Air-fried Chicken Pie

I always find it quite a chore to make chicken pies as you need to make the dough, cook the filling and bake it. But with the help of the puff pastry sheet and air-fryer, things seem more manageable ;) Here's a good recipe shared by Chelsia.

Ingredients
2 chicken thighs (deboned and cut into cubes)
1 onion (diced)
1 carrot (diced)
2 small potatoes (diced)
Mushrooms (optional)
2 hard-boiled eggs (remove shell and cut into half)
Light soya sauce
Pepper

Salt
Black pepper
Italian mixed dried herbs

Garlic powder
Worcestershire sauce

Plain flour
Milk

2 sheets of Pampas puff pastry (available from Phoon Huat)
Melted butter to glaze

Methods
1) Season the chicken cubes with light soya sauce and pepper.
2) In a pan/wok, saute onion and add in carrot and potatoes.Add some water to cook the vegetables followed by adding in chicken cubes and mushrooms.
3) Add in salt, black pepper, dried herbs, garlic powder, worcestershire sauce.
4) When the chicken cubes are cooked, sprinkle some plain flour and stir well. Pour in some milk and simmer for the vegetables to be soften.
5) On a non-stick baking tray (of Philips air fryer) lay 1 piece of Pampas puff pastry sheet as the pie base, use a fork to gently poke some holes.
6) Pour in the cooked filling and arrange the eggs on top.
7) Trim off the edge excess to make it neat. Use a brush to glaze the edges of the pastry with melted butter.
8) Cut the 2nd piece of puff pastry sheet to desired size enough to cover the top, I used a fork to press down the edges a little and poke some holes at the center.
9) Brush the top with melt butter and airfry at 180 degree for about 6 mins or until it form golden brown.

Year End Parties (with Pasta Salad & Air-fried Roast Chicken recipes)

Hosting a party can be pretty stressful especially when you need to cook for many people. Planning is important and if things can be done in advance it does help a lot so that you being the host is able to mingle with your guests. Honestly speaking I am very lousy when it comes to cooking for a big crowd as normal days I only cook for my hubby and I. Hence I still have a lot to learn on the art of hosting parties. For example a cake or cream puffs could be done a day in advance. Freshly baked bread is an ideal starter especially if you have a bread machine. Start the machine 3 hours prior to the meal time and when the timer beeps you that the bread is ready, that's the ring for the meal commencement. Serve with some butter, cheese or balsamic vinegar over some wine. Doesn't that sound great? If you have more time, soup will definitely be a crowd-pleaser when served with bread.

Another item that you could prepare earlier is the pasta salad. It has carbohydrate being the staple food and vegetables to balance the diet. If your party is for dinner, you could prepare this as early in the morning and leave it in the fridge. Recipe of Pasta Salad is found in this page.

For meat item I will go with a roasted whole chicken and this can be done in 30mins in a air fryer and an hour in the oven.

PASTA SALAD

Ingredients

1/2 box of pasta (any shapes, I used bow tie)
2 hard boiled eggs (boiled, remove shells and sliced)
2-3 potatoes (boiled till soft and cut into big cubes)
1 box of cherry tomatoes (halved)
1 Japanese cucumber (1/2cm sliced)
100g streaky bacon (cut into small pieces, rinse with water, squeeze dry and fry/air fry till crispy)
10 grey prawns (remove shells & veins, boiled till cooked)
1 box of raisin to sprinkle

Salad sauce
1/2 bottle of mayonnaise
About 5 tbsp of fresh milk (depends on how runny you want the sauce to be, amount can be adjusted)
Pepper
Few drops of fresh lemon juice

Methods
1) In a pot of boiling water with few drops of olive oil and salt, cook pasta till Al dente. Drain the water and leave aside to cool.
2) Separately prepare all other ingredients.
3) When all ingredients are cooled, prepare the salad sauce and toss everything together lightly in order not to mash the potatoes.
4) Keep in fridge until ready to serve.

These ready-cooked baby back ribs are so good, they are tender and flavorful. I got them from Foodie Marketplace and all you need is to defrost them and bake at 160 degree for 20mins. If you don't tell your guests these are store-purchased, they couldn't tell. All they will see is you bringing the tray out from the oven and serve right to their table ;) Shhhhhhhh.....

 AIR-FRIED ROAST CHICKEN

The air-fried roasted whole chicken is easy and quick. About 30mins at 180 degree C and another 5mins at 200mins C is all it takes to impress my guests. Timing varies according to the size of the chicken. The advantage of air fryer is having the flexibility to pull out the basket and check as often as you like.

Ingredient
1 spring or small chicken (that can fit into Air fryer)

Seasoning
1 tsp Oyster sauce
1/4 tsp Dark soya sauce
1/2 tsp Chinese cooking wine
1/2 tsp Sesame oil
Pinch of pepper

Note: I am using kitchen measuring spoons, they are bigger compared to cutlery spoons.

End year is all about parties and food, from Christmas's eve all the way to New Year day. One whole week to celebrate with food. Here are some photos of what I had cooked up with:

Shark's Fin Melon with Clam Soup 鱼翅瓜啦啦汤

A very interesting vegetable and not many people is aware of its actual name 'Cucurbita ficifolia'. In Asia, it is commonly known as the Shark's Fin Melon as the pulp strands are used to make soup, quite similar to shark's fin soup hence the name.

