Quay Po Cooks: meat pie

Showing posts with label meat pie. Show all posts

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Not so Anna Olson

In November last year, I attended Anna Olson’s cooking demo. She showed us how to make meat pie and since then, I have wanted to make one at home. I did not follow her recipe and ended up creating my own, primarily to match the ingredients I had on hand, but also because it felt like a good time to play-play. When I shared the meat pie photos on my facebook page, I received several requests for the recipe and here it is. I know my meat pie does not look as professional as Anna's but I am happy with it because it tasted really good. Try it. The test is in the tasting. And if you are feeling playful, by all means, get crazy. I hope you will let us know about it.

Quay Po Cooks’ meat pie

Fillings ingredients:

2 tbs bacon oil

1 kg ground beef

1 large onion,chopped

1 tsp chopped rosemary

1 tsp chopped thyme

1 tsp chopped sage

1 tbs chopped basil

1 tbs chopped garlic

1 tbs minced ginger

3/4 cup water
1 tsp flour

2 celery ribs, chopped

2 carrots, chopped

4 teaspoons chicken bouillon

2 medium potatoes, diced

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon clove

salt and pepper to taste

1 egg

1/4 tsp nutmeg

2 pcs 9 inch pie crusts (click here to get the recipe but omit the sugar)

Method:

Mix meat with chopped rosemary, thyme, sage, salt and pepper and set aside. Heat oil in pan and sauté garlic, ginger and onion till onion is translucent. Add meat and mix well and stir fry till brown. Stir in water, celery, carrot, potato, chicken boullion and basil. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 7-8 minutes. Add in cinnamon, clove and nutmeg, flour and mix well. Turn off heat and let it cool slightly before spoon into pie shells. Cover with pastry topping. Brush beaten egg lightly on crust. Bake 375°F 30-40 minutes. Serve with béchamel sauce and your favorite vegetables.

A LITTLE ABOUT THIS QUAY PO

Before I was married to my "Quay Lo" (Guaylo) husband, I did not know how to bake or cook. Subsequently I learned some baking and cooking Western cuisine from him, and providing his food for him launched an interest in cooking in general. Many of my Chinese friends and family told me that "Quay" is the wrong spelling for devil in Cantonese. The right spelling should be "Kwai" or "Guay". Well, somehow I like the spelling "Quay" better although I have to agree that it does not sound very Cantonese. Try asking a Westerner to pronounce "Kwai" and you will probably hear "Quay" haha. Whether is "Quay" or "Kwai" or "Guay, just know the devil woman is me when you see Quay Po Cooks. My hubby said if people pronounce "Quay" as "Key" is even better because I am the key to his heart. LOL!

Only now, have I started to learn the traditional Cantonese cuisine of my Mum. She cooks fabulously and all her specialties are divine. These two interests, my husband's Western food, and my mother's traditional food, prompted me to document them so they will not be lost.

Here, I wish to share my cooking and baking experience with my readers. I also hope to inspire those who do not know how to cook or bake to do so because, trust me, if I can, you can too.

Something I'd like to mention is that I find that many people are rather unwilling to share their recipes. However, for me, I think differently. I think good recipes should be shared thus allowing as many people to enjoy it as possible. Unless those recipes are for doing business, I don't see why we want to keep them all to ourselves. So if you are generous in sharing your recipes, you are welcome to share on my blog. Send the recipes to me and better still with pictures of the final products and I will be very happy to post them them with credits to you of course.

Our cuisine is a deeply embedded part of our culture. When two cultures come together under the same roof the results in the kitchen can sometimes be comedic, sometimes confrontational, but more often it is a journey full of surprises and discovery. There is joy in our food. If we think upon this, it is intuitively obvious. This blog is a journey of joy and sharing, reflecting what the French like to call "joie de vivre" (joy of living). No one could be more different from one another then my husband and my mother. Yet one thing they share in common is knowing intuitively that food, cooking, and sharing can be avenues of joy in life itself. So herein, help yourself, to a little joy and , if you like it, share it with your own family and friends. Joy is something that should be shared.