Dough…

I can’t remember when I first started making shortcrust pastry but it was a long time ago, probably back in those days when I was still single. I remember it was similar to the roti bayee (Indian bread) that my mum used to make to go with her curry but she would manhandle the dough and slam it violently on the kitchen table while I was reminded time and time again not to handle it too much when making my shortcrust pastry. Other than that, my mum did not bake her roti bayee – she would dry fry it in a frying pan.

I also remember that I did not use my shortcrust pastry for making pies all that frequently – most of the time, I would used it as a base for my pizzas. My little cousins living a few doors away down the road loved them so much but then again, we did not have pizzas in Sibu at the time, so deprived, not even that franchise pizza place.

The last time I made some shortcrust pastry was probably way back in 2009 when I made some lovely pies for Christmas, a big one…

…and a few small ones…

…for my mum.

Well, sometime ago, I blogged about the made-in-Australia filo pastry that my girl bought from the supermarket in town and she used it to make some very nice spanarkopita – a savoury Greek spinach pie…

…and she used the leftover to make these…

…her variation of the quiche and yes, it was very nice too!

When she bought the filo pastry, she also bought a box of shortcrust pastry from that same Australian company and it had been sitting in the freezer all this while. Finally, she took it out that day to make a chicken pie…

I guess you can tell from the look of it that the pastry was not very nice…

What do you expect when there is no butter in the ingredients used in the making, just margarine? Besides, the pie crust was too thin – I like mine a bit thicker, crusty and crumbly with the delightful fragrance and taste of butter to enjoy with the filling.

Talking about the filling, what my girl had in her pie…

…was really good, much nicer than any of mine before but next time, perhaps, I would suggest adding some carrot and edamame beans (we never use peas these days – they are as hard as stones no matter how long we boil) for a little bit of colour…and I shall help her with the pastry for the pie crust, no need to go out and spend a fortune on these imported less-than-satisfactory ones.

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