This is quite a time consuming pie to make, but the results are well worth it. The main flavours are chicken and rosemary, with shitake mushrooms, leeks and carrots adding to the bulk. The sauce is made with cream to blend and merge the flavours. In Thailand many people don’t eat cream or milk, because they didn’t drink milk when they were infants and have lost the enzyme that digests milk. So you may prefer to omit the cream.

Ingredients
1 Whole Chicken
2 Chicken Stock Cubes
2 Sprigs of Rosemary
2 Bay Leaves
200 gms Carrots
200 gms Leeks
4-6 Shitake Mushrooms (Soak for 10 minutes if dried)
Salt to Season
200 ml Single Cream
50 gms Butter
2 Tablespoons Flour
Puff Pastry to Cover

Preparation
1. Start by preparing the chicken rosemary stock. Clean the chicken and remove any innards.
2. Place the chicken in a large boiling pot, with the rosemary, bay leaves, chicken stock cubes and enough water to cover the chicken.
3. Bring to the boil, then simmer on a low heat for 2 hours.
4. Remove the chicken from the stock, shred the meat off the bone and set aside on a plate.
5. Sieve the chicken stock.
6. In a separate pan, melt the butter and stir in the flour until you have a thick paste. This will be used to thicken the sauce.
7. Return the sauce to the pan.
8. Stir in the cream, add salt to taste, then add a little at a time of the flour-butter paste while you heat the sauce until it thickens.
9. Clean and slice the leeks, peel and slice the carrots.
10. I used store bought puff pastry, but you can also make your own pastry.
11. Into a pie dish, place the shredded chicken, carrots, leeks, mushrooms and pour over the cream sauce.
12. Cover with puff pastry, brush with milk or egg and bake at 190 degrees celsius for 40-50 minutes. The chicken is cooked, you only want to cook the pastry and vegetables to finish this pie

I’m tempted to create another category called ‘Pies & Pasties’, since I’ve made several recently! This pastie contains beansprouts, chicken and vegetables and is a nice way to eat Thai food in a falang way.

Ingredients
1 Packet of Puff Pastry or Make Your Own
200 gms Skinned Chicken Breast
100 gms Soya Beansprouts
2 Tablespoons Light Soy Sauce
1/2 Teaspoon Black Pepper
A Pinch of Salt
1 Tablespoon Oil
1-2 Garlic Cloves

Preparation
1. Chop the chicken breast and garlic together and fry with oil until the chicken is cooks and a little brown. This browing stage adds flavour.
2. Add the light soy, black pepper and stir fry for 30 seconds more.
3. Cut a circle of the puff pastry, spoon the fried filling into the middle, but be careful not to spoon any liquid or that will wet the pastry.
4. Add some beansprouts. Sprinkle a little salt on.
5. Fold over pastry into half, seal the edge with a little milk or egg and crimp. Brush the pasty with a milk.
6. Bake at 190 degrees celsius until the pasty is golden brown, this takes 30-40 minutes.

This pie originates from China, however my favorite type of this pie is the slightly salty, slightly sweet version with salty eggs inside they sell in Thailand. For this you will need salty eggs yolks which take 2-3 weeks to prepare. You will also need yellow beans which you can either buy in packets, or prepare from green beans – see the ingredients section of this site for instructions on both these items. The most difficult part of this is the pastry, which is made from multiple layers of 2 types of pastry.

Ingredients First Layer Pastry
150 gms Wheat Flour
2 Tablespoons Sugar
2 Teaspoons Salt
7 Tablespoons Oil
80 ml Cool Water

Ingredients  for Second Layer Pastry
70 gms Wheat Flour
7 Tablespoons Oil
6 Tablespoons Cool Water

Ingredients  for Filling
200 gms Yellow Soya Bean
30 gms Sugar
1 Tablespoon Salt
7 Tablespoons Pork Lard
3-4 Salty Egg Yolks

Preparation
1. Steam the yellow soya for 20 minutes.
2. Pound them in a Thai mortar to form a paste, mix with the sugar, the oil and salt.
3. Warm the paste gently in a pan until it thickens as the water evaporates, then leave to cool.

Prepare First Layer of Pastry
4. Mix the flour with the sugar, salt, oil and water. This needs to form a smooth dough, so add a little more water if necessary and knead a little until you have a pastry dough.

Prepare Second Layer of Pastry
5. Mix the flour with the oil and water. As with the first layer adjust the water and mix until you have a smooth pastry dough.

Even More Pastry Preparation
There’s a little more preparation work to do, the two layers are rolled out in a way so that tiny thin layers of each pastry are formed.
6. Roll out the first out. Roll the second layer out separately. Put the second layer ontop of the first layer and roll up both layers together by hand to form a sausage shape.
7. Roll the pastry sausage flat, turn it 90 degrees and roll up again into a sausage, then again roll the sausage flat, turn 90 degrees and roll up yet again into a sausage then roll the sausage flat.
8. If it’s too much work, you can use puff pastry from the supermarket!

Filling and Cooking
9. Roll the pastry into a flat disc. Spoon the soya mixture into a pile in the middle.
10. Push the salty egg yolks into the soya beans, (salty egg yolks should be hard from the salt, they are not cooked!).
12. Lift up the edges to wrap the filling up in the pastry.
13. Grease a baking tray, turn the pie over to hide the seam where the pastry was joined.
14. Cook in a preheated over at 170 degrees Celsius for 25 minutes

A snack straight out of a Bangkok bakery, these little pies are ideal at this time of year with all the western parties. They are mini bite sized pies (pasties) filled with a Thai green curry pork. A mix of west and east. I used store bought puff pastry, but you can also make your own pastry.  like Yellow Bean & Salty Egg Pie

Ingredients
100 gms Pork
2-3 Tablespoons Green Curry Paste
4 Tablespoons Evaporated Milk
1 Teaspoon Salt
2 Tablespoons Oil
2 Tablespoons Chopped Onion
1 Tablespoon Chopped Coriander Leaves
1 Eggs
Puff Pastry

Preparation
1. Mince the pork with the chopped onion and put into a frying pan.
2. Add the oil and curry paste and fry together for 4 minutes. Add salt and evaporated milk and fry for 2 more minutes. Set aside and leave to cool.
3. Chop the coriander leaves and add them to the mix. They add lots of green colour, as well as taste to the pies.
4. Beat the egg in a bowl, and prepare a baking sheet by dusting it with flour.
5. Cut a circle of pastry using a round cutter approximately 7-8 cms in diameter. Spoon a tablespoon of the mixture into the centre. Put beaten egg around the rim, fold it over into a semi-circle and crimp the edges with your fingers.
6. Glaze the pies with some of the egg to help them brown.
7. Place in the over at 190 degrees celsius until cooked, approximated 20-30 minutes