Deconstructed Chicken Pot Pie

I stumbled upon this recipe in a 1970s copy of the Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book. I have tweaked it over time to suit my family's tastes and my busy schedule. It is hearty and filling and, most importantly, gives you control over the amount of pie crust in each bite! I purchase fresh puff pastry from a local bakery to make that step super easy.

Chicken Pot Pie

1 Tablespoon oil
500g chicken breast, cubed
1/2 cup onion, chopped
6 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup flour
3 cups hot water
1 1/2 large chicken stock cubes (or 3 small)
2 tablespoons cream (optional)
3/4 cup peas, fresh or frozen
1 cup carrots, diced
1/4 cup red or green pepper, chopped finely
1 small spring fresh rosemary
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 kg puff pastry dough

Preheat oven to 200C. Heat oil in a pot over medium heat and add chicken. Generously season with salt and pepper. Cook chicken through, and allow it to lightly brown. Transfer chicken to a plate and keep warm. Add butter to the same pan used to brown the chicken. Add all the vegetables together at once and cook over medium-low heat covered for about 10 minutes or until vegetables are softened. Stir occasionally to prevent burning. 

While the vegetables are softening, roll out the puff pastry dough on a floured board into relatively thin pieces. Cut into whatever shape is desired and place on a baking pan. Pop into the oven until puffed and golden brown. 

Returning to the softened vegetables, add flour to the pan and stir until all the flour is evenly coating the vegetables. Cook, stirring regularly, for 2-3 minutes on low heat. Add hot water and chicken cubes to the pan and stir until all the flour dissipates into the liquid. Add cream here if you want the extra richness. Turn the heat to medium-high and bring to a boil. Add the chicken back to the pan along with the rosemary sprig and dried thyme, and allow the pie filling to thicken over low heat. Taste the filling at this point for seasoning and add any additional salt to taste. Remove from heat and remove the rosemary sprig before serving.

Pour filling into bowls and top with puff pastry. If you love pastry crust, put a piece in the bottom of the bowl and one on top of the filling as well!

Tortillas - Seriously!

This one is not a recipe that I have adapted. It is literally PERFECT as written. I have never had the time of day for tortilla making because I never like the results. It always feels like, "Well, that's a chunk of time I'll never get back." No more with this recipe. If you follow it exactly, you won't be disappointed. We've been in lockdown so I decided to give them another go. These were soft and didn't break open when you filled them. I kept the cooled tortillas in a bag in the fridge for several days, and they were still so soft.

Pro Tip: If you have a child who is an expert with playdough, get that kid to help you roll these out. Seriously! My 11-year-old is a champion tortilla roller thanks to all her days on playdough. If you're not doing this yet, get your kids in training.

In closing, here's the recipe, and from everyone who has ever been a tortilla failure, thank you for redeeming us, Cafe Sucre Farine!! Also, yes, I get that olive oil is not "traditional," but I have nothing to complain about with this awesome recipe.

Awesome Chinese Stirfry Sauce

This is less of a personal recipe and more of a rave about something that I have loved for about 2 years. It's seriously good stuff!

Nagi at RecipeTinEats lets you in on a Chinese takeout secret--a good all-purpose sauce. This one is awesome, and here you'll find 10 ways to use the sauce.

In order to make this locally, you do need to substitute at least one ingredient. I buy Kikkoman soy sauce for the dark, Tiger brand light soy sauce, and Korean soju for the Chinese wine. The Korean rice wine is available at Uttam.  

Korean Chamisul soju available here

Basic Enchilada Sauce

This recipe goes with the Chicken Enchilada post. Since we can't easily find canned enchilada sauce here, this is a quick shortcut recipe. I found this recipe here at Dinner Then Dessert. It gets the job done and is flexible as far as how spicy your family likes their food.

Basic Enchilada Sauce
1/4 cup oil
2 Tbs flour
3 Tbs American style chili powder (recipe here)
1 cup tomato puree
1 cup water
1/2 chicken cube
2 tsp ground cumin
1 Tbs garlic, minced
1/2 tsp onion powder (or finely minced onion)
1/4 teaspoon salt

Heat the oil in a saucepan on medium heat. Add the flour and chili powder. Cook until the color begins to brown slightly while you keep stirring. Add all the other ingredients to the saucepan and stir until they are fully combined. Cook for 8-10 minutes until the sauce is thickened and has lost its "raw" tomato color.

I'm Back with Boiled Eggs!

