Chicken Pie

Chicken Pie in Shortcrust Pastry

Just as I was at a lost about what food to blog as I am so out of touch with cooking, Bryan asked for chicken pie. So, chicken pie it is but it must be years since I last made one. 

Very tempted to grab a packet of frozen puff pastry when I stopped by a supermarket but I don't like puff pastry as I find it so light it is like biting air and always leaves a waxy aftertaste in the mouth. 

That means I would have to do my own pastry. As I like my pie wrapped top and bottom with pastry so shortcrust will be ideal. I think I like the pastry part as much as the filling. 

There was the siew york guy and he had some roasted chicken. To make lighter work, grabbed half a chicken and half the dish is ready.

I used the same shortcrust pastry recipe as in my apple pie but bind using eggs instead of water for a richer pastry and added salt as this is a savoury pie. 

For the filling

Cube some onion, celery, button mushroom, leek, cooked chicken, carrot and ham or whatever you have in the fridge ;p. I like to add more veggie in to balance off all the butter and cream used in this dish. 

 

Heat some butter in wok, sauté some chopped garlic and add in the harder to cook veggie like carrot and leek first. Then add the rest of the ingredients, half a can of Campbell's cream of chicken, 1/2 cup of cream with 1 cup of water or stock and season with salt and pepper. Let the sauce thickens, off heat and let cool. 

To assemble pie, follow the same procedure as in the apple pie recipe.

 

As the pastry is not baked blind beforehand, place a baking tray in the oven when preheating oven. This ensure the bottom pastry to be cooked properly. Be sure to egg wash the top of pie before popping it into the oven if you want a nice glossy finish. Place the pie on the lowest shelf when cooking. Bake at 200c for about 25 - 30 minutes until golden brown.

When the bottom of the pie is well cooked, the pie can be lifted as in this picture. Not very often I get to achieve this so I would like that in print!! 

A ten-inch pie, half gone before I even get to sit down at the dinning table. Warms my heart to see the the children enjoying their food so much. Glad to know that my brood isn't that hard to please after all.     

Apple Pie Deluxe

Don't know whether it is the weather (I love the rain but to wake up to a grey and gloomy sky early in the morning...) or the time of the year (nearing the end of year...) that I am feeling so melancholy (can't resist using this nice sounding but sad meaning word). It is time for a sweet fix. Looked through my new cook book The Sweet Comfort Food but couldn't decide what to try out until Bryan asked ' Can we have an apple pie?' That hit all the right cords! My ultimate comfort food (well, second only to chocolaty desserts). Apple pie it is.

It has been a long while since I last made an apple pie but fear not, I have this recipe which has been through many ups and downs with me over the years and it has never fail to deliver.
Why deluxe? You might ask. Well, I figured since I am going to indulge I might as well do it in a grand scale and pack in as many of my favourite things in life as possible.

Deluxe apple pie

For the filling

6-7 small cooking apples, peeled, cored and sliced thinly

130 g brown sugar

3 tablespoon flour

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 cup raisin, washed and drained

1/2 cup walnuts or any nuts you fancy, washed, lightly toasted and crushed coarsely

Mix sugar, flour and cinnamon together well.

For the pastry

350 g all purpose flour, sifted

175 g butter, unsalted and diced

pinch of salt

~ 5 tablespoon chilled water or 1 beaten egg mixed with some chilled water

Combine the flour, salt and butter into a mixture that resembles breadcrumbs.

Sprinkle in the water (or egg if use for a richer pastry) tablespoon by tablespoon and mix until the crumbs gather together to form a soft (but not wet) dough.

Put in a container, cover and chill in fridge for at least 30 minutes (can be kept up to three days in the fridge).

Preheat oven to 200C/400F.
Roll out just slightly more than half the pastry on to a plastic sheet to about 27 cm in diameter. Work the pastry lightly and quickly. Over-handled pastry will yield a hard crust. The plastic sheet make it easier to transfer the rolled pastry to line the pie dish (about 23 cm). Allow the pastry to overhang the edge slightly.

Dip the apple slices into the sugar/flour mixture before arranging them over the lined dish. Sprinkle raisins and nuts generously in between the apple layers.

Dot filling with butter.

Roll out the rest of the pastry to form the lid.

Place the lid over the apple filling and press gently to seal.

Trim the edges of pie; use a fork and press on the edges to make markings.

Brush the top of pie with egg wash.
Prick the lid with the fork to make small vents for the steam to escape.

Place pie at the lowest level in the oven for 20 minutes (that ensures a crusty bottom, never fail).

Lower oven temperature to 180C/350F and bake for a further 30 minutes until the pastry is golden and the apple filling oozing out of the vents.

Serve hot or cold with or without cream or ice cream.

The children like it hot with vanilla ice-cream...

I like it just the way it is - hot or cold.

After having this piece of heaven, I felt like what my mum would aptly described in one Chinese verse - 'Tian diao xia lai, dang bei gai' - translated as 'sky falls down, use it as a blanket for cover'. Hah, come what may and I shall overcome...Definite sign of sugar overdosed! That explained why I am still wide awake at this unearthly hour. How am I going to wake up at 5.30 am to get Leanne ready for school?!?! Maybe I'll just stay awake till then...Meantime, maybe I'll have another piece of pie with a nice cuppa Earl Grey, care to join me?

Good night and good day!

Jo

Argentinian pie

Argentinian Pie

Recipe: Argentinian Pie
Serve 4 - 6

Ingredients:

1 kg onion, diced
1 kg minced beef
1 1/2 capsicum (red, green and yellow), diced
1 carrot, diced
1/2 can corn (whole kernels)

Method:

* Fry onion till soft and add mince beef, mix and cook well

* Add carrot, capsicum and corn

* Add salt, pepper, paprika

* Fry everything till cook (add more paprika for more heat)
* Keep aside

Mash potatoes

Ingredients:

1 kg potatoes, peeled and boiled

milk
1 tablespoon butter
sweet basil
salt, pepper
3 eggs, hard-boiled and diced
200gm Cheddar cheese, grated
paprika


* Mash the hot potatoes with milk, butter, salt, pepper and sweet basil

To assemble the pie:
* Use a oven-proof dish
* Fill 1/4 full with half of the cooked beef, then half of the mashed potatoes, spread a layer of the eggs on the mash, then the rest of the beef and finally, top it off with the rest of the potatoes (1st: beef; 2nd: mash; 3rd: eggs; 4th: beef; last: mash)
* spread the grated cheese evenly on top, leave some cheese for last.
* preheat oven 200 degrees
* Bake for 20-25 minutes
* Spread on the rest of cheese 5 minutes before taking the pie out. Sprinkle paprika on pie.
* Serve with bread and salad

Must apologise for being so sketchy in putting the recipe across but hope we'll get better as this is the first time we've done this. We hope you will be able to make out what we are trying to say and give it a try. It is delicious.


From Don and Star