my lil oyster: Carmel's Kitchen

Showing posts with label Carmel's Kitchen. Show all posts

Tuesday, 10 May 2011

Carmel's Kitchen: Chicken Shepherd's Pie (you've to be kidding me)

I made my first Chicken Shepherds Pie for a potluck. I'll admit I was very apprehensive about it. Chicken Shepherd's Pie didn't sound right. Most of my pals also thought so. Afterall, I've always made them with either beef or lamb and would include bacon bits in it for that extra oomph. Plus chicken is really quite a flat tasting meat.

Why chicken then? Well I needed a neutral dish for my pals at the potluck who were one of the following:

(a) Muslims (pork is OUT)

(b) Hindu (beef is OUT)

I apologise that I forgot to make a small pan of vegetarian for my vegetarian pals like Krish (I'll make up to you one of these days).

Ingredients for an easy peasie Chicken Shepherd's Pie:

• 500g of chicken breast

• 1 can of button mushroom (approximately 420g)

• 2 sticks of celery

• 1 large carrots

• 1 large onion

• 500g of potatoes

• 1 bay leaf

• 1/2 cup chicken broth (I normally keep lil bags of these in my fridge so I don't have to waste extra time making these)

• 250ml of cream

• 120g of grated cheddar cheese

• 120ml of fresh milk

• Olive oil

• Garlic butter

• 1 tablespoon of Worcester sauce

• Pepper & Italian Spice for seasoning

Instructions:

(1) Steam or boil the potatoes. I prefer to steam them to retain the flavour and juices.

(2) While waiting for the potatoes to be ready, I slice the chicken and marinate it with 1 table spoon of Worcester sauce and a dash of pepper plus Italian spice.

(3) Dice the carrots, celery and onions.

(4) Saute bay leaf, carrots, celery, mushroom and onions in the garlic butter. Add pepper and Italian spice to your liking.

(5) While waiting for the items in (4) to cook, mash the potatoes and stir in milk. Add pepper to taste. Mix in grated cheddar cheese.

(6) Once the carrots have soften, add in the chicken.

(7) Lightly brown the chicken to seal in the juice.

(8) Pour in the cream. Add the chicken broth so that the cream envelopes the chicken, carrots, celery, onion and mushrooms.

(9) Place mixture (8) into baking dish.

(10) Distribute mashed potatoes on the top.

(11) Use fork to rough up the top of the mashed potatoes so that they can brown at certain peaks for some added "crunch".

(13) Bake in oven at 150C for 20 minutes or until the creamy mixture of chicken boils and the mashed potatoes brown a little.

I've added cheddar cheese into the mashed potato for some added flavour. And if you're adventurous, you may want to use Mozzarella to top the mashed potatoes for more extra zing (I wasn't too sure how adventurous my white mice pals were at the potluck so I omitted the Mozzarella).

Bon Appetit:D

-----> I think it tasted OK that night although I still prefer the ground beef version:D

Monday, 17 January 2011

A twist to pain perdu

Pain perdu is not pain in your joints or anything. It means "lost bread" in French. I must admit lost bread doesn't mean anything else except perhaps you lost your bread or did the bread lose its way?

Seriously pain perdu is french toast as we all know it. Originally pain perdu was designed to put stale bread to good use instead of throwing it away.

I've made a twist to the regular french toast for breakfast this morning. I wanted something filling, something for me to play around in one of my favourite playgrounds - Carmel's Kitchen. And I opted to bake so that I don't have to mop the floor again.

It took less than 10 minutes to prepare and while it sat in the oven for 10 minutes, I was cleaning up the kitchen.

Ingredient:
• 1 egg
• 30 ml of milk
• Cinnamon, Freshly ground black pepper and Italian herbs to taste
• 4 slices of thick cut bread (any bread will do...not necessarily stale bread but stale bread makes better pain perdu)
• Grated cheese (any cheese will do)
• 2 gourmet sausages

Instructions:
• Soak bread in milk thoroughly.
• Beat egg with cinnamon, freshly ground black pepper and Italian herbs.
• Soak bread in egg mixture.
• Place bread on baking tray.
• Arrange sliced sausages on the bread.
• Top with cheese.
• Sprinkle with a little Italian herbs for some extra flavour when you bite into the cheese.
• Bake in a preheated oven at 150C for 10 minutes till cheese melts.

Bake a little longer if you like the whole toast to be crispy. I prefer mine to be crisp on the outside and slightly soft inside.

By not mixing the egg and milk as most recipes suggest, you basically get the egg to coat the goodness and flavours of the milk inside. You can imagine that every bite into the toast is an explosion of flavours in layers.

I don't make french toast with stale bread though...never seem to have them at home. And would normally go for bread with a whole lot of grains, nuts and seeds in them for some extra ooomph.

You can actually make it sans cheese and sausage. Then you top it with maple syrup, yoghurt and some fresh fruits for a wholesome healthy breakfast.

Oh! Serve it with some salad on the side for a complete meal.

Monday, 10 January 2011

Carmel's Kitchen: hawaiian bacon pizza

Carmel's Kitchen is one of my favourite makan places.

Its homely, no MSG, no fuss...no worries about table manners.

And one of the all time favourite is the Hawaiian Bacon Pizza. Its crispy and oozing with flavour from the cheese and bacon. A 9" pizza packs layers of bacon all over. Its bacon under the pineapple. Bacon over the pineapple. Its bacon galore all the way!

The tangy sweet fresh pineapples are not canned ones.

All the above on a crisp thin pizza base.

If you like yours super cheesy just tell kitchen that and it'll be dribbling with cheese. Creamy on the inside and crunchy on the outside.

I asked for permission to peep into Carmel's Kitchen when they made the pizza...Here's how it goes:
• 9" Pizza base
• Tomato base
• 250g bacon
• Italian herbs
• Grated Mozarella and Cheddar Cheese
• Chopped pineapple

1 Spoon tomato base onto pizza base.
2 Place 1/2 of the bacon onto the pizza base.
3 Sprinkle pineapple
4 Place the remaining bacon over the pineapple and any other uncovered parts