Well....it's been a while (insert sheepish grin here). Life happens, doesn't it? Like a whole year of life! It's time for me to get back on the horse and begin sharing recipes that work well or adapt well for the kitchen here. I'll set the bar low with a couple recipes a month, and if I do more, then bravo!

Let's start with something so simple that I have found to be a game changer--boiled eggs! I like boiled eggs. I find them to be an easy breakfast if I've precooked some and stashed them in the fridge. One of my children also likes them, but those darn yolks can be so dry that you feel like you're choking them down. We've discovered that boiling them just under hard boiled (no jiggly stuff for me!) is the perfect happy medium. Now, I'm going to throw you a curve ball. Enter the pressure cooker. Perfectly boiled eggs that are easy to peel no matter how fresh the egg. What more could you want? Did I mention that perfectly cooked boiled eggs don't have that sulfury smell either? Yeah...that's a bonus.

Pressure Cooker Boiled Eggs

You'll need:
Eggs
1 cup water
Pressure Cooker
Steamer basket, rack, or folded tea towel
Timer

First, you'll need to put your steamer basket, rack, or folded tea towel into the bottom of your pressure cooker. This is to keep the eggs off the direct heat. I'm not sure what would happen if you didn't, but I saw this somewhere so I use one of those collapsible steamer baskets. Place your eggs on top of the rack. Avoid any eggs with fine cracks as pressure cooking tends to break those open. Pour 1 cup water into the bottom of the cooker. If you're using a tea towel, add enough so that you've got at least 1-2 inches of water standing once the towel absorbs some. Lock down the cooker lid.

Turn on the heat to high. Once you reach full pressure (indicated by the big whistle here), switch the heat to low and set your timer as follows:

3 minutes - soft boiled
5 minutes - medium boiled (ideal, in my opinion)
6 minutes - hard boiled

When the timer rings, for soft or medium boiled you want to do the quick release method by running the pressure cooker under cold water and getting the eggs out immediately. For hard boiled, remove the cooker from the heat and allow the pressure to release naturally over 5 minutes then open. Rinse eggs under cold water or place in a bowl of cold water to stop the cooking process.

Enjoy your perfectly cooked eggs! I like to mark mine with an X when I put them in the fridge so there's no mixing them up with raw eggs.

Kitchen Staples: Bisquick

I am generally not a fan of boxed mixed for baked goods since I've learned out of necessity how to make many of those from scratch, but this one from Kitchen Simplicity...what a time saver! For our non-American readers, Bisquick is an all purpose baking mix that already has butter, salt, and baking powder mixed in. You can use it to make pancakes, a flaky topping for a pot pie, dumplings for soups, American-style breakfast biscuits (similar to scones), crescent rolls, and more. On a crazy weeknight when I had guests coming over and just needed one extra item, I had hot biscuits in under 20 minutes. I make a large batch of the mix, place it in a ziptop bag, and keep it in my freezer with my favorite recipes written on the bag.

Bisquick Baking Mix
5 cups flour
1/4 cup baking powder
2 Tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup/~260g butter, straight from the fridge

Food Processor Method:
Sift all the dry ingredients together and pour into the bowl of the food processor. Cut the butter into smaller pieces and add to the processor. Pulse until you have something that resembles corn meal. Pour into an airtight container and store either in the fridge or freezer.

Hand Method: 
Start by making sure your butter is frozen or you have a hand pastry blender. Sift all the dry ingredients together. Cut the butter into the mixture. If you're using it from the fridge, cut it in using two forks or a pastry blender. If it's from the freezer, you can use a cheese grater to accomplish this quite easily. When it has reached cornmeal consistency, pop into an airtight container and store the same as you would in the food processor method.

To turn these into fluffy pancakes, take 2 cups of mix, add 1 cup of milk and 2 eggs. Mix just until it comes together (lumps are okay!). Cook pancakes on a hot griddle.

For drop biscuits, 1 cup of mix needs about 1/3 cup of milk. Stir until it comes together then drop by spoonfuls onto a pan. Bake in a 230C/450F oven for 10-12 minutes.

For rolled biscuits, see my next post! Get creative. Look up Bisquick online, and you can probably find hundreds of recipes that call for this mix.

