Chicken Curry Puffs

I’ve been meaning to make some pastry and I had half a tin of kidney beans left over from a chili I made the other day so I thought CURRY PUFFS! They’re a Malaysian snack which is sort of like a light Cornish pasty with curry in. I’m one of those really sad people that love spicy food but have a ridiculously English stomach which does not appreciate it... However, I don’t care, and will continue eat spicy things until my body mans up!

Normal people use frozen puff pastry for these, but I just like to make things complicated for myself so here’s how to make rough puff pastry:

Rough Puff Pastry Ingredients

250g strong plain white flour

250g of butter, cold

A small cup of cold water

Add the flour and the cold butter into a mixing bowl.

Using a metal knife use slashing motions to combine until the butter is still visible and in small lumps. Don’t use your hands or it will melt the butter!

Make a well in the middle and add in about 6 tbsps of very cold water. Using the knife to mix the dough, add in one spoon of water at a time until the mixture forms a ball.

Wrap the ball in clingfilm and pop it into the fridge for about an hour.

Take the ball out of the fridge and roll it out onto a lightly floured surface.

Then fold the top third onto the middle and the bottom on top of that.

Turn the pastry 90⁰c, roll out and repeat the above steps two or three more times until the pastry is smooth.  Wrap it in clingfilm and chill for another hour. After this the pastry is ready to use!

Curry Puff Ingredients

Large chicken breast, cut into chunks

Large potato, cut into chunks

Three carrots, cut into chunks (Do you sense a theme here?)

An onion, finely chopped

A few sticks of easy ginger, if you have it

Half a tin of red kidney beans (optional)

A squeeze of tomato paste

A glug of soy sauce

Two big spoonfuls of curry powder (as strong as you like)

A spoonful of salt

A spoonful of sugar

Some fresh coriander, chopped

One egg, beaten and mixed with a little bit of water

Glug of olive oil

The first thing to do is to boil the potato chunks for fifteen minutes. Chuck the carrots in when there’s seven minutes to go. Drain and leave them to the side. Fry the onions and ginger in olive oil until the onions have softened.

Add the chicken and fry until just cooked.

Then add the curry powder, salt and sugar with a few spoonfuls of water.

Add the cooked potatoes and carrots and mix to cover everything evenly.

Add a few swirls of tomato paste and a couple spoonfuls of soy sauce and simmer for about five minutes. Then add the red kidney beans and simmer for another five minutes.

Take the pan off the heat and stir in the chopped coriander and leave to one side. Preheat the oven to 200⁰c/Gas Mark 6.

Roll your pastry out thinly. Onto trays lined with baking paper place oval shapes of pastry cut using a knife. Put a spoonful of curry mixture on one side of the pastry. Brush the edges with a bit of egg wash, fold over the other half then crimp closed using a fork.  Brush the egg wash all over the puff. I apologise for the general inconsistency in shape and size of my puffs. As you should know by now, perfect presentation really is not my style.

Bake in the preheated oven for twenty minutes until golden brown.

My serving suggestion is to eat them warm with a big dollop of HP sauce on the side. Once cooled pop them into an airtight container in the fridge and they should last a couple days. I wouldn’t reheat them in the microwave, only because it makes the pastry go soggy and weird.  

NOM!