Cornish Pasties & Sausage Rolls

I love making pies...meat pies, gourmet pies, pasties, sausage rolls, etc.  When I first learnt how to make cornish pasties, I felt as though I was making currypuffs..haha!  From what I have read, cornish pasties orginally comes from Cornwell, UK. Furthermore, the word pasty is actually from a French word paste which means pie. Why did the cornish pasties have the side-crimped, one wonders? From what I have heard and read, the side-crimps were created so that the miners will be able to eat their food (pasties) by holding on to the side crimps and eating it safely without touching the food or the mouth. As you know, the hands and fingers of the miners in the good old days are pretty dirty and have traces of arsenic. This is indeed a good way to prevent food poisoning :) Interesting indeed...

Sausages rolls originated from the UK too, it seems. Its a savoury pastry and it was commonly sold as a take-away food as its easy to hold and eat. Do you know that there's a National Sausage Roll Day too which is on 10 Oct? On this day, a town called Sausage Roll in Queensland, will prepare a giant sausage to celebrate this national day with a giant pinic where everyone is wellcome to join in.

Here's a photo of my cornish pasties and sausage rolls.

One word.....yummylicious!!!

Quiche...

Quiche.....my kiddos think I am saying "Kiss".....haha!  So, what is quiche? Its a savoury open face pie with egg custard filling, cheese, veggies, meat, etc.  Some people told me that quiche comes from Germany and others state that its from France. What I can say is...who ever created this, quiche is AWESOME!!!!

I was thinking of making small individual pies but the lazybum in me shouted, just a big one will do...save time, save energy.... So, here's how my quiche turned out...

That's all for now....

Happy quiche.....ing!!!

Almond Meal Egg Tarts

A friend of mine was dying to have some egg tarts but she is gluten intolerance. We were talking about how she could tahan for so long, etc, etc... I did some research and came out with a recipe using almond meal. Called her to ask if almond meal is OK with her and she said, do the egg tarts please!!!  So, that's what I did and she was all ready to drive to my house..ha!ha!

Almond meal flour is totally different from our usual flour. Its made from ground almonds and it feels like corn meal flour.  Firstly, I made the tart casings with the almond meal, butter and egg yolk and place it in the fridge for 30 mins. I then made the egg custard with eggs, sugar, evaporated milk and vanilla essence. When its ready, I took out the almond meal dough, roll the pieces into a ball and flatten it on my palm. I then slowly, place it into the moulds and lightly flatten it with my fingers. Mind you, the dough is soft and crumbly. Then I poured the egg custard and baked at 200 degrees C for 15 mins.

The tart casing turned out very crumbly but it tasted really nice. Here's a photo or two of the almond meal egg tarts.  My friend came over and had 3 pieces... :)

Mission accomplish! Wohoo!!!

Chicken Pie

Chicken pies...yummylicious especially if one makes it from scratch.  Pies tend to be savory, with a top and bottom flaky crust with meat filling (chicken, pork, beef, lamb, etc), mixed veggies and gravy. As I had leftover cream of mushroom, I decided to bake a pie.  I made my puff pastry first and left it in the fridge while I cooked the fillings and allow it too cool. Roll out a piece of pastry for the base and line your pie tin. Trim the pastry off around the edge of the tin. Add in the fillings and press it down with a fork. Cover the pie with another rolled out piece of pastry and tuck the edges to seal it. You can be really creative here. I am just plain lazy...ha!ha! I baked it for 30 mins at 180 degrees C.  Here's a photo of my chicken pie.

This is so good with earl gray tea.....

Quiche - Bacon & Mushroom Quiche

Quiche is an oven-baked product. We have to blind bake the shell first and then add in the custard and other ingredients and bake it again the second time. This is an open pie and the only covering is the set custard.  For our pastry class this time, we made bacon and mushroom quiche.  Do you know that quiche is not French either. It originated from Germany. We use the short-crust pastry for the shell. Some people who does not have time can actually buy the short-crust pastry from the supermarket. If you want to keep these quiches in the freezer, just take it out 5 mins before the ending time of the baking, allow it to cool and then freeze it accordingly. Here's a photo of the bacon & mushroom quiches that we made in school.