Sweet Potato Chicken Pie

I've made pies with potatoes before but haven't tried with a mix of potatoes and sweet potatoes.  Spotted this recipe from a Coles magazine which spurred me to give it a try.  It wasn't bad really.  I think that the sweetness of the sweet potatoes did blend well with the savoury filling.  All in all, a comforting one-dish meal for my family.

Recipe for Sweet Potato Chicken Pie (adapted from a Coles magazine with modifications)

Ingredients


• 400 gm sweet potatoes
• 400 gm potatoes
• 650 gm chicken fillet, cubed
• 1 onion, cubed
• 4 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 carrot, cubed
• 1 capsicum, cubed
• 3  tsp chicken granules
• 2.1/2  tsp mixed dried herbs
• 1.1/2 cups water
• 2 Tbsp cornflour + 2 Tbsp water to thicken
• Sugar, salt and pepper to season the chicken fillet
Method

1. Season the chicken fillet with some salt and pepper, set aside.
2. Wash the potatoes, cook in a pot of boiling water.  Drain, cool, peel and mash till smooth.  Mix in some salt, set aside.
3. Heat some oil in a pan, saute the garlic till fragrant, add in the onions, carrot and capsicum, stir-fry.  Dish out and set aside.
4. In the same pan, add some oil, stir-fry the seasoned chicken fillet, add in the water, simmer till meat is cooked.  Toss in the onions, carrot and capsicum.  Mix well, add in the cornflour thickening, chicken granules, fine tune to desired taste.  Sprinkle on some mixed dried herbs.
5. Spoon mixture into 4 x 1 cup capacity ramekins, top with the smashed potatoes.  Place on a  baking tray and bake for 20 mins. till golden and bubbling.
6. Serve immediately.





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Cook-Your-Books #5 hosted by Kitchen Flavours

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Inverness ~ Loch Ness

On the way to Loch Ness we spent a night in Inverness and put up in this Whinpark Bed & Breakfast.  Inverness is regarded as the capital of the Highlands and is the centre for commerce and industry.  It is the most northerly city in the British Isles and said to be one of the fastest growing cities in Europe and tourism plays an important part in the economy.

The breakfast area, clean and neat

Our bedrooms, also neat and tidy.

We had our lunch in the above restaurant.

Chicken sandwich, Trout, Beef burger and Cumberland Sausage ring

River Ness

Inverness Castle sits on a cliff overlooking the River Ness.  The red sandstone castle was built in 1836 by architect William Burn and today it houses Inverness Sheriff Court.   The Drum Tower houses an exhibition of castle history and is open daily in the summer while the castle itself is not open to public.

This is the breakfast we had before we moved on to Loch Ness hoping to catch a glimpse of  'Nessie' the world famous monster!

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White Choc Chip Cookies

I was browsing through a cook book  and spotted this cookie recipe using white choc chips.  As I've hardly baked with white choc chips before, I was very eager to try out this recipe.  These cookies are crunchy, from the walnuts and I notice that they taste a bit milky too, a contribution from the white choc chips, I presume.

Recipe for White Choc Chip Cookies  (adapted from 'Baking-200 Moreish & Comforting Recipes with modifications re the method)

Ingredients

• 250 gm plain flour
• 1.1/2  tsp baking powder
• 125 gm salted butter
• 100 gm light brown sugar  (reduced from 150 gm)
• 60 ml vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 130 gm white choc chips  (reduced from 180 gm)
• 70 gm chopped walnuts, lightly toasted  (reduced from 120 gm)
Method

1. Sift flour with baking powder, set aside.
2. Beat butter, oil and brown sugar till light and creamy.
3. Add the egg and vanilla beating till just blended.
4. Fold in flour mixture, choc chips and nuts.
5. Chill the dough in the fridge for about an hour.
6. Drop rounded teaspoons onto a paperlined baking tray.
7. Bake in a preheated oven @ 190 deg.C for about 8 to 10 mins. till the edges are just golden brown or a bit longer if you want a more crunchy cookie.
8. Let cool in tray before transferring them onto a wire rack to cool completely.
9. Store cookies in a cookie jar.
10. Yield :  20 to 25 cookies depending on size.







I'm linking this post to Aspiring Bakers #36: Choc-a-cookie (October 2013)
hosted by Genie of Honeybee916food

and also to


Cook-Your-Books #5 hosted by Kitchen Flavours

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Whisky Tour ~ Inverness

We started to explore west Scotland famous for its breath-taking scenery and on our way stopped by Dufftown to visit the Glenfiddich distillery, to see how Scottish malt whisky is being made.
 

The Glenfiddich Distillery is a Speyside single malt Scotch whisky distillery owned by William Grant & Sons.
Glenfiddich means "Valley of the Deer' in Gaelic, hence the presence of a stag symbol on Glenfiddich bottles.

We had a great tour of the working distillery and barrel warehouse and the tour guide was very informative and professional.

It's a free tour and at the end of it, you get to sample Glenfiddich 10, 12 and 18 years, on the house and can even ask for seconds ......... Cheers!

Glenfiddich 30 years
&

Glenfiddich 50 years and the price is a whopping 15,000 sterling pounds!!!

We had lunch at The Malt Barn restaurant on the right.

