Chicken Pie

It has been raining here for 6 days straight. It’s supposed to clear up today and we’re supposedly finally going to see some sun. The weather has really affected my mood, though. I’m typically alright with a couple days here and there of rain, but 6 days straight just really puts one in a crappy mood.

I made this pie yesterday.  This chicken pie has been a staple in my house for years.. Everybody loved it so much. Makes a great breakfast on the run. Since I am working, it's easy for my children to pop it into the microwave to reheat.  I usually use more veggies than it calls for. I like my chicken minced. 

My son gobbled up most of it before it was fully cooled yesterday and today it didn’t last until lunch. Definitely a keeper!

It’s not difficult to make the pie crust. Spend a little time to bake up a homemade crust you can be proud of. Once you get the hang of it, the result is so much better than the typical frozen pie crust that you get at the store. There are many different ways to make a pie crust but the most classic is made with butter. This one is using plain yogurt along with butter. You can also make this recipe by hand if you don’t have a food processor.

This recipe makes about 16 individual pies.

Chicken Pie
(Adapted from Azie Kitchen)

Pastry Crust

250gm All-Purpose flour

200gm unsalted butter

110gm plain yogurt

1 egg yolk

1 st sugar (optional)

A good pinch of salt

Directions

The first thing to is to cut up the butter into cubes and put them in the freezer for 15 minutes. 

Put the flour, egg yolk, sugar and salt into a food processor and pulse a couple times to mix. Add the frozen butter to the food processor and pulse several times until the dough just barely begins to hold together. You know that the mixture is ready if when you pinch some of the crumbly dough together with your fingers, it holds together.

Drizzle the yogurt into the food processor and continue to pulse a couple times until it is moist and shaggy. If it is too moist then add extra flour to the dough. I added ½ cup of flour. Wrap the dough in plastic and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

If you not using a food processor, press or squish pieces of butter into smaller flat flakes with your fingertips until you no longer feel any cold hard pieces of butter. 

Chicken Pie Filling

500gm chicken breast – minced

1 medium carrot – finely diced

1 green capsicum – finely diced / 1 big can green peas

1 yellow onion – finely diced

4 cloves of garlic - minced

120gm white button mushroom - diced

2 tbsp olive oil

Chicken marinade:

1 tbsp oyster sauce

½ tsp MAGGI Seasoning Cukup Rasa

½ tsp Parsley flake

1 tsp sesame oil

A few dashes of black pepper

1 tbsp corn starch + 3 tbsp water (thickening)

1 whole egg + 1 tbsp of water -  lightly beaten

Directions

In a wok, sautee the garlic and yellow onion in olive oil until soft and aromatic.

Stir in the diced carrot then add in the chicken. Stir constantly until the chicken is cooked through.

Throw in the mushroom and capsicum / green peas. Continue to stir until the mushroom and capsicum / green peas start to soften. Do not overcook them.

Stir in the thickening. Let the mixture cook and thicken up for another minute or so. Turn off the heat and let the filling cool to room temperature.

Making pie

Preheat oven to 180ºC. 

On a lightly floured surface, roll out the pastry to about 3mm thickness. Cut out 16 dough circles just a bit larger than the aluminium mini pie pans. Press a dough circle into each pie pan, making sure the dough comes almost to the top of each pan.

Fill the pies with the chicken mixture. Cut out another 16 dough circles just the enough to cover the top of each pie. Press the dough so that the edges meet, then use a fork to seal the edges. Prick the surface of the crusts, twice, with a fork. Lightly brush egg wash on pies.

Bake pie for 35 minutes at 180C or until pastry is golden and puffed.

Festive Almond Cookies

I got this recipe from the back of a Nestle cornflake box. This is one of my favourite corn flake cookie recipes.

I know there are already a million corn flake cookie recipes out there and about twice as many different ways to make them. However, everybody has their own definition of the best and they aren’t always the same. This is just the kind of treat I need to survive a moody day.

Festive Almond Cookies

Ingredients

150gm Plain flour

75gm Corn flour

50gm Custard powder

1 tsp Baking powder

100gm Nestle Corn Flakes – coarsely crushed

60gm Almond powder

200gm Butter

120gm Icing sugar

1 whole Egg

1 teaspoon Vanilla essence

Directions

Sift together the plain flour, corn flour, custard powder and baking powder. Mix in the corn flakes and almond powder. Set aside.

Cream butter, icing sugar, egg and vanilla essence until well mixed. Fold in the flour mixture to form a soft dough.

Roll the dough into 1cm thickness. Using a cookie cutter, cut the dough into your desired shape.

Place on a lightly greased baking tray.

Bake in preheated oven at 180°C for 12-15 minutes or until lightly brown.

There you have it!!