Kitchen Staples: Kidney Beans

I have been meaning to post more of these for a while and just have not yet perfected the timing for each kind of bean. Pressure cooker times for beans will vary a bit according to the size, soak time, and age of your beans. I've noticed that the older the beans are the less evenly they tend to rehydrate so you tend you get some overcooked beans and some tough ones all in one pot. I am not entirely sure how to correct that aside from regularly changing the water during the pre-soak. That said, here's the approximate timing I've figured out for kidney beans if you want a big batch to keep in the freezer. You can use them for soups, refried beans, Spanish rice, etc. So much more convenient when you already have them cooked!

Pressure Cooker Kidney Beans
Dried kidney beans
Water

Soak the kidney beans overnight in water. Whenever the beans start to stick out of the water, that's a sign that you need more water. Switch the water and refill the container so you have a few inches over the beans. I would not soak more than about 12 hours, otherwise you'll get mushy beans that fall apart. Pour the soaked beans into a pressure cooker and fill will water until you have a few inches over the beans. Clamp on the lid and turn the heat on high. Once the pressure cooker reaches full pressure (first big "whistle"), drop the heat to your lowest setting and cook for 15 minutes. Switch off the heat and use the rapid release method before opening the cooker.

Cool the beans (a cookie sheet works well) and divide up into the quantities you use most often.

Note: If you're in the Western world, do not follow this pressure cooker timing. Second generation pressure cookers are more efficient than these so look for a pressure cooker times chart for II gen. cookers.

Hot Cocoa Mix

I'm feeling festive. Can you tell? I've been transforming my house into a haven of all things fall and cool weather. One of the things my children--not to mention the adults of the house--love this time of year is hot chocolate. While I don't mind making hot chocolate from the local "drinking chocolate", it involves heating milk, not just adding some hot water. Since it's so easy to whip up a batch of your own that is the "just add water" variety, I'd much rather have that on hand for warming up guests or squirmy kiddos on the fly than having to fiddle with milk I may or may not have. Hopefully, you'll enjoy this convenience, too. Plus, you can use some of the mix to make the upcoming Fireside Coffee recipe. Now to earn yourself the parent of the year award, get some wonderful relative to send you a container of those teeny tiny cocoa marshmallows to add to the mix. Or just plop in some big weird pink ones like we did!

Hot Cocoa Mix
1 3/4 cups powdered sugar (icing sugar)
1 cup cocoa powder (100gm local bag)
2 1/2 cups powdered whitener (like Everyday)
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cornflour

Put all the ingredients into a large bowl and carefully stir with a whisk until uniformly combined. Keep in an airtight storage container. Use two heaping spoonfuls for 1 standard sized mug of hot cocoa.

Recipe adapted from here.

Kitchen Staples: American Chili Powder and Taco Seasoning

Okay. This one won't have a picture, but there are loads of recipes out there calling for chili powder of the American sort. That is not something that's available here, and often my stash runs out before I have a replacement. So, if you've got some that's almost empty, don't toss the spice container so you can fill it back up with your own mix! You can then use this to make your own taco seasoning, too, which you can use in the Green Enchiladas. After cooking with homemade mixes like these, I find the commercial ones to be really salty. This gives you some flexibility in choosing how salty you'd like things and can make you less reliant on imports if you can't buy these things ready made.

American Chili Powder (makes 1/4 cup)
2 teaspoons paprika
4 teaspoons cumin powder
1 teaspoon red chili powder (adjust to your liking)
2 teaspoons dried oregano
2 teaspoons garlic powder (local one)

Mix all the ingredients and pour into an airtight container. Make in small batches as garlic powder tends to harden if kept on the shelf for too long.

Taco Seasoning
1/4 cup American chili powder
3 Tablespoons cumin powder
2 Tablespoons dried oregano
2 Tablespoons coriander powder
1 Tablespoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon red chili powder
1 Tablespoon cornstarch (optional)

Mix all the ingredients and pour into an airtight container. To use this seasoning, add 2-3 Tablespoons of the mix to a pound of browned ground meat and stir in 1/2 cup water. Bring to a boil and allow to simmer over low heat for 10 minutes. If you like your seasoning to really cling to the meat, you can also add the optional 1 Tablespoon of cornstarch to the batch of seasoning.

Catching Up and Chocolate Syrup

Hello again! Yes, it has been a ridiculous long break since my last post, but here's what's been going on since then. At the end of June, I bid adieu to my days a student. Whoo hoo! I am officially, as in on paper, an educator. I decided that after 6 years of nearly non-stop studying I deserved the whole month of July to do whatever I wanted. Obviously, that ended up not including blogging. When August hit, we took the plunge into homeschooling our kindergartener and sort of mom schooling my little man. He mostly just does a little bit then wanders around pretending to be this or that. Anyway, September is literally days away so it's time to get back on the horse.