 Cream of Tomato and Basil
&

Bacon and Brie Bagel

 Salmon Tart
&
Cullen Skink, a traditional hearty Scottish soup made with
smoked haddock, potatoes and onions

 

Roasted Pork Belly
&

Traditional Fish Pie

 Rounded off with Dessert  :  Victoria Sponge Cake
&

Sticky Toffee Pudding

After a hearty meal, we continued on our journey to Loch Ness.  Who knows, we may be lucky enough to catch a glimpse of Nessie, the Loch Ness monster.  Stay tuned for more pictures in my future posts .......

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Aberdeen and a Meet-up

Aberdeen, the third most populous city in Scotland boasts of its stately and serene architecture of many gray granite buildings, hence dubbed the 'Granite City'.  Most of the buildings were built from gray granite excavated from the Rubislaw Quarry which closed in 1971. Aberdeen is an expensive city, also known as the Oil Capital of Europe, fuelled by the North Sea petroleum industry.  This was where I spent my short vacation with my family recently.

I'm sure many of you would have heard of  Mary Moh, author of  Keep Learning Keep Smiling,  the Badminton enthusiast  and just recently her team emerged the champion  at the Corporate Decathlon Badminton Competition. Congrats, Mary!  At the mention of Badminton I could see the gleam in Mary's eyes!  I was very glad to meet up with her again.  I first met up with her around August  2010 in London.  This time as I was in her 'home city', she was so kind to invite me and my family to her house for dinner, in fact, we had two dinners.

A picture for rememberance before we dig into the  FOOD .... Mary and her hubby Steven with my  family.

From the pictures that you're going to see below, you have to agree with me that Mary is certainly a superb cook and she cooked, baked all these single handedly.... really put me to shame as I know that I will never, ever be able to cook up such a scrumptuous spread, all by myself!  She didn't have much time to prepare this meal for us as she was only back in Aberdeen late the night before and I was certainly amazed at her speed in preparing so many dishes for us.  One most befitting word to describe Mary .'Superwoman'!

Ok, let me introduce you to the menu .... from left, mixed vegetables, then pancakes, cucumber and sauce to go with the Peking Chicken, the foil wrapped pulut panggang, (spicy, sambal glutinous rice roll), mixed seafood and her signature dish, pork belly stew.  Imagine having home made pulut panggang in Aberdeen!   We liked the pork belly stew, very tasty and the pork was tender.  The pulut panggang was absolutely marvellous and my children enjoyed it very much too.

Have you had this before?  Peking Chicken with pancakes and sauce, all homemade!  Absolutely delicious!  I wouldn't dream of making this dish.

See the dessert spread ...... fresh grapes and strawberries, red bean paste Mochi and yummy chocolate Brownies, homemade!  We ate our fill and Mary separately  packed the Brownies for us so that we can snack on them while travelling the next day..... so thoughtful of her!

This was the second dinner we had in Mary's house before we left for home the next day.  Vegetarian 'chai kuih' and Sweet & Sour Pork.

Salted vegetable with pork belly and Salmon in Tomato ketchup sauce.

Hot and Spicy chicken (finger licking good)  and Mixed vegetables.

Dessert ..... watermelon and sweet potato angku kuih.   The angku kuih was very, very soft and yummy! She packed some for us to take home for breakfast the next day.

Mary and her hubby, Steven are such accommodating hosts and we enjoyed their company very much.  We chatted as if we've known each other for umpteen years and my children felt very comfortable with them too.
No one will believe that we met on the internet and through blogging.  I've never regretted starting my blog for I've made many friends and learnt a lot from sharing with my blogger friends.

So much for now and if you'd like to see more pictures of Scotland, stay tuned!  Cheers :)

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Spicy Chicken with Korean sauce

I had a look at the Korean sauces that were sitting idle in the fridge and thought what would be the outcome if I mixed them up.  I had to experiment to find out.  So, I got hold of some chicken leg, debone them, mixed in some sauces and cooked up this dish.  Family members said that they tasted somewhat like satay chicken but nodded in agreement that they were delicious :)

Recipe for Spicy Chicken with Korean sauce

Ingredients                                                                 

• 3 chicken leg, deboned       
• 4 pips of garlic, minced
• 1  tsp sugar
• 1/2  tsp salt
• 1/2  tsp light soya sauce
• 1/2  Tbsp honey
• 1  Tbsp  Bulgogi sauce
• 1.1/2  Tbsp Sunchang Ssamjang (seasoned bean paste)
• 2.1/2  tsp lightly toasted sesame seeds
• Sesame oil                                    

Method

1. Cut each of the deboned chicken leg into 2 pieces.
2. Mix in the minced garlic, sugar, salt, light soya sauce, honey, Bulgogi and Sunchang Ssamjang sauces.  Marinate for a few hours or overnight, refrigerated.
3. Heat up a tablespoon oil in a non-stick pan, add in the chicken pieces and set aside the marinade.
4. Pan-fry the chicken, flipping from side to side, cook till through.
5. Take out the chicken, leave the marinade in the pan and add in the uncooked marinade.  Mix well and fine tune to taste.
6. Return the chicken to the pan, mix in the sesame seeds and drizzle on some sesame oil.
7. Dish out and serve with rice.

I'm linking this post to the Little Thumbs Up 'Soy Bean' event organised by Doreen from my little favourite DIY and Zoe of  Bake for Happy Kids, hosted by  Mich of  Piece of Cake.

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