4 P and 1 C (Puff pastry pot pie, Chicken!)

As mentioned, this Christmas I am assigned to make a main dish for my sister's Christmas gathering, I decided on a pot pie. As we have domestic helper who don't take pork, I made chicken pot pie so that everyone can eat it. I looked at other recipes and came out my own version. I am happy to say that the result was a successful and delicious pie.

For the crust, I resorted to ready puff pastry. Making puff pastry in Singapore is a nightmare! I remembered attending this puff making session whereby this chef showed us the steps. The demo was done in a kind lady's house, who invited us for a food cum demo gathering. The chef needed an aircon environment and a marble top, so that the butter don’t melt too fast. Boy, to get this sheet of puff pastry eventually, we waited for almost 1 hr, to fold, chill, fold, chill and eventually bake. But the effort was worthwhile. The results was a flaky and delicious puff pastry. But I guess I wouldn't try this at home, just the though of getting a marble top will probably freak the husband out!

So back to my pie. It contained frozen veggie, chicken pieces, onion and button mushroom and potato. Wholesome ingredients and great taste! I used the chicken stock that I made for the soup too. Saved me all trouble and also prevented me from using the chicken cube. Here sharing my recipe. For the lattice crust, I referred to this website. Nice. Got lots of good comments from my siblings and sister in law! To me, the pie looked perfect and tasted wonderfully good!




Puff pastry chicken pot pie

Ingredients
1 sheet of puff pastry
1 Cup cooked chicken
4 pieces of chopped bacon
1/2 C mixed vegetable
1/2 C button mushroom, sliced
2 cooked potato, diced
1 chopped red onion
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 C chicken stock
3 tbsp flour
3 tbsp butter
Salt and pepper
Mixed Italian spice(optional)

Method
1. Heat pan and add in butter.
2. Sauté onion and garlic till fragrant.
3. Add in bacon, mixed vegetable, button mushroom, potato and cooked chicken.
4. Cook for 5 min and add in the chicken stock.
5. When ingredients boil, lower heat and add in the flour, tbsp by tbsp.
6. Add salt and pepper to taste. At this juncture, you may add in mixed Italian spice.
7. Dish out and leave to cool.

Assembly
Spread cool pie ingredient into a 9x9 inch container(I used disposable aluminum pan). Cut puff pastry into 9x1inch strips. Make sure you have enough to cover the whole pan. Lattice the pastry and brush egg wash over the whole pie crust. Baked in 200 degree Celsius for 20min or till crust puff up. Enjoy!

Christmas cooking!

Today after work, I went and got myself the ingredients to cook for tomorrow's party. Every year, my family celebrate Christmas together on Christmas Eve. It will be a potluck affair this year and I am in charge of cooking a soup and a main. After thinking through, I decided to go with the safe food. Will cook cream of mushroom and chicken pot pie. I have looked into the net for inspiration again. After seeking and reading, I have come up with my own way of cooking. Will post the pics and recipe again. Doubt I will have the time to blog since it will be a mad rush of cooking, preparing and sending to my sister's place!

Here wishing all of you a very Blessed Christmas! God bless!

Me? Siam? What?

Today we celebrated Christmas early with my hubby's family. Usually we do it potluck style, and everyone will just contribute a kind of food/dessert. I was cracking my head, thinking what to cook! Thought a carbo dish will be good, after all, we are Asian, and nothing beats filling the tummy with yum yum carbo. So I decided I will fry some Mee Siam!

Mee Siam is a local hawker dish, mostly found in Malay stalls. But the Malay does it differently! Whatever versions, I like it, esp when I can add numerous number of lime to my bowl!

Upon my decision, I started my online search for a good recipe! I must say, I did found some looking good and seems workable recipes. But remember I said I am a true blue Hokkien, who love to experiment? Well, I followed none! I decided to come up with my own version! Ok, this works for me today and I got a few nods and "not bad at all!" from those who tasted it. So here I am sharing with you my Mee Siam rempah recipe. Pls take note that you can change abit here and there for your liking. After all, you are the one cooking, so don't let recipe tie you down!

Mee Siam Rempah

6-8 shallot
5-6 garlic
1 small piece of galanga ginger
20 pieces of dried chilli
2 lemon grass
2 tbsp of belachan
40gm dried shrimp, soak and drained.
300gm Prawn, shelled and cut into small pieces
2 tbsp tau cheo(fermented bean paste)
5 tbsp thick coconut cream
Sugar
Salt

1. Cut dried chilli and cook in some water till soft. Pour away water.
2. Skin shallots and garlic.
3. Peel the lemon grass such that you see the bottom white part. Cut the white portion and discard the rest.
4. Blend all except salt and sugar.
5. Add water if needed but only 10ml at most each time. Do not add more than 30ml.
6. Once mixture is blend into a smooth paste, scope it into an air tight container.
7. Pour 1/3 cup peanut oil into the wok/pan.
8. Add 4 tbsp of chilli misture into wok/pan. Add in Tau cheo.
9. Fried till fragrant and add in sugar and salt to taste.
10. Add in coconut cream and cut prawn. Fry till prawn change colour. Do not over fry or turn up the heat. This will only produce coconut oil which kinda change the smell of coconut.

Now with this rempah, you can fry bee hoon, noodles, veggie or simply eat it with plain rice. Take note that due to addition of coconut cream, this rempah won't keep long. Do use it up within 3 days.

Whoever tries it, pls email me and give me feedback whether you like this rempah! Hopefully you like it just like me!