The Chronicles of Holly: recipes

, by Hollzys

The Ultimate Winter Comfort Food: Chicken Curry Pie With A Twist

Winter is the season for comfort food. It’s the season where you can easily justify drinking three hot chocolates by telling yourself you’re just doing it to "warm yourself up”. One of my favourite things to make is a pie. Mmmm, pie. Previously I’ve posted my recipe of my favourite apple pie which you can view here.

I’m not one to toot my own horn but I created the best chicken pie today. I visited my sister the other day and as I walked into the house it smelt of delicious pie. That’s what inspired me to make one today. So hey, thanks Chloe if you’re reading this.

The combination of all the ingredients make it to die for. Seeing as I was the one creating it I knew I could add the things I liked. Plus..I thought i'd add in white wine for a twist. This is really delicious and i'll definitely be making this again. While making this I kept saying to myself "this better turn out really good otherwise there is no way i'll be blogging about it". It's passed the test and I hope it'll pass yours. Let me know if any of your make it and how it turns out :)

Holly xx

p.s whenener someone mentions "pie" does anyone think of this scene from the Simpsons? Haha.

Chicken Vegetable Curry Pie

Prep time: 45 minutes

Cook time: 30-40 minutes
Total time: 1hr 15 minutes

Ingredients

350g Chicken breast, chopped
1/2 cup White wine
Extra virgin olive oil
200g Mushrooms, chopped
100g Green beans, chopped
50g Spring onions, chopped
2 cloves Garlic, chopped
250ml Peanut satay sauce
270ml Coconut milk
Pinch of Cloves
Pinch of Cayenne pepper
2 sheets Shortcrust pastry
Baking beads
Dash of milk

Cooking Directions

Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees celsius
Take short crust pastry out of the freezer so it's able to defrost to later be molded into the pie dish.
Chop up all the ingredients. Because it's a pie remember it's okay for them to all be different sizes.
In a pan add a few tbsps of olive oil, 1/4 cup of white wine and the chicken. Cook on medium heat until chicken is cooked through. This can take 10-15 minutes. Once cooked put chicken in separate bowl.
In a pan on medium heat combine the mushrooms, green beans, spring onions and garlic. The vegetables only need to cook for about 5-7 minutes. Once vegetables are softened take them off the heat.
If the shortcrust pastry has defrosted now is a good time to cook the pastry. Grab a pie dish (I used one a medium sized one) and give a quick spray of olive oil in the pan. Slowly lower the pastry into the pan, pressing in on the corners. If there is pastry hanging over the edges cut them off and add to the parts where the pastry is thinner. Line with baking paper and add baking beads to fill up majority of the pan. This will ensure pastry stays flat and will keep its shape while it's baking. Put pan into oven and leave for about 10-15 minutes, until it has turned a pale brown colour.
While pastry is baking - in a saucepan on medium heat add the peanut satay sauce,coconut milk, 1/4 cup white wine, a pinch of cloves and a pinch of cayenne pepper. Mix and then leave until it has heated up (around 5 minutes).
Once sauce is heated add the chicken and the vegetables in. Give it a good ol' mix.
Check on how the pie is going in the oven. If it's turned a light golden brown colour then it's time to come out.
Once pie is out of the oven remove baking beads and bake paper and put back in the oven for a further 5 minutes so the bottom of the pie is able to cook a little more (we want the bottom a light golden brown colour too)
Remove pie from the oven. Add the pie filling into pie. Use the last sheet of shortcrust pastry and slowly lower onto the pie. With your fingers gently press the uncooked pastry into sides of the pan/cooked pastry. Cut around the pastry edges that are out of the pie dish. Will the left over pastry feel free to add a garnish to the top. To quote Jamie Oliver, it doesn't have to look perfect - it will look more rustic if it's roughly done.
Brush the top of the pie with a little bit of milk. This will make the top crisper once it has cooked.
Pop the pie in the oven for 20 minutes or until the top is golden brown. Remove pie from the oven and let cool.
Bon appetit!

