Ingredients
1 stephen ceideburg
1 chicken
1/3 tbsp dried tarragon or:
1 tbsp fresh tarragon
1 pinch salt
200 g diced carrots
2 large leeks, diced
200 g peas
50 g butter or margarine
3 tbsp flour
250 ml chicken stock
200 ml milk
250 g white-fleshed sweet potato
125 g flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
125 g softened butter
Directions
This is comfort food. If you've lots of time, follow the recipe as
given; the sauce will be rich and the chicken will be tender and
moist. But if time is short, use a ready-cooked chick- en and
tetra-pack chicken stock and steam or boil the vegetables. It is
important to use white-fleshed sweet potato to make what is
essentially a scone topping.
Put a No 10-13 chicken in a large saucepan. cover with water, add a
third of a tablespoon of dried tarragon (or a table- spoon of fresh),
a pinch of salt and bring to the boil. Reduce heat immediately to a
gentle simmer, skim off foam and poach gently until the chicken is
just cooked. about 1 hour.
Twenty minutes before the end of cooking time add 200 g diced carrots
and 5 minutes later 2 large leeks, sliced, and 200 g peas. When
chicken is cooked, drain off stock into another saucepan and boil
hard to reduce for 10 minutes. Cool stock fast by sitting the
saucepan in a sinkful of cold water, then transfer to the freezer to
set the fat so it can be skimmed off
Skin the chicken, remove the meat from the bones and chop. Put the
chicken and vegetables in a souffle or oven dish. Melt 50 g butter or
margarine in a saucepan and add 3 tablespoons plain flour to make a
roux. Add 250 ml chicken stock and 200 ml milk and cook gently,
stirring, until the sauce thickens. Add more stock if too thick. Pour
over the chicken mixture.
Meanwhile cook and mash 250 g white-fleshed sweet potato and allow to
cool. Sift together 125 g plain flour, 1 teaspoon salt and 1 teaspoon
baking powder. Rub in 125 g softened butter. Add a little water if
necessary to make a soft dough. (Or process the ingredients in a food
processor, adding the water if necessary.)
Tip onto a floured surface and with floury hands pat it out to fit
inside the top of the dish containing the chicken and vegetables.
Place on top of the chicken mixture. Bake in a 180 C oven for about
45 minutes or until the top is golden.
Posted by Stephen Ceideburg
From an article by Meryl Constance in The Sydney Morning Herald,
4/27/93. Courtesy Mark Herron.
Servings: 4 servings
Chicken Pie With Sweet Potato Crust Recipe brought to you by Recipe Ideas
Categories: Chicken; Pie; Potato; Poultry; Sweet Potato
The History of Recipes
It is quite possible to follow the history of transcribed cooking instructions way back into antiquity, in fact as far back into recorded history as the Egyptians, and possibly even further than that. However, in the main part, these old recipes were just very basic hieroglyphic or cunieform recipes for food preparation.
In fact, the most ancient recipe discovered, according to historians is a series of tablets in the Sumerian language describing the making of bread which is then used to make a drink, quite possibly a form of beer as it is recorded as making those who drank it feel `wonderful`. Later on, in Roman times around 25BC a man called Apicius created a number of scripts which described recipes cooked by wealthy roman citizens. In his works, he describes how the meals were split into hors d`oeuvres, entrees and afters, something we still use today. Aspicius also recounts how the chefs of Roman times used a wide range of herbs, including a few that will be familiar to modern chefs such as thyme, mint and parsley. For the next few years, the rich families of the West tried to offer the most exotic banquets, and consequentially cooks and their recipe collections were much in demand. Nevertheless, it wasn`t until the 1800s the formal cooking and recipe books rose to prominence. Mrs Isabella Beeton in the UK, and Fannie Merritt Farmer in the US, devoted their lives to assembling, verifying, and publishing recipes for their fellow cooks to enjoy. By the advent of the twentieth century, cooking publications were starting to become popular due to better eduction, people having more spare time and having more money. The introduction of the TV brings us celebrity TV chefs and the accompanying recipe books. Which pretty much brings us to the present day and the internet revolution, allowing everyone to access thousands of recipes just like those on the site you are now reading. |
We hope you enjoy this Chicken Pie With Sweet Potato Crust recipe.
