Baking Pies @ The Food Studio is great fun!

The first thing that struck me about The Food Studio is that…man, that’s my Dream Kitchen!

I love those overhanging steel shelves – I want my pots and pans to hang above the island in my kitchen too.  Looking at this very professional kitchen at The Food Studio just reinforces that I need to get cracking on those ceiling-hanging shelves.

Tucked away in the quiet hilly enclave of Amarin Kiara, The Food Studio offers a variety of culinary events, ranging from demos, gourmet cooking classes, private parties, team-building sessions and even take-home chefs!  The vast modern kitchen, equipped with Electrolux appliances, with many individual cooking stations and fully stocked with modern cooking utensils, is a joy to work in.

I was there a few Saturdays ago for a class on baking Basic Pies, courtesy of Electrolux. The class was led by Chef Paul, who besides demonstrating the various steps of baking pies, gave us a lot of useful tips – how to cube onions properly, how to cut and core apples, what types of potatoes make the best mash, how to choose the freshest mushrooms etc.

Only the freshest and top-notch ingredients are used at The Food Studio…

The 3 Basic Pies we were taught that day were Apple Pie, Shepherd Pie and Chicken Pie. I like how the recipe sheets given out were really “basic”… there was only a list of ingredients given and as for the amounts of each item, well, that’s flexible – really. And Chef Paul proceeded to show us just how flexible… just use whatever amounts we like! Throw in more mushrooms or minced meat or whatever you fancy… and you can adjust how salty, sweet or spicy you want the fillings to be. Good cooking should be that way – everything depends on the touch and taste of the chef! After the chef’s demo, we all got to bake our pies hands-on.

So, ok…let’s start with the Apple Pie… see how simple it is… ingredients listed in the recipe were just apples, butter, cinnamon, sugar, vanilla bean, orange juice…

And the end result? Ta…daaahh!

Next up was the Shepherd Pie. We used minced beef for the filling and put in lots of tomatoe puree and canned tomatoes to thicken it… enhanced with lots of fresh carrots and onions… with some green peas for added colour too. For taste and flavour, just sprinkle in some salt, pepper & mixed herbs.

We really threw in the works where cheese was concerned… the more the better! Shredded cheddar and parmesan were piled as high as possible on top of the mashed potatoes and baked to a golden hue…

This was my favourite and the only pie that I completely devoured that day!

We really had fun with the Chicken Pie – that was the richest pie for the day, thanks to the white wine and cream which we added in very generous portions!

You can substitute any meat with the chicken fillet we used… that’s the beauty with pie fillings – you are only limited by your imagination and creativity!

The recipe we did that day was fabulous… I didn’t stinge on the mixed herbs, wine or cream…and mushrooms! Due to time constraint, we used ready-made puff pastry sheets for the Apple Pie and Chicken Pie.

It was a very fun cooking session and once everybody’s pies were baked… (Chef Paul was a gem – he took very good care of our pies in the oven), we all sat down and dug into the pies…with great relish! The recipes are so easy to replicate at home and like I said, just go crazy with your own pie fillings.

I have replicated these pies several times at home since then… they are such a hit with the family, I tell you!

Do check out The Food Studio for a fun, enriching culinary experience!

The Food Studio
Level LG2, Amarin Kiara
Jalan Desa Kiara 1
Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03-6205-1188

*Much appreciation goes to Fried Chillies for the invitation 🙂