Doughnut

This is the EASIEST recipe you will ever make and totally worth the little work that goes into it. I’ve lost track of how many times I have made these doughnut in the last few weeks.  Let’s just say it’s been a lot.

Doughnut

Ingredients

500gm all-purpose flour

½ tsp salt

¼ cup castor sugar

75ml cooking oil

11gm dry yeast

¼ cup lukewarm Water

Plain water

Directions

Sift the flour and set aside.

In a small jug, stir together the lukewarm water, sugar and yeast. Let stand for 5 minutes until yeast activates. It will become foamy and start expanding.

In a large bowl combine the flour, salt and oil.

Once the yeast has activated, add the yeast mixture to the dry ingredients. In a mixer with a dough hook, mix and knead everything together and add a little water at a time until the dough pulls away from the side of the bowl. If the dough is too dry, add a little bit of water. If it is too soft, add just a little bit of flour.

Divide the dough into small balls each weighing 50 grams. Place on a floured surface and repeat with the remaining dough. Then gently roll out to 1/2 inch thickness. Cut with a floured doughnut cutter and remove the holes. Transfer it to a lightly-floured tray. Don't throw out the centres. Re-roll them to make more doughnuts.

Heat the oil in a deep pan. Test with a wooden spoon, when the oil bubbles around the spoon, it's ready.

Gently lower the doughnuts one at a time into the hot oil, in batches of three or four and fry for 3-5 minutes or until golden-brown then carefully turn over as they rise to the surface. Remove from the hot oil and drain on kitchen paper.

Put castor sugar on a tray, transfer the doughnut to the sugar and turn to coat. Repeat with the remaining doughnut. Alternatively, melt cooking chocolate in a microwave. Remove and stir. Dip doughnuts in glaze and let it drip on the rack.

Enjoy!!!

Happy 13th Birthday to my princess!!

There is nothing sweeter and gratifying in life than celebrating an angel’s Birthday. 

Happy 13^th Birthday to my princess!! 

On your birthday, my heart is filled with memories of a sweet little girl who touched my heart and changed my world forever. Always remember how much you are loved!

May Allah fill your life with endless happy moments, countless wonderful surprises and infinite success. May Allah bless you with patience and wisdom. May Allah bless you with a healthy and long life. May all your wishes come true.

Happy Birthday Dear!!

Assam Pedas Fish

One of the joys of being married to a man of a different race is that I get to learn about their culture and the food that they eat. One spoonful of the Assam Pedas stew and I was instantly hooked. This is also my late FIL’s favourite dish.

Literally means “sour spicy” is a classic and well-loved Malaysian dish. Different spices and types of fish may be used but the end result is always the same. Spicy and tart. Traditional Assam Pedas calls for Spanish mackerel but this recipe works great for stingray, red snapper or pomfret too.  You may use the fillet, tail, head or slices of fish cut thickly.

You may also substitute the tamarind paste with lime juice. The spices have to be well cooked to bring out their aroma but be careful not to burn it. Stir constantly and keep a close watch. Add the tomatoes just before you turn off the heat as not to overcook them or they will become very soft.

The ingredients for this recipe may seem like a lot but don’t let that deter you from trying it out! You can make a bigger batch of the spice paste as it can be refrigerated for upto 1 week. So the next time you want to cook this dish, you’ll just have to get the fresh ingredients as you already have the spice paste.

Assam Pedas Fish

Ingredients

4 slices of medium-sized Spanish Mackerel
1 stalk lemon grass (white part only) – smashed
1 tsp Adabi tamarind paste
3 cup water
8-10 sprigs Vitnamese Mint leaves
1 stalk of torch ginger flower – halved
4 pcs okra
1 tomato – cut into wedges
Salt – to taste

Sugar – to taste

¼ cooking oil

Spice paste

7 shallot

3 cloves garlic

1 tsp turmeric powder / 1-inch fresh turmeric
1 tsp shrimp paste
5 tbsp chili paste (add more if you want it spicier)

Directions

Wash and pat dry the fish. Set aside.

Grind the spice paste in a food processor. Set aside.

Heat oil in a wok over medium heat and stir fry the lemon grass until fragrant. Add the spice paste and stir fry for about 3 minutes until the oil starts to separate out.

Add the water, Vitnamese Mint leaves, torch ginger flower and tamarind paste and bring to the boil then simmer over a low heat for 5 minutes.

Add the fish and okra then continue to simmer, covered, for 10-15 minutes until the fish is cooked.

Finally, add the tomatoes and season with salt and sugar. Dish out.

Serve with steamed white rice.

Fried Spanish Mackerel In Spicy Soy Sauce

If you are tired of plain fried fish then try this recipe. I bet you will love it.  Cook this for dinner tonight. My son loved it so much that he cleaned his plate! 

