Recipe: Potty about Chicken Pot Pies, and other meals in my new kitchen

I recently moved house, to a fabulous little apartment with a conservatory skylight over the kitchen and living room. It's clean, bright, next to the park, my church just down the road, and people are nice (including my wonderfully godly housemate who's also getting married this year!). Work's been pretty hectic, hence blogging has taken a backseat. But on the other hand, it's going spiffy - work, that is - now that I'm working from home and only go into the office occasionally. I'm working hard everyday, keeping up with my running, eating regular healthy meals, and keeping close to God. And, despite missing The Boy badly, I'm happy. I've been very blessed.

The internet went live today, hence I'm blogging. Hopefully, having internet at home won't affect aforesaid work too much! Needless to say, I've been cooking in my fabulous new kitchen. One of the first "big" projects (that is, not an everyday meal) was chicken pot pies. The recipe is from my mum's friend, Sylvia Tan, who is a well-known food-writer in Singapore. I was surprised how terribly healthy they are (if you make your own pastry and not store bought ones), and they freeze really really well too - I served them up for guests 2 weeks on. And they're great to eat. Chicken pot pies conjure up warmth, hearty, home. This recipe is definitely on my easy home-cooking list!


RECIPE: CHICKEN POT PIES

Individual foil pie pans, or ramekins

1 pkt frozen puff pastry
2 tbs butter
1 large onion (chopped)
600g deboned chicken (diced into small cubes)
2 carrots (peeled and diced into small cubes)
2 potatoes (peeled and diced into small cubes)
2 cups green peas
4 tbs flour
milk
salt and pepper
1 egg

~ * ~

1. Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees celcius.

2. Heat the butter and brown the onions. Saute the chicken, then add the vegetables.

3. Add milk to just cover the filling mixture and bring to a boil.

4. Make a paste with the flour and a little water. Add to the filling mixture and stir until the stew thickens. Season with salt and pepper.

5. Roll out the pastry to 1/2 cm thick. Cut rounds to fit individual pie foil pans/ramekins with 1cm overhang. Fill with the filling mixture.

6. Cut more rounds to fit the top of the pans/ramekins exactly. Cover pans/ramekins, fold the 1cm overhang up, and seal the edges with a fork.

7. Brush the tops with a beaten egg to glaze. Bake for 20-30 minutes until golden brown.

As you can see, I made a puff too.

Lobak stewing in The Fabulous Flatmate's
fabulous Le Creuset casserole
in a limited edition of ducks' egg blue
(only available at John Lewis!)

The Fabulous Flatmate
making tea tarik in our
fabulous kitchen