Our New Year's Eve dinner was very simple. Neither of us felt like a big feast and both of us were thinking comfort food...so I made individual chicken pot pies, a salad and a dessert in which I used up the poha berries left from the Christmas Eve salad and some puff pastry shells I had left in the freezer from earlier this year.
Homemade Chicken Pot Pie
3 chicken thighs - boneless, skinless
3 medium-small potatoes, quartered
3 medium-small carrots, cut in several chunks
1 small onion - diced small
1 shallot - diced small
1 garlic clove - minced
I cleaned/cut off all the fat globs left on the chicken. Placed chicken in medium saucepan with water and added the peeled and quartered potatoes and peeled and chunked carrots.
Saute the onion, shallot and garlic in just a little bit on olive oil, just long enough to sweeten the taste, but not brown.
When the chicken and veggies are cooked, add the sauted onion, shallot and garlic combination, season with salt and pepper (*) and cook down to a very small amount of chicken broth. Take the chicken and potatoes out and dice small and cut the carrots in small medallions.
I had some leftover Brocolli- Cheddar Cream Soup I had made a couple of days before. Recipe can be found HERE and also about 1/2 cup of English peas (petit pois) left from the paella I made on Christmas Eve. I followed the soup recipe as given but used less flour than called for and subbed whipping cream for the milk. It was very yummy.
To the chicken and veggies combination I added the petit pois and the leftover Brocolli-Cheddar Cream Soup and heated it just a little bit to combine with the little bit of chicken broth and to meld the flavors.
Use your favorite pie crust recipe for the top. I did not put a bottom to ours.
I used my white porcelain bowls with handles - they are restaurant quality bowls we bought some years ago to use in our deli and can go in the oven. Only two survived the fire of July 2000 as they were in the dishwasher at the time!
Spoon enough of the chicken and veggies in the bowl or ramekin to a rounded top. Place your pie crust on top and seal as best you can. Cut three steam vents on top using a sharp knife. I also sprinkled some of the seasoned salt used in the chicken-veggie mix on top of the pie crust and added a bit of pepper.
(*) for Christmas this year, some very good friends gave us a 'bento container' filled with an assortment of seasoned salts and sugars. One of the seasoned salts was a delicious fresh green dill and citrus combination, which is the one I used for this dish.
Poha Berries in Syrup
This is way simple and delicious. Cut the hard stem part of the poha off and cut the berries in half. Place in a shallow pan with enough water to cover and an equal amount of sugar (I used turbinado from Maui) and a 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla. Simmer them until they are syrupy but the sugar does not caramelize.
Can be served over cake, pound cake or ice cream. I served them in puff pastry shells which I topped with homemade whipping cream.
