Thursday, July 24, 2008

Curry Puffs....with a difference


Curry puff is one of my favorite snack in Singapore. With chains like Old Chang Kee & Polar opening up everywhere, you're bound to be able to pick some up around any corner. Sigh since I'm all the way here in France, I have to make my own.

I took part in a cooking challenge recently where we had to come up with a dish incorporating puff pastry, poultry/meat & tinned fruit. Immediately I thought to do a puff of sorts. Remember the beef fajita with pineapple salsa, well that would be great in a puff but then I realised I don't have any pineapple so okay, how about chicken puffs with mango since I love that combination too. But I only had turkey fillets in the freezer, so ladies & gentlemen, that was how I came up with my entry for the challenge - Curry puffs with turkey & mango.

I didn't put a whole lot of mango - I had some left over from making mango sorbet but the smell was heavenly as they were being baked in the oven. The Girl loved the mango flavor in her curry puffs & she had 3 of these for dinner tonight.



Original curry puff has a hard skin but personally I prefer the flaky type of puffs so I use puff pastry which you can purchase frozen. If you have the time, you can always make the pastry too but if not, I'm all for taking short cuts.

Curry puffs with turkey & mango
makes 24
(if you replace the turkey with chicken & omit the mango, this is the recipe for regular curry puffs)

3 turkey/chicken breast, diced
1 big onion, diced
4 medium potatoes
curry powder
6 hard boiled eggs, quartered
1/2 cup of diced mangoes
4 puff pastry pate feuillette
1 egg yolk

1. Marinate the meat in 2 Tbsp of curry powder.

2. Fry onion till soft then add meat. When done, remove from pan

3. Fry potatoes, sprinkle some curry powder. Fry till soft. Add water if it gets too dry. When done, add the meat & mangoes. Mix them up in the pan. Remove & set aside to cool down

4. Once the filling is suitably cooled down, prepare the puff pastry. Cut out circles of 15 cm (I used a bowl of around that size, turned it upside down & cut around it). Place the filling in one half of the circle (don't overfill), add a piece of hard boiled egg, fold it over & crunch the sides. At this point, you can freeze any excess puffs (provided the pastry had not been frozen & then defrosted).

If there are excess dough after cutting out the circles, knead them into a ball & roll them out big enough to cut out more circles.

5. When done, place the puffs in an oven tray, brush the tops with the beaten egg yolk & bake in the oven at 190C for about 20-25 mins until they turn golden brown.



These are great finger foods & I've even served them as appetisers.

6 comments:

bACk in GERMANY said...

Love the puffs from Polar too!
But they don't taste that spectacular these days. At least not when I last had it in Sg last year.

Your curry puff with twist makes me hungry!

petite fleur said...

It's easy to make your own....I do it all the time.

alicia in exile said...

Hey Petit Fleur

The frozen pastry you mentioned, what is it called in French and did you get them from Picards?

A

petite fleur said...

Alicia - Pate Feuilletee. You can find them in the frozen section of any supermarket where they have the pizza crust. I can cut 5 from each & then the remainder I roll them out again - so maybe can make 6-7 from one.

alicia in exile said...

Hey PF, I noticed feuilletee was mentioned in the recipe. I really need to slow it down when I read. Thanks.

petite fleur said...

Alica - let me know how they turned out for you....