For this recipe, I always use a non-stick pan to fry the fish so that it won’t stick to the pan. But if you do not have a non-stick pan then you can use an ordinary wok but just make sure your wok is super hot before you drop the fish into the wok. This recipe works great with tuna fish too…yummy!

Fried Spanish Mackerel in Spicy Soy Sauce

Ingredients

4 slices of medium-sized Spanish Mackerel

1 green chili - sliced

½ yellow onion - sliced

1 tbsp oyster sauce

2 tbsp tomato sauce

Juice from 2 pcs calamansi lime + Juice from ½ calamansi lime

2 tbsp sweet soy sauce

1 sugar or to taste

½ tbsp salt or to taste

½ cup water

Ingredients to blend into a paste

10 shallots / 1 big yellow onion

5 cloves garlic

10 bird’s eye chili

1½-inch ginger

Directions

Wash and pat dry the fish. Rub salt and dust with turmeric powder on both sides of the fish. Then squeeze the calamansi juice (from 2 pcs calamansi lime) over the fish.

Heat oil in a frying pan on high heat and deep fry the fish till golden brown on each side. Remove from the pan and set aside.

Heat oil in a wok over medium heat and stir fry the sliced yellow onion until fragrant. Stir in the paste and cook until the oil starts to separate out.

Add the water, tomato sauce, oyster sauce, sweet soy sauce and the calamansi juice (from ½ calamansi lime) then bring to the boil.

Stir in the sliced green chili. Season with salt and sugar then add the fried fish. Stir to coat the fish. Simmer for 1 minute then dish out.  

Serve with steamed white rice.

Little Italy, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah

Last July, David and Victoria Beckham celebrated their 17th Wedding Anniversary. The 17th anniversary may not seem worth celebrating compared to a 25th or 50th wedding anniversary but I believe celebrating one’s anniversary must never be overlooked as it reinforces the fact that your marriage is a priority. An anniversary celebration also allows you to pull back from your daily routine and relive a moment that changed your life forever. Always make it a point to celebrate!

17 years ago, I married my confidant and best friend. Many predicted we wouldn’t last and there have been times when I probably stayed just to prove them wrong. During our first 15 years of marriage, we never really care to celebrate our anniversary. But as I’ve watched several of my relatives’ marriages end in divorce I know now for sure how potent a force and how dangerous complacency can be in a relationship and in today’s world of high divorce rates, being married a long time is a source of pride.

So to celebrate our latest milestone, Hub brought us to Little Italy for dinner (we don’t normally buy gifts for each other, only for birthdays). We had Fileto ai Funghi, Salciccia Casereccia, Ravioli Combo fiesta, beef lasagna, Insalata Di Cesare and iced Peach teas. An absolute feast! 

Ravioli Combo fiesta – Ravioli Beef with Bolognese sauce, Ravioli Ricotta with Spinach in Quattro Formogi sauce and Ravioli Mushroom with Panna E Funghi sauce 

Salciccia Casereccia (freshly made lamb and beef sausage skewers, grilled to perfection and served with potato wedges)

Beef lasagna

Insalata Di Cesare (Ceasar Salad—lettuce, tomatoes, sliced onions, beef bacon bits and marinated chicken breast, tossed with an emulsion of mayonnaise. Chopped garlic, Parmesan cheese and olive oil)

Fileto ai Funghi (180gm of New Zealand beef fillet served in a mouth watering fresh mushroom sauce and accompanied by roasted eggplant, zucchini and vegetables of the day) 

    

 Iced Peach teas

I still can’t believe that Hub and I have been married for 17 years now. It has not been a perfect 17 years but we have learned how to make it work in the best way possible. Marriage is hard work and celebrating all you do to stay in love and happy is very important.

After two children and seventeen years later, we still hold hands everywhere. Some of our friends think that’s “so awkward”. Whatever! I can honestly say that holding my husband's hand is second nature. So, I guess...I'd really never given it a thought as to if it's appropriate or not?

Growing old with the one I love is my dream. My grandparents lived so inseparably throughout their six decades together that even death couldn’t keep them apart for more than a few months. So many shared memories and so much love that they shared right up until the end. I also want to have that kind of marriage.

The most important thing that I’ve learned is to see each other for who we really are and we see each others needs and try to meet them to the best of our ability. I try to actually tell my husband what I want instead of making him guess. I praise him when he does things I love and I always thank him for what he does for me. But without love, I know we wouldn’t have made it this far. 

Dear Hub,

Our marriage may have been a bumpy ride with many speed breakers but that is what has made us circumvent those obstacles and fly high in the sky. Even though I have a million imperfections, you’ve always made me feel perfect. Even though I have a thousand flaws, you’ve always made me feel flawless. Even though I’ve made hundreds of mistakes, you’ve always made me feel the best. Happy anniversary to the best husband ever. 

For our Anniversary this year, my gift to you is a song that makes me think of you, of us. I love you.