Chicken Pie

Made this chicken pie for lunch today. This is my very first attempt at making a pie. I have never thought I would be able to make a savoury pie, as I can't really cook I always stay away from any bakes that require some form of cooking.

Just last week, my cyberfriend, VB, sent me photos of her lovely chicken pie. She followed the recipe posted by Baking Mum. Instead of making into small individual pies, she made it into a big one. The pie crust was a beautiful golden brown..and it looked very flaky and yummy! I was so inspired with her beautiful pie that I wanted to make one right away :D
I followed the recipe posted by Peony of My Culinary Journal, who has adapted the same recipe from Baking Mum. Like VB, I made mine into big ones...since I do not have a big enough pie pan, I made mine into two medium sized pies...using a 20cm and a 18cm tart pan. I didn't brush on any egg wash on the crust as I do not like the glossy effect after baking.



From the many cookbooks that I have borrowed, I have seen beautiful photos of pies decorated with pretty trimmings and decorative edges. Since I do not have any experience to come up with those intricate trimmings, I simply pressed a fork around the edge of the crust to make it more presentable. With a small piece of dough, I cut out the 'leaves" with a knife since I do not have any nice cookie cutters to do the job. The veins are marked using the back of the knife. I simply place them on top of the crust and cut a few slits on the top before baking. As the dough was rather soft to work with, the leaves were not of the same size and thickness :'(


I was quite surprised that the 'veins' of the leaves were still visible after baking.


As my pie pans do not come with a loose bottom, I lined two stripes of parchment paper at the bottom of the pan. When the pie was done, I tried lifting it out from the pan with the stripes of paper. However, the crust started to crack. In the end, I had to invert the pie onto a plate, and then invert it again onto a serving plate.


My niece came over for to our place today, and so the four of us each had a quarter of the pie. We liked the buttery, crisp crust very much. It is not overly flaky like a puff pastry, but tasted just right for a short-crust pastry. We have varied opinions about the fillings though. Thanks to my lousy cooking skills, my elder boy and my niece felt that the potatoes were too mushy for their liking...but they like the other stuff in the fillings. Whereas my younger boy and I find the soft and mushy potatoes tasty. The kids had fun trading away the stuff in the fillings among one another!



Upon the request by the kids, I had removed all the green peas from the mixed vegetables...all the 3 of them hate peas! So there is not a single green in the pie!


This is the other smaller pie I reserved for my better half. Since there were no extra dough, I didn't manage to decorate the top of this pie. I was glad that he liked it. He ate 3/4 of the pie right after dinner...and he liked the mushy potatoes fillings too :D

Taken from Happy Home Baking

Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:

• 2 cups white sugar
• 1/2 cup shortening (or butter)
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 cup milk
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 cup hot, brewed coffee
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract (or 1 vanilla bean)

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour one 9×13 inch baking pan.

Put the shortening (or butter) into your mixing bowl…

…and beat until fluffy.

Pour in the sugar about 1/3 cup at a time and beat until light and fluffy. (This step is often referred to in cake recipes as ‘creaming the sugar and shortening’.)

 Add the eggs one at time…

…and mix well.

Do not overbeat. When you reach this consistency, it’s time to stop beating.

Stir in the dry ingredients (cocoa, flour, baking powder, baking soda) alternately with the wet ingredients (milk and vanilla extract) a little at a time, approximately about 1/3 cup each time.

 Make sure you scrape down the sides and bottom of the mixing bowl every once in a while using a spatula.

If you have some vanilla beans on hand, split the vanilla bean open with a knife, taking care not to cut all the way to the other side.

Open up the bean and scrape out the creamy black gold hidden inside, using the back of a small knife…

…and put it into the batter.

Don’t throw away the used vanilla bean. Chuck it into your sugar pot to make your sugar wonderfully vanilla-scented. Vanilla-scented sugar is absolutely delightful with tea!

For the boiling coffee which the recipe requires, what I do is take a Pyrex (glass) measuring cup, put in a cup of water inside, then add some instant coffee. I then put it inside the microwave. Once it has boiled,  I take it out and pour it into the batter…

…and mix using a spatula until just combined.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan.

Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 30 to 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. Do not overbake so as to keep the cake moist and soft.

Allow to cool for about 5 minutes before taking out from the pan. Allow to cool completely on a cake rack before decorating with icing.

Quick icing option: melt some cooking chocolate and spread all over the cake, then decorate with coloured sprinkles and/or chocolate chips.

All ingredients follow the original recipe at AllRecipes.Net. It’s only the method that I’ve modified. The original instructions simply read:-

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour one 9×13 inch baking pan.
2. Cream the sugar and shortening together until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and mix well. Stir in the cocoa, milk, flour, baking powder, boiling coffee, baking soda and vanilla extract. Mix until just combined. Pour the batter into the prepared pan.
3. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 30 to 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. 

Tips For Making The Perfect Cake:-

• Cake-decorating may be an art but cake-making is a science. Measure/weigh your ingredients carefully. If you watch cooking shows on TV, chefs like Michael Smith and Jamie Oliver may wing it when cooking stews and soups, but when it comes to cakes, they take out their measuring cups and weighing scales and use the exact amount of ingredients required for the recipe.
• All ingredients must be at room temperature. Take out your butter, milk and eggs from the refrigerator some 15-30 minutes prior to mixing so that they can be at room temperature by the time you start making your cake.
• When measuring your ingredients by cup or tablespoon/teaspoon, level the ingredient using a knife or the handle of spoon. Do not press down the flour/sugar/baking powder/baking soda. Do not shake the cup to make the flour settle.
• Always preheat your oven, at least 15 minutes before putting in the cake. I usually turn on the oven just before I start mixing the ingredients together.
• If the recipe asks you to grease and flour a pan, do so before you start mixing the ingredients. This way, you can straightaway pour the batter into the pan right after you finish mixing the ingredients.
• Mix in one direction. My mom has taught me to do this ever since I was a little girl and I’ve always done this. I’m not sure what the reason for this is, but come to think of it — all stand mixers only mix in one direction.

Stir-fry Chicken with leeks

As you all probably know, I have not been posting regularly lately. I am as real as you can get. I am just a regular mom juggling with regular daily chores, evolving around my regular routine and sometimes, yeah, sometimes get to grab a cup of coffee with some close friends then off again to fetch the kids. Life seems to be a never ending cycle. It takes real courage to step back to re-evaluate what we do and why we do it. I am not a super-mom like some of my friends who can sail through motherhood and would do it all over again if given an opportunity. ‘Being a Mother’ to me is tough work. There are always sacrifices to make and promises to keep and sleepless nights when kids are sick. Life has been really just plain tiring until I step back and look at life from the Bible’s point of view. I can do everything through Christ who strenghtens me. Not by might, not by power but by my Spirit says the Lord.

All that I have today and all I can do belongs to the Lord including all my recipe posts and photographs that comes with each post. Prayerfully you are all blessed by the recipes and do keep on trying them to keep the recipes alive for our children and grand children and many more generations to come.

Ingredients

1/2 a large free-range chicken (chopped into small pieces)

3 tsp fermented whole soy beans (can be substituted with Japanese miso)

1 large organic leek (sliced slanted)

4 bulbs garlic (minced)

dark soy sauce

light soy sauce

1/4 tsp of fine sugar

white pepper

sea salt

olive oil

1. Heat up a wok, drizzle in some olive oil. Toss in the fermented soy beans and garlic. Add in the chicken pieces and stir-fry evenly.
2. Drizzle in some dark soy, light soy, sprinkle of sugar and a few dashes of pepper. Stirring the chicken as the seasoning is added. When the chicken is almost cooked, toss in the sliced leeks and stir some more.
3. Add a little water or chicken stock if available. Let the leeks and chicken simmer together for a little while. If you want more soupy gravy like the above, just add more stock or water and sea salt to taste. If you like thicker gravy, just add a Tbsp of cornflour with 3 Tbsp of filtered water, then pour into the simmering dish. This will thicken the gravy.

Taken from audrey cook