Mini chicken pies that look extra mini

Surely, food is one of man's passions. I love people who love their food, and who are creative with food. This calls to mind the self-confessed foodie in California, Tigerfish. I've been salivating non-stop since the day I visited her blog, hungry over her mouth-watering buffet spread of delicious and extremely delectable looking home-cooked meals and snacks. Here's a lady whose passion in her food and cooking (Tigerfish confessed she's not much of a baker, though) simply shines through her blog.

Indeed, one of the snacks that caught my fancy was her mini chicken pies which I read (and which I feasted on virtually) months ago. The pies remind me very much of those being sold at Cottage Pie, a little cake shop here in Singapore. The shop charges three mini pies for $2.50 (I think). Pretty expensive, huh? So, I decided to rip the recipe off Tigerfish's blog and make some at home today for my guinea pigs family. Not copy-righted one right, Tigerfish? Haha.

Truth is, it took me some efforts making these mini pies. I was looking for the pastry puff sheet in Phoon Huat, a rather famous shop selling bakery stuff but was told they do not sell them. Thanks to ECL, she told me to try my luck at Cold-Storage and I managed to get it. Then I went back to Phoon Huat for a muffin pan, and was told that they were sold out! By then, my mood for baking had all but disappeared. Then yesterday, while having breafast at Haig Road, I chanced upon a shop selling muffin pans and so I bought it. After so much trouble, the pies had better be good!

Well, you've seen the slides. The pies may look yummy here but believe me, they pale in comparison to those found in Tigerfish's blog. I'm almost shy to hyperlink hers here... heheh

And the verdict of my pies? Well, something juz didn't seem quite right. First, the circular pastry that I cut out was a little too small. I ended up having some problem trying to seal them after stuffing them with the fillings. The end result was that the mini pies looked extra-mini. Heheh.

Second, because the muffin pan that I bought only have room for six pies at one go, I had to wait until these pies are fully baked (about 40 minutes) before I could bake the 2nd lot. The result? The 2nd batch of pies tasted much harder than the first, probably because of prolong exposure to the air. I should have used a damp cloth to cover up the pastry.

Third, I din adhere strictly to Tigerfish's recipe for the fillings. I omitted the hard-boiled egg and instead of using cornstarch, I used Mayo sauce. My kids dun fancy green peas and corns; so I juz use boiled carrot and potato, and shredded chicken, of course. I also din stir-fry the fillings, much less used olive oil. As a result, the fillings was a wee bit dry and lack moisture.

The smell of the pies, while baking, was really good, though. Junior kept asking if they were ready. Oh, I also left out the salt since there was sodium in the Mayo. The pies tasted a little bland at first bite. But the taste sort of grew on you. How else do you explain the verdict by Junior? He gave me 73% for the first pie he ate. Half an hour later, he asked for seconds, and went on to award me 84%. Not bad wat, from Band2 to Band1, I told him. All in all, he polished off four mini chicken pies! I told him not to tell Mummy I made this. Maybe she would think I bought it from Cottage Pie? He commented nonchalantly, "Professional chicken pies where got like that one?" Despite giving me high marks, I guess my pies still didn't quite make the cut. Sigh.

Oh, my big boy loves it too; and so does the Queen at home who told me the taste was juz right even without the salt. But the Slim Lady is never a food critic. To her, most food taste nice, especially those whip out by her hubby (so that she never has to cook?)

Well, I think I can improve on the pies further. Next time, I'd follow Tigerfish's recipe religiously - word for word.

Category: Food