Poach chicken breast in chicken broth until almost cooked. Remove and cook peas and cubed carrots in broth. Add a slurry of flour and milk to thicken, adding cream if you have it and a chunk of butter. Add cubed chicken.
Make crust dough from flour, 1/3 its volume in lard or suet, salt, enough water to bind. Work together gently but don’t overwork. Let rest a bit then roll out and cut circles an inch larger than your baking bowls. (I get suet from my butcher who simply shaves off a slice from larger beef roast.)
Heat oven to 400F. Ladle reheated chicken “stew” into baking bowls, cover with pastry circle, slashing a hole in top for steam. Brush with cream or egg wash if you wish. Bake until golden brown and puffed.
Anyways, I want to to figure out how Shunji San make his Renkon Mochi and the enoki gavy. It was very tasty! Whenever I come visit and have his food, there comes another episode of I wanna cook a bunch of stuff…
Wow beautiful dishes! I have been married for 34 years. I used to cook for one when the wife went out with friends. It wasn’t that much fun so now I usually go out for something she doesn’t like; sushi, Cajun, Thai, Indian, anything with clams. Your cooking looks wonderful! I hope you find someone to cook for soon - look for someone who doesn’t share your tastes but you still like; at least that’s what worked for me and it lasted. Go figure, and best of luck!!
Usually I cook unless I am working. She cooks when I am away. We don’t often cook together. If we do it’s for a party and she does the appetizers and I do the mains and dessert. Oh and I do the dishes…she is allergic to dish detergent…sigh…
Getting my banana pudding ready Friday morning at 7:45am so it’s ready by Sunday afternoon. Only 5 ingredients and always a crowd pleaser. I use a lot of bananas, the mini Nilla Wafers bc they incorporate better into the cream mixture and 50% more whipped cream to cut the sweetness a bit.
Why would the making of imitation vanilla be any more upsetting than the incredibly expensive and finicky process of harvesting real vanilla?
I’m sure there’s other common ingredients that are the result of rather specialized and highly industrial processes that we all use every day.
And while there’s certainly a difference between real and imitation vanilla extract, as the article you linked states, most of that difference is obliterated by heat, leaving mostly just vanillin. So for chocolate cake or other goods with bigger flavors, the subtlety of real vs imitation vanilla isn’t going to be perceptible.
Now, for something like a crème brûlée where vanilla is the MAIN flavor, and you don’t cook the hell out of it, real vanilla pods are probably worth it.
For a lot of other stuff, though, I can remember an America’s Test Kitchen segment where they said for MOST baked goods, imitation was indistinguishable from real.
what do you and your wife enjoy to cook together at home?
Stir-fried Ong Choy, Fried Mackerel & Fried Tofu & Light Fish Sauce… with a questionable amount of peanuts 
Banana Pudding!