Puffilicious!

I've been hankering for curry puffs for a while now, but everytime I think about the number of calories in one of those bad boys, especially when I walk past Old Chang Kee (a famous curry puff vendor here, I swear I feel oilier just standing at the counter), I convince myself that it just ain't worth it and I keep on walking. But with Hari Raya Puasa coming up next week, temptation is just everywhere! Even in the carpark at HV, next to the mosque, there's a little stand there with an old uncle selling his goodies, which includes the Malay style apok apok, fairly similar to the curry puff but you have a choice of either potato filling or sardine filling. Both are very enjoyable, let me tell you. But they just as bad as those curry puffs because they are all fried in lots of OIL. YUM.

So in an attempt to satiate my craving for these little golden puffy parcels of goodness, I decided to try and make my own curry puffs. I also decided to be lazy and use frozen pastry dough, because I just don't want the hassle of trying to make the pastry on my own, only to have it fail miserably. For the filling, I used a recipe that I found here, and just tweaked it a little so I could use whatever I had in the kitchen. Plus, I added a piece of hard-boiled egg together with the filling in each puff. Finally, I baked my curry puffs, instead of frying them in a gallon of oil, so it's a little bit healthier and a little less guilt-inducing. Just a note, the recipe I'm posting reflects the changes that I made. For the original recipe, click here.

I deliberately made extra filling so I could snack on the leftovers. Heh how greedy am I?My puffs, brushed with egg wash and waiting to be baked. What do you do with those leftover scraps of dough? I used mine to make these mini curry puff "pot pies". Hot out of the oven and (thankfully not literally) bursting with puffilicious goodness!

Curry Puffs
Filling:
3 to 5 tbsp oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1½ curry powder
1 tsp chili flakes (I didn't have any chili powder)
½ tsp ground turmeric
300g chicken tenders, cut into small cubes
3 potatoes, peeled, boiled and diced
1½ tsp sugar
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
1. Heat oil and fry onions until lightly golden brown. Add the curry powder, chili flakes and turmeric and fry gently.
2. Add the chicken, cook for a couple of minutes, then add the potatoes, sugar, salt and pepper. Mix well and cook for another 5 minutes or so, until the chicken is completely cooked through. Leave aside to cool.

To assemble:
1. If you're using pre-packaged pastry dough, make sure it's at room temperature. Roll out according to package instructions and cut with a round cutter of your choice (I used a 4-inch cutter).
2. If you're using hard-boiled eggs as well, slice them into fairly small slices.
3. Place a piece of egg in the center of the dough circle, and then spoon some filling over it. Try not to overfill the puff, so that you have enough space to seal the edges.
4. Fold the dough circle in half, and squeeze the edges together so you get a semi-circle-ish puff. Crimp the edges with a fork (I don't know how to do the braiding thing, although that looks so much better).
5. Place your completed puffs on a baking sheet lined with parchment, then brush with egg wash. Bake the puffs according to the instructions on the pastry dough package - I baked mine at 320 degrees Celsius for about 13 minutes. Make sure you keep an eye on them so they don't burn. I also roatated the tray about halfway through the baking time.

Mmm mmm curry puff. Maybe next time I'll be brave and attempt to make the pastry from scratch. But for now I'll just enjoy these!
The "pot pies" came out pretty good too.