the fine differences between puff and short crust

I've decided there's a good reason why I'm a printmaker and not, say, a pastry chef. And there's also probably a lot of sense in why I usually stick to cooking one pot curries and soups and don't deviate into the complications and drama of the pastry world. But last night I did, and oooooh how bad it was! I was aiming for Moroccan pasties using a Delicious Mag recipe in the effort to, you know, branch out, build up the cooking repertoire a little. Crazy, I know, but hey it's winter here and we have a need to expand on the indoor activity list. And in my head playing with pastry didn't seem that far off from from printmaking. Both involve hands and flat-ish surfaces. It does help, of course, if you read the pastry pack to see that you're using short crust pie pastry and not, as I was supposed to be, good ol' puff pastry. Misery and tantrums poured forth. M saved the day by ordering me out of the kitchen with a glass of wine while she fixed the mess. She slowly scraped all the lovely organic lamb cooked in spices out of the short crust and into neatly wrapped (how does she do that?) puff pastry parcels. And they were damn good! But I swear I'm not going into pastry land again. Ever.

And the wee print above? Tis a new giclee print from me. You'll be happy to know I'm sticking to paper from now on...