6 comments

, by Hollzys

recipe

THE BEST COOKIE RECIPE EVER

10 comments

, by Hollzys

apple pie

An apple pie baked with a whole lot of love recipe

I really would love to set the scene for you: It’s Christmas Eve and my best friend and I are hosting a little get-together for our other Australian friends who also found themselves in London for Christmas. It’s a chilling three degrees outside with the grass completely covered in frost. Our mugs are never without a serving of steaming hot chocolate. The dogs and cats wander around our feet in hope we drop some food off the kitchen bench. Christmas carols are playing on repeat. We’re wearing our cozy Christmas sweaters we would never dream of wearing back home in Australia for Christmas.

Now I know, Christmas has already been, but the thought of this apple pie made me so nostalgic that I wanted to re-live the memories by writing this recipe. Plus if you’re from a colder climate this could be your saviour on those frosty winter evenings. Despite it being around the 30 degree mark here I will definitely be re-creating this (..with the help of my blasting air conditioner).

Ingredients:

For the pastry –

250g plain flour
50g icing sugar
Sea salt
1 lemon
125g cold butter
2 large eggs (I always do free-range just because I like the idea of my chicken laying an egg peacefully roaming the fields)
A dash of milk

For the pastry I actually used this Jamie Oliver recipe: http://www.jamieshomecookingskills.com/recipe.php?title=apple-pie. If you’re not a massive baker I would totally recommend looking at that recipe for how to do the pastry because he does it step-by-step. I would have been creative and tried to come up with my own pastry but this recipe is just so amazing that anything I would have attempted to create would have been crummy in comparison.

For the filling –

8 apples (personally I prefer Pink Lady apples because I think they’re slightly sweeter)
¼ cup of brown sugar
Cinnamon
Cloves
Nutmeg

Method:

Pastry -

1. Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF/gas 4

2. Sieve the flour into a large mixing bowl

3. Add the sugar, a pinch of salt, and then the zest of the lemon. (I like to add in a lot of lemon zest because it tastes even better)

4. Cut the butter up into little cubes then add into the bowl as well

5. Using your fingertips gently work the butter into the flour and sugar until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. (This can sometimes take a little bit).

6. Crack the egg and add into the mixture along with a dash of milk. Mix the mixture with your hands until it becomes dough. Wrap the dough in clingfilm (or we call it gladwrap) and pop it in the fridge.

Filling –

Instead of using Jamies recipe my friend and I went a little rouge and came up with our own filling which (not to sound up myself) tasted amazing.

1. Peel at the apples and then cut the apples into eights. If you prefer you can cube them but I like doing the eights.

2. In a small-medium saucepan on medium heat add the apples and the brown sugar

3. After the brown sugar has melted a little bit, mix the apples around so they get coated in the brown sugar

4. Add some ground cinnamon, ground cloves and nutmeg. It’s totally up to you how much you would like the add.

5. Once apples have cooked feel free to smell the mixture to determine if there are enough spices. The beauty of these spices is that they just smell like Christmas..which for that reason I add A LOT.

6. Take the saucepan off the heat

Putting it all together –

1. Dust a work surface with flour

2. Divide the pastry into two separate pieces

3. With a rolling pin roll out one of the pastry halves until it is slightly larger than the pie dish you will be using

4. Ease the pastry into the pie dish. Make sure all the sides are pushed into the corner. Like Jamie says “Don’t worry if it tears of breaks – just patch it up – it will look nice and rustic”. Thank-you Jamie, I do very much agree with you on that one.

5. Spoon out the apple mixture from the saucepan into the pie dish. It doesn’t matter if it fills out over the top because it will just be a fuller pie (which I loveeeee).

6. Roll out the other piece of dough until it is large enough to fit over the top of your pie.

7. Carefully place the dough on top of your pie and then pinch the edges together.

8. With the remaining egg separate it. With the yolk add a splash of milk and whisk together. Brush the top of the pie with the egg wash.

9. If you have any pastry left over feel free to make any shapes to add on top of the pie for that added effect. We chose holly to go along with the festive spirit.

10. Bake in the oven for 40-45 minutes until it becomes a beautiful golden brown colour

11. Once cooked feel free to serve it with ice-cream, cream or even custard. Enjoy!

9 comments

, by Hollzys

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The Ultimate Winter Comfort Food: Chicken Curry Pie With A Twist

THE BEST COOKIE RECIPE EVER

An apple pie baked with a whole lot of love recipe

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