Malaysian Curry Puff

Breakfast, mid-morning snacks, lunch, mid-day snacks, tea time, dinner, supper, late supper.

When I say you can find freshly cooked food anytime of the day in Malaysia, I kid you not.

No, I don’t mean at restaurants where you actually have to put on some clothes to go to.

I don’t mean at bakeries or cafes or malls either where you also have to put on clothes.

I’m talking about street food. They’re practically everywhere. Ok, you still have to put on clothes.. just not nice clothes. At least, you don’t have to comb your hair. Unless you’re trying to hit on that someone selling the food.

Drive around in most neighborhoods and you’ll find at least one rickety looking stall with a portable stove and a make shift table. There, you will see laid out, a variety of freshly fried local snacks from shrimp and banana fritters to fried spring rolls, mung bean balls, and plenty others that I have no idea what they’re called in Malay let alone English. I only need my eyes and index finger to place an order.

One of my favorite snack is fried curry puffs.

Think of curry puffs as Asian pies. The sibling of the Indian Samosas. The cousins of the Portuguese Empanadas.

The filling is made beforehand before being stuffed into a rolled dough. Potato and chicken curry filling is the most common but really, the sky’s the limit as to what you’d like in these. Some include sardines, tuna, or even beef rendang.

In this recipe, I used curried ground beef and potatoes for I love this to death. To make the pastry tender yet crispy and flaky, I used the technique similar to making a pie crust.

The combination of a delicious spicy filling wrapped with buttery crispy and flaky pastry goodness and then freshly fried until hot and golden is truly amazing. Taking the first bite (and second and third) is so satisfying.

Crisp and flaky outside, warm soft and melt in the mouth on the inside. Trust me, you’ll just die.

Just look at that layers of flakiness.

Also, if you haven’t already, check out my last post Taiwan Scallion Pancake. Extra crispy & flaky, lightly chewy savory pancakes fried to perfection with just 5 ingredients to make at home.

Curry Puff Tips:

1. Baking Powder: The crust itself is crispy and flaky already. Adding baking powder gives the crust a slight lightness and crisp.

2. Egg: You can opt to add one egg to this recipe. It adds flavor and a slight golden color to the crust after frying. If you choose to do so, just decrease the cold water by 2-3 tablespoons.

3. Butter: The butter flavor is strong. You can choose to replace half with frozen cubed lard if you wish.

Just like pie crust, the same rules are applied here.

4. COLD TOOLS & INGREDIENTS: If your kitchen is on the warm side, try to make sure all ingredients and tools (rolling pin, fork, pastry cutter..etc) are cold. This is so the butter doesn’t melt into the dough.

Why? When pockets of fat encased in flour in the dough are rolled out, they get stretch and form distinct layers. Fat keeps layers of flour separated before frying. When fried, the fat will melt and the layers of flour will separate and solidify which gives that ‘flakiness’.

5. COLD DOUGH: Based on the same reasoning as above. Warm surface or weather will not be your friend. Try to work fast and in between steps, refrigerate them if they becomes too soft to handle. When you can feel the butter melting in your hands, that’s too warm. They’ll firm up again after being chilled.

Eg. After I pinched the edges shut, the dough was getting too soft already so I popped them in the freezer to chill till they firm up again before I fluted them. You may even have to work in batches while the rest sits in the refrigerator or freezer.

If you don’t want to go through all that trouble for a flaky crust, try the dough recipe under notes (bottom). It won’t be flaky, but with the baking powder, it helps give a slight crisp to the crust.

---

 

Malaysian Curry Puff                    Makes about 20 small curry puffs

what you need:

Filling (You only need half for this recipe. Enjoy the rest with warm rice or for shepherd’s pie)

Onion Paste:
1 large onion
5 garlic cloves
1″ ginger
1/4 cup oil

5 tbs meat curry powder
1 1/3lb ground beef
1 large onion, diced
5 garlic cloves, finely minced
2 russet potatoes, diced small
1 cup water
2-3 sprig curry leaves (optional)
Salt and black pepper, to taste
Pinch of sugar

Dough
12.75 oz all purpose flour (3 cups scoop and sweep)
1 1/2 tsp baking powder (optional)
3/4 tsp sugar
3/4 tsp salt
2/3 cup diced cold frozen butter
6-8 tbs icy cold water

directions:

Filling

1. In a blender or a food processor, add the onion, garlic, ginger and oil. Blend until it becomes a smooth paste.

2. In a bowl, add the curry powder. Add 4-5 tablespoons of water and stir to make it a thick paste.

2. Add the onion paste into a pan and fry over medium high heat until slightly translucent. Add the curry powder paste and turn the heat to medium. Fry for 10 minutes until fragrant. If the paste becomes too dry, add water or oil 1 tablespoon at a time. We don’t want to burn the paste. Set the spice paste aside.