 

Ingredient
1 slice shark's fin melon (about 1/4 of melon)
1 carrot
Handful of dried anchovies
1 honey date
800g-1kg white clams

Method
1) Soak live clams in a bowl of salted water to keep them fresh and split out sand. Rinse and remove from water only just before you want to cook them.
2) Remove skin and seeds of shark's fin melon, cut into big chucks.
3) Peel carrot and cut into big chucks.
4) Bring a pot of water to boil, add in honey date and dried anchovies. I will put the anchovies into a soup stock bag before adding in. Boil for 2-3 mins and simmer for 1.5 hours or until the melon flesh turn to shark's fin texture.
5) Turn the flame to high bringing soup to boil and add in the clams, cover the lid and once you see all the shells open up. Off flame and serve immediately. Do not overcook the clams, they will chewy if cooked for too long.

Hairy Gourd with Meatball Soup

Ingredient

1 hairy gourd

1 carrot

150g minced pork (could use lesser depends on which much meatballs you want)

1 honey date

Handful of dried anchovies (buy those meant for soup)

Salt

marinade for the meat :
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1/2 tsp sesame oil
1/2 tsp Chinese cooking wine
1 inch ginger (minced finely)
Dash of pepper
1 tsp cornflour 

Method

1) Marinate the minced pork for 30mins or leave it overnight.

2) Peel the hairy gourd and halve it lengthwise, use a spoon to scoop and discard the seeds, slice into small piece.

3) Peel the carrot and slice it.

4) Fill a pot of water and bring it to boil. Rinse the dried anchovies and put into a stock bag then add to the water.

5) Add in the honey date, hairy gourd and carrot. Boil for 2-3 mins and simmer for 30 mins.

6) Roll the marinated minced pork into small balls.

7) Bring the soup to boil and add in the meatballs. Once the meatballs are cooked, add a pinch of salt to taste.

8) Serve.  

Cordyceps Militaris Steamed Hairy Gourd with Minced Meat

Ingredient
1 hairy gourd (mao gua)
150g minced pork
Cordyceps Militaris
Spring onion as garnish

marinade for the meat :
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1/2 tsp sesame oil
1/2 tsp Chinese cooking wine
1 inch ginger (minced finely)
Dash of pepper
1 tsp cornflour

seasoning for sauce :
1-2 drops of dark soy sauce
1 tsp cornflour

Method
1) Marinate the minced pork for 15 mins.
2) Peel hairy gourd and cut into rings of about 1 inch thick. Use a spoon to remove the seeds at the center.
3) Place the gourd rings on a steamer plate and fill up the center with a scoop of minced pork.
4) Rinse the Cordyceps Militaris and place few pieces on top of the minced pork.
5) Steam for 10-15mins or until meat is fully cooked.
6) Remove from steamer and place the gourd rings on a serving plate.
7) Heat up the reminding liquid with dark soy sauce and thicken with cornflour.
8) Drizzle the sauce over the gourds and garnish with spring onion.

Bibimbap 비빔밥

Bibimbap 비빔밥 is a signature dish in Korea. Bibimbap means "mixed rice" served with toppings like vegetables, meat and gochujang (chili pepper paste). The rice and toppings are stirred together thoroughly before eating.

Ingredients
2 bowls of cooked rice
80g minced beef
2 eggs
3 shitake or Chinese dried mushrooms (latter needs to pre-soaked)
1/2 carrot - cut into thin strips
1/2 Japanese cucumber - cut into thin strips
2 handful of bean sprouts
Spinach
3 garlic cloves - minced
Gochujang paste
1/2 tsp sesame oil
1/2 tsp light soya sauce
pepper
salt


Methods
1. Bring a pot of water to boil, add 1/2 tbsp salt.  Add bean sprouts and boil for about 15 mins. Drain off extra water and season with 1/4 tsp sesame oil, 1/4 tsp light soya sauce, some minced garlic and pepper. Set aside.
2. Boil the mushrooms for about 2 mins, drain off excess water and does the same as bean sprouts.
3. Boil carrot and cucumber separately for a min each, drain and set aside. No need seasoning.
4. Boil spinach and 3mins or until it turns soft, set aside.
5. In a pan heat up the cooking oil and saute balanced minced garlic, add in 1/2 tbsp of gochujang paste till fragrant. Add in the minced beef and stir fry till cooked.
6. Cook 2 sunny side up.
7. In a bowl, fill in with rice first followed by the egg before you arrange the vegetables and beef. Lastly add in a scoop of gochugang paste. I used 1/2 tbsp of the paste but if you prefer to have it more spicy you could add more.
8. Stir before eating. Enjoy ;)

Notes
Gochujang paste could be purchased from supermarket, this is how the tubof Gochujang paste looks like.

Spinach in pumpkin sauce

It's a bird!
No, it's an egg!
No, it's a NEST!

Another day where I put on my creative hat, I love how it looks like a nest of eggs. I made used of a pack of frozen pumpkin puree which I did it previously for pumpkin prawns.

Ingredients
A pack of spinach
A slice of pumpkin (about 1/8 size of whole pumpkin)
2 garlic cloves (minced)
7 quail eggs
4 tbsp evaporated milk
Dash of salt
Cut chilli (ganishing - optional)

Methods

1. Boil quail eggs and de-shell when cooled, set aside.
2. Poach spinach in boiling water, drain the water and set aside the vegetables.
3. Cut the pumpkin into small cubes and steam. Once the cubes turn soft, remove from steamer and mash into puree form.
4. Heat the pan and sautee the minced garlic till fragant.
5. Pour in pumpkin puree, evaporated milk, dash of salt and stir for awhile.
6. Dish out and arrange according to your preference.

Notes
Spinach when cooked will turn the water into greenish colour, for some dishes I will retain the water as gravy. But for this dish the gravy is pumpkin puree hence I omitted the water from the spinach.