioned feeling, and I can’t get enough of them.
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