Curry Beef Mince Pie

Pies are something to be enjoyed once in a blue moon. It can be quite fattening. My favourite has to be with a curry mince filling. Time and time again I have been disappointed by pies bought from the bakery. They are soggy and the filling has more goo in them than anything resembling meat. At least by making my own, I get to eat a pie with real meat in it.

I bake mine in the pie maker but it is just as easy to make mini size pies using muffin tins to mould the pastry. This pastry is very light and crispy and a bit healthier than ordinary short crust as it uses less fat.

Makes 4 or 5 , 5" size pies

Ingredients
260 gm flour
60 gm butter
40 gm shortening
¼ tsp salt
95-105 ml ice cold water
1 tsp vinegar or lemon juice (add to water)

curry mince filling

Method
1. Follow steps 1-4 on making the pastry dough here.

2. Roll pastry to required thickness of 2-4mm (I prefer a thickness of 4mm). Pasta machine can be used.

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Beef Curry Mince

I use this curry mince mainly as a pie filling. It can also be used as a curry puff filling or just served simply with rice or bread.


Ingredients
500gm beef mince
1-2 Tbsp oil
1 big onion, chop fine
3 clove garlic, chop fine
1 Tbsp fresh ginger, chop fine
2 tsp chilli paste or powder

2 potato, cubed
1 cup frozen peas or diced carrot
1 cup water
1½ tsp salt
2 tsp cornflour or potato starch mix with 1 Tbsp water or soy sauce

Spices
1 tsp tumeric powder
1 tsp garam masala
1 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp curry powder

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Green Coriander Chicken

The aroma from cooking the paste was just heavenly. The green colour doesn't make the presentation look very appetising but the fragrance of the dish should whet one's appetite.

As with any dish, cook a few hours ahead for the meat to absorb the flavour.


Ingredients
1½ kg chicken pieces
1 onion, sliced thinly
1 Tbsp oil
250 ml water
1¼ tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
2 Tbsp lemon juice

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Strawberry Yoghurt Ice Cream

Another healthy way of using up my home grown strawberries. By freezing all the surplus, I get to enjoy the fruit all year round.

The texture of yoghurt ice cream is not creamy as it is not in a true sense an ice cream. It has a slight tang but is nevertheless a very tempting icy dessert.


Adding strawberry jam in between the layers of ice cream makes it extra delicious. We like raisins so have thrown in a handful.

Ingredients
400gm fresh or frozen strawberry, hulled and clean
100gm sugar
100ml cream
500gm low fat yoghurt
1 tsp vanilla extract or 1 vanilla bean
3 Tbsp vodka

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Siew Yoke with Puffy Crackling ~ Chinese Roast Pork

In his book French Lessons, Justin North described the crackling as extremely light and puffy. I tried his method twice just to prove that his theory works and it was not first time luck. I was so pleased. Every inch of skin was crackling - no chewy bits.

This method of preparing the skin is less arduous and simpler than in my previous recipe where the skin is first bathed in vinegar water and then poked during the grilling process. There was a lot more handling.

We believe it is the total combination of scoring, salting the skin to draw out moisture, drying the skin in the fridge and frying that makes the skin crackling.

The meat was also very tender and juicy. What we do need is an incredibly razor sharp knife and heaps of practice with scoring the skin as in some parts it was cut too deep.



Ingredients
1kg pork shoulder
1 tsp salt

Marinate for meat:
½ tsp white pepper
½ tsp Chinese five-spice powder
1½ pieces of red fermented beancurd nam yue, well mashed
1 tsp cooking wine
½ tsp sugar

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