So, on to the chocolate syrup. My kids drink milk every morning and most afternoons. For a while, they insisted on always having warm milk with chocolate malt powder. When I finally convinced them that it just wasn’t right to drink warm milk in summer, we had the problem of chocolate powder not mixing into cold milk. Yes, it’s possible, but far more work than I like to manage in my foggy morning state...and yes, I realize I could just say no to chocolate, but I think I'm okay with giving in to this one. Chocolate syrup to the rescue, except it comes with a pretty hefty price tag. Then, I remembered seeing years ago how to make syrup yourself on Good Eats. I tried Alton Brown’s recipe, and it totally works to the point that my kids don’t know the difference. I’ve adapted his recipe to be the perfect amount to fit into a recycled chocolate syrup bottle. Now, this does require the addition of corn syrup or Golden syrup to keep things smooth and flowy. I doubt it would work very well without that so keep that in mind if you experiment.

Chocolate Syrup

3/4 cup water
1 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon light corn syrup

Put all the ingredients into a heavy bottomed saucepan. Bring to a boil and just boil until all the solids like the sugar and cocoa have melted (use a whisk to keep it smooth). It only takes about 1 minute of rolling boil. Allow the sauce to cool to room temperature then pour it into your airtight container or bottle. Keep it in the fridge where it will thicken, and it will last for several months.

Kitchen Staple: Chickpeas

These may or may not be a staple in your kitchen, but after having chickpeas ready to go in the fridge this week, I realize they could really be a time saver... and consequently a staple for me. Since living overseas and getting to know the wonder of the pressure cooker, I have eaten more beans, but cooking them just right has been a challenge. Usually I under or overcook them, never really in between, but a colleague told a group of us how to cook them over lunch recently so I have more know how. I tested her instructions, and they worked.

Gorgeous chickpea photo from Lingo Lunch

To cook them to about the consistency of canned chickpeas, you need to soak them first, either overnight or for 2-3 hours after a 1 minute boil. After soaking and draining, add the beans to your pressure cooker and add a little more than double their volume of water. Snap on the lid and bring the cooker up to pressure over high heat. Once the first whistle blows, turn the heat down to low and cook for about 30 minutes. Allow the pressure to release naturally and then drain the cooked chickpeas. If you plan on releasing the pressure immediately after turning off the heat, cook for 40 minutes. I packaged mine in ziptop bags in 2 cup sizes. Then, you can pop them in the freezer, toss them in salads, or use them for other things over the course of a week.

Kitchen Staple: Cornmeal

Since I've called for this in a previous post, I thought I'd share how I make it. Here you can get something called corn flour (not to be confused with the "corn flour" name on the corn starch box in the baking aisle). It's flour made with corn and is usually sold near the rice and other grains. In my opinion, it's a little too fine to be cornmeal. There's also something called corn grits here, which is a little too rough to be called cornmeal. So...the happy medium is a balance of the two.

Photo Credit: Louisiana Pride Grist Mill

Cornmeal
2-4 cups finely ground corn
2-4 cups corn grits

Place the corn grits in the dry cup that comes with most blenders (or a coffee grinder also works). Grind until it's a medium to coarse consistency. Mix the ground grits with the finely ground corn to get a good cornmeal consistency.

Alternatively, take dried corn to one of the shops that grinds spices and flours and explain what you want. I had a friend do this and get perfect results a couple years ago. I also read that popcorn seeds make cornmeal with a really nice flavor. Try grinding these in the grinding cup to make cornmeal.

Pumpkin Puree

I realized that with the pumpkin recipes on the blog, I should probably just write a quick note about making pumpkin puree. It's not rocket science, but I have learned a few things in the past couple years.

• The Asian pumpkin varieties that have a greenish, bumpy outside and look as though someone sat on them tend to have really nice rich orange flesh. Some of the "tannish" varieties we see have a much lighter color inside. I just always ask the seller what color it is on the inside as some of the green varieties can also be white inside.
• You can make puree in the pressure cooker by cutting the pumpkin into chunks and adding a little water. The skin comes off easily after cooking, but I find that this method leaves the pumpkin quite watery so you have to almost wring it out before storing.
• The easiest method I've found for making puree is to cut the pumpkin into long slices and laying them on a lightly greased baking dish. Bake at 200 C for 20-30 minutes and test for doneness by poking with a fork. The fork should very easily slide into the flesh. If it does not, continue baking. The skin will peel off readily if it's cooked well. You can mash with a potato masher, puree in the blender with a little water, or cut into small chunks. I find this roasting process yields pumpkin more close to the canned version and caramelizes the natural sugars in the pumpkin to give it more depth of flavor, too. 

