Curry Puffs

We used to live in Malaysia for 3.5 years, back in 2002-2005. We had a lot of good memories about the delicious authentic culinary in that country. I was introduced to many type of food that come from their multi-ethnics cultures.

So later on, some of the Malaysian favorites had become our all time favorite food. We never forget the unique flavor of Roti Canai, Teh Tarik, Nasi Lemak, Chicken Hainan, Laksa, some menus from Indian-Malay Restaurant, and ... the Curry Puffs.

It's still in my mind, that one Sunday noon after a worship in Church, one family who prepared the refreshment brought 2-3 trays of local puffs. From the first bite, we fell in love to the curry puffs, and finally we found out the small shop that sold those puffs. It became our regular "pit-stop" after the Sunday Service.

It has been a while, I was marking this recipe and finally last Thursday I had a change to try it in my kitchen. I hoped this would be a cure to our thirst for the original curry puffs that we like very much.

I came back from market and realized that I had all the ingredients that I needed. All of them are the everyday ingredients that is easy to find.
Yup... I played again with the butter puff pastry.

I didn't do any changes of the recipe, just for the boiled eggs; I took out the yolk, and used the white boiled egg only. Other than that, I accompanied the beef puffs with some 'greens'; watercress and cucumber, and enjoyed them with cold green tea. Yummy!

Curry Puffs
Source : Shiok! Exciting Tropical Asian Flavor by Terry Tan and Christopher Tan.

Old-fashioned Indian Muslim-style curry puffs used to be shaped our of hand-made puff pastry, rich with margarine, and baked in diesel-fired clay ovens. Commercial butter puff pastry is much more convenient and less laden with hydrogenated fat.
Ingredients
5 tbsps oil
225 gr (8oz) minced mutton or beef
3 large potatoes, cooked, peeled and diced
250 ml (1 cup) water
1 tsp salt
900 gr (2 lbs) ready-made butter puff pastry
2 hard-boiled eggs, chunkily diced
2 eggs, beaten

Spice Paste
3 tbsps Meat Curry Powder
1 onion, sliced
5 gloves garlic
2 tbsps chopped ginger
4 dried chillies, soak till soft
1 tbsp water

1. Grind Spice Paste ingredients together until very fine.
2. Heat oil in a wok oven medium heat and fry Spice Paste until fragrant and thicked, 5 to 6 minutes. Add beef and fry 2 minutes, then add potatoes, water, and salt. Cook, stirring frequently, until liquid has largely evaporated and curry is thick, 6-7 minutes. Let cool completely.


3. Roll out puff pastry 3 mm (1/8 inch) thick. Cut into 15 cm (6 inch) squares. Place a heaped tablespoon of filling across a diagonal half of a square, and seal edges with some beaten egg. Brush top with more beaten egg to glaze.
Repeat with remaining pastries and filling.


4. Transfer curry puffs to a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake in a preheat oven at 200C (400F) for 10-12 minutes or until well browned.
Serve warm.


Tips;
* Make sure the curry filling is thick, not too dry but not watery, either. Otherwise your puffs is going to be soggy.

* To make my work easier, I used the ready to use butter puff pastry that normally is used to prepare zupa soup. Their size is perfect (13cm squares), I just need to put the filling, wrap, then bake.

Happy Easter, everyone.
I'll be back with our Easter Egg Tart, soon!