3. In the same pan, add some oil and sear the beef until brown. Set beef aside.

4. Add a thin coat of oil, over medium high heat, fry the diced onions and minced garlic until soft. Add the potatoes, seared beef and spice paste. Fry for a couple minutes. The beef will start to absorb the flavor of the spice paste.

5. Add the water, stir to combine and bring it to a boil. Once boiled, simmer covered on medium low heat for 15-20 minutes or until potatoes are soft. If curry is too watery when potatoes are done, uncover, turn the heat to high and fry until liquid has evaporated. You don’t want it too runny but not too dry either. Season with salt, black pepper and sugar. Let cool completely before using as filling.

Making the Dough

1. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt.

2. Using a pastry cutter or two butter knives, cut the butter into the flour mixture until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Different size crumbs is fine.

3. Add cold water one tablespoon at a time and use a fork to incorporate. Your goal here is just to hydrate the flour and not form a dough yet. One you have added 5-6 tablespoons of water, use your hand and bring it together to see if it sticks to form a mass (do not knead it). If it doesn’t, add more water 1 tablespoon at a time. Minimal dry spots are fine. You could also use a bottle sprayer with water and blitz some cold water on it.

4. One it can be formed into a firm ball of dough, split it into two, place each one a sling wrap, wrap and press it down into a flat disk. If there are small cracks on the sides, just press gently to close it. Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Roll, Shape, Fill, Seal, Flute

1. Remove one dough disk from the refrigerator. Flour the work surface, rolling pin and dough. Use a rolling pin and roll it flat until it’s about 1/8″. If the dough disk is too firm and cold, let it sit on the counter for awhile until it’s pliable.

2. Use a 4″ diameter cookie cutter to cut the dough. Try to cut close together to minimize dough scraps. Once you’re done cutting, peel off the dough scraps, bring them together, wrap them in a sling wrap and pop it in the freezer to chill. We’ll use the scraps later.

Work fast if the weather is hot. Work in batches if so.

3. Pick up a circle, gently stretch it and fill 1 full tablespoon of filling in the center of it. Bring the bottom to the top and seal the edges tightly so they wouldn’t burst or break apart when fried. Ensure the edges are about 1/2″ for fluting. Using your thumb and index finger, flute the curry puffs.

Depending on the weather, you may be able to finish filling all the circles, seal and flute them before chilling or you may have to fill, seal, and chill before fluting.

4. Repeat Steps 1-3 with the second dough disk. Combine the dough scraps.

5. Take out the dough scraps from the freezer. Roll them out into 1/8″ and cut them. Fill, seal and flute them. Repeat until all scraps are used.

5. Once all the curry puffs are fluted, pop them in the refrigerator while you prepare to fry them.

Frying

1. In a wok or a heavy bottom pan or pot, heat 3-4 cups of oil on medium heat until 360F. We need at least 2 1/2″ height of oil to allow space for the curry puffs to cook. Because the curry puffs are cold, we need to fry them in batches so the temperature of oil doesn’t drop dramatically.

2. Once the oil is almost ready, take out a batch of curry puff that you will be frying. Leave the remaining curry puffs in the refrigerator until you’re done frying the first batch.

2. When the oil is ready, gently drop the curry puffs into the oil and fry for 7-8 minutes. Turn it every so often so that it browns evenly. Place fried curry puffs on a wire rack set on a baking sheet to drain the excess oil. Place curry puffs in the oven at 200F to keep them warm while you finish the rest. Serve them warm.

Notes:

1. To reheat curry puffs, place them in a toaster oven and toast for a couple minutes until warm.

2. Not so complicated dough recipe:

12.75 oz all purpose flour
3/4 tsp sugar
3/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup butter
6-8 tbs water

Mix all the ingredients and knead until smooth. When sealing this dough, use water to help with sealing or it may break on you when you fry it.

3. If you really want to try this and don’t feel like making either recipes, you can buy frozen, ready-made pastry dough. I won’t judge.