A 15 oz. can of packed pumpkin in the U.S. is approximately 1 3/4 cups of puree so it might be helpful to pack it away in preportioned amounts.

Kitchen Staple: Molasses

Well, this isn't really a kitchen staple for me, but it's one I like to have on hand during this season. I am a huge fan of gingerbread and molasses cookies so it's really nice to have this. It begins with a local ingredient called chaaku or gud. Most little shops that sell a variety of dry goods will carry it, although there seem to be special times (like January) when it becomes easier to find.

Molasses
1 small block/ball chaaku
2-4 Tablespoons water

Place the block into a pot and add 2 tablespoons water. Over low heat, stirring occasionally, heat the mixture to melt it. If it seems too thick, add additional water. The trick is to add enough water that the mixture will remain a syrup rather than returning to a block state. It does not usually take more than 1/4 cup, but you want it to look watery enough that you know it could never be solid again so add whatever you need to accomplish that. Once it is sufficiently thinned and melted together, pour through a strainer into a jar and store at room temperature. Mine usually lasts for months without going bad.

Note: You may find sticks, stones, and all kinds of other weird stuff when the block melts. Molasses is near the very end of the sugar making process so it's the bottom of the barrel so to speak. It's loaded with minerals so I find I can look past the weirdness. Just strain it before you jar it.

Kitchen Staple: Cottage Cheese/Ricotta

I am not a person who likes to just eat cottage cheese or ricotta on its own, but I do like to use both of these in cooked applications. In a pinch, you could buy paneer and crumble it into small pieces, but making this is fairly straightforward.

Cottage Cheese
1 Liter milk
2-3 Tablespoons vinegar

You can use regular dairy milk for this application because it will be pasteurized in the process and is much cheaper than the UHT or powdered milk. Bring the milk to a boil. It should be kept at 165F for about 20 seconds, but without measuring it's around the point at which the little bubbles around the pot connect. Switch off the heat and add 2 Tablespoons vinegar. Lightly stir and allow to sit for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, stir the curds. If you still see milky liquid, add another Tablespoon. That should finish separating the curds from the whey. Pour the mixture through a cheesecloth or fine strainer. If you notice a strong vinegar smell, rinse the cheese with drinking water. Strain until it reaches the consistency you like.

To make paneer, place a heavy plate or can on top of the cheese overnight, slice, and cook. To make cottage cheese, you may need to add a little cream to the cooled curds to get the right consistency. A little salt will also help boost the flavor. This works great in lasagna, ravioli, Mexican casseroles, etc.

Kitchen Staple: Sour Cream

I was thinking this week when I used a few very basic kitchen staples that a series on how to make them via cheater versions could actually be helpful. So...without further adieu here are some not super exciting recipes that will hopefully make you realize you really can have some of those tastes of home in the kitchen.

Sour Cream
1 small box fresh cream (technically not fresh since it's in a box)
1-2 capfuls white vinegar or lemon juice
Pinch salt

You can easily adapt this recipe for the 1 liter box, but I am not sure when I would ever need that much sour cream. First, place the box in the freezer for about 30 minutes. This will help the thick cream and the liquid in the box more easily separate. I find the fridge does not work as well for this. Pull up the corner tabs on the bottom end of the box. Sip off a corner and dump over the sink. An almost clear liquid should pour out. If it does not, you might try snipping from the other end. I can never tell which side it will settle at. If it's frozen, just scrape off the more icy looking bits which would have been more like water. Finish cutting the whole top of the box open and scrape into a bowl. Add 1 capful white vinegar and a pinch of salt. Stir to mix thoroughly and taste to see if the sourness is enough. If not, add up to another capful and stir again. Chill until ready to serve.

No, this is not technically sour cream. I think it's more along the lines of creme fraiche, but it works great in place of sour cream both as a topping and in cooked applications.

Apparently, the process for making real sour cream involves mixing cream and buttermilk and sitting out at room temp for 24 hours. I'm going to give it a try in the next few weeks so I'll let you know how it turns out!