Chicken Pie

Reminiscing back to my childhood days, I realized how lucky I was to have both my parents and grandparents with me. Even though parents were busy with work most of the time but they would still be there for me when I needed them. I still remember how I would go to my grandparents' house after school and my parents would pick me up on their way home from work.

My grandmother was a very good cook. She can just cook without a recipe and turn 'nothing' into something that wows us all. And I guess that's how my mother became a good cook too - by learning from her mother. My grandmother passed down this chicken pie recipe (and many others) to my mother and here I was, cooking up a dish that has been passed down to me by my mother. 

When I was small and we were still in Kelantan, my mother would make this chicken pie a few times in a year (2 or 3 times a year) just because it was hard to get our hands on the puff pastry. My mother would normally stock up our frozen puff pastries when she goes to Kuala Lumpur for conference or work. But now that we're in Seremban and Kuala Lumpur is just like a stone's throw away, we would be making this chicken pie whenever we feel like eating them. 

Back then, it would be my mother and our maid who prepared the chicken pie. Now that all of us have grown up, me and my sister would be making this chicken pie together. It takes quite some time to make this as you have to marinate the chicken, fry them and the fries etc. But it's definitely worth the effort.

Recipe (Chicken Pie) - makes 2 pies :

• 16 pieces of chicken drumsticks
• 1 inch of fresh ginger
• 6 cloves of garlic
• 1/2 tbsp salt
• 2 cups of flour
• 2 eggs
• oil for frying

1. Blend the ginger, garlic and salt into a paste. 

2. Marinate the chicken with the paste for at least 5 hours.

3. Prepare 2 plates/dishes. One with the eggs and the other with the flour. 

4. Heat up the oil.

5. Dip the drumsticks into the egg mixture first, then coat them with flour.

6. Fry the drumsticks until they turn golden brown.

• 3 medium potatoes

1. Cut the potatoes into wedges and fry them until golden brown.

• 5 eggs

1. Boil the eggs until you get hard-boiled eggs.

2. Remove the shells and cut into halves.

• 2 carrots, cut into quite small pieces
• 2 ripe tomatoes, cut them into wedges
• 1 bell pepper/capsicum, cut into small, thin pieces
• 150g snow peas
• 1.5 litre of beef stock 
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 2 tbsp all purpose flour
• 1 large onion, thinly sliced
• 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

1. Heat up the oil on medium heat and put in the onions. When the onions have wilted a little bit, add in the garlics and fry for 1 minute.

2. Stir in the flour and cook for about 3-4 minutes. Then, add in the beef stock.

3. Put in the carrots, capsicum and snow peas. Once the carrots are slightly tender, add in the tomatoes. 

4. Season with some salt and pepper. Let it boil for 10 minutes. Then remove from heat and let it cool.

• 2 (375g) frozen puff pastry, thawed

1. Prepare two deep pie dishes and put everything in them ; chicken, vegetables (and the soup), potatoes and eggs. 

2.  Wet the rim of the dishes by putting a little bit of water before putting the rolled puff pastry on it. Prick some holes using a fork and glaze with a beaten egg.

3. Bake in a preheated oven at 180C for 45 minutes - 1 hour. 

I could not take a proper picture because everyone else was hungry.