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

Eats: Texan tarts

So, Christmas seems like so long ago now. It's almost the end of January and I have been back in London for 2 weeks now, started a new term, moved house, settled back into church life, and adjusting to a long distance relationship with The Boy. This year seems more intentional, in the sense that I'm thinking more (and praying) about what I do, and it's a good feeling. I hope it lasts. Hit the gym last night, and thank God have lost all the Christmas weight I piled on - what with the beckoning of tantalising tacos and hamburgers and chilli dogs and all the wonderful things that make America the world's foremost fast food nation. I've started new love affairs with coleslaw, bbq sauce (in moderation though), breakfast tacos, and apple pie. Things I'm less enamoured with: sweet potato casserole with marshmellow topping, the really dreadful coffee Americans serve in restaurants, half-and-half.


I made so many cherry pies that I bought a cherry pitter from Sur La Table (aka heaven) in Houston. It's The Boy's favourite pie. Also in the offing were apple pies and apple crumbles. I baked and froze one of each for The Boy before I left.


The Boy had a whole menu in the freezer, in fact. Chicken curry, lobak (red braised pork), chicken soup, broccoli beef, duck ragu etc etc. Should last him 6 weeks, I think.

I didn't cook all the time, obviously, being on holiday. We did go out to eat... um, a lot. One of the big hits with the folks in Kansas City was without a doubt Jack Stack, with its famous lamb ribs, bbq sauce and coleslaw, and the coolest onion rings ever. It was so good that my dad even asked the manager whether they had plans to come to Singapore. I hope they do! To London too!! And Houston!!!



Back in Houston, after a long 13 hour drive (phew!) - it takes 6 hours to get to the Texan border alone - I did a bit of exploring with the car while The Boy went back to work. Despite it's monolithic proportions and homogenous concrete blocks, Houston is surprisingly full of interesting little niches and farmers' markets and greenery. Each evening, we would run around Memorial Park, and on the weekends, we would explore together. Houston is never going to be London, let's face it, but I'm glad to say that I think I could be very happy there.

On an excursion to the Contemporary Art Museum (a tiny two-floor affair), and evermore in search of good coffee, I found John Ray and his Tart Cafe. The cream cheese and coconut tart is simply to die for - you must simply try it! It's housed in a grey concrete block on Montrose Blvd, between 59 and the Contemporary Art Museum. There is also a very good Chinese restaurant diagonally opposite which The Boy and I are definitely going back to (if anything, for their fried kuay teow or flat rice noodles). The Tart Cafe also serves decent local coffee, in an artsy backdrop, and I happily wiled away the rest of my afternoon there.


Anyways, that's all for now. I'm kinda hungry after writing this blog and going to find a nice little tea time snack. Happy New Year to one and all!

Very sorry for the lack of blog updates since Christmas (which was great!). Yes, I'm still alive! I've just flown back to London, moved house and was/am in the midst of packing/upacking, and don't have internet access yet. But I do have lots of pics from our Houston/Kansas City trip, as well as some cool eateries I found in Houston and pics of food and my lovely new flat and such. So watch this space!