Curry puffs are small pockets of deep-fried or baked pastry filled with savory ingredients, including potatoes, onions, curry powder, and meat. The pastry is made from two types of dough rolled into spirals. They are popular in Malaysia and resemble Spanish empanadas.
A curry puff is a small pocket of deep-fried or baked pastry filled with savory ingredients – including spices and meat – and served in some Asian countries, particularly Malaysia. The filling usually consists of potatoes, boiled eggs, onions, curry powder and meat such as beef, chicken or sardines. The pastry that encloses the filling is made from two types of dough that have been rolled into spirals on the surface of the curry pastry when fried. Cream puffs are very popular in Malaysia and Singapore and are available from many street vendors and in a commercial frozen and canned form in grocery stores. The curry puff resembles a Spanish empanada, which is what the dish was originally based on.
The filling for a curry puff can vary, but there are certain ingredients that are almost always used. Much of the filling consists of diced potatoes. These can be starchy potatoes, sweet potatoes, or yams. They are finely diced to fit inside the pastry and are usually parboiled or cooked before being placed inside the pastry.
The spices within the curry puff are important to the overall flavor. Some recipes call for curry powder and curry leaves, which are actually two completely unrelated ingredients. Curry powder is just a mix of spices, and for a whiff of curry, it’s usually cumin, coriander, turmeric, and chilli, although prepackaged powders are just as effective. Curry leaves are actually the leaves of a particular type of plant and have no relation to the powdered spice mix.
Creating the filling begins with frying diced onions in oil or butter until translucent. The curry powder and curry leaves are added to the pan and left to cook until fragrant. Potatoes are also added at this point so they can develop some color or finish cooking. Finally, if meat is used, it is also finely diced or ground and added to the pan until cooked through. The finished filling should have some moisture so it doesn’t dry out while cooking, with stock or water added if it’s too dry.
The two types of dough used are both flour-based, except one mixed with oil or butter and the other mixed with water. To create the pasta, the oil dough is rolled into a ball and wrapped in a sheet of water pasta. The combined dough is then rolled out and formed into a tight cylinder. This cylinder is cut crosswise to make small circles that show a spiral pattern inside.
Each piece of dough is rolled out in a circle and a little filling is placed in the center. The dough is folded in half and the edges sealed, usually by crimping them. The oil is heated and each mouthful of curry is deep fried until it floats to the surface. The result of the combined dough is that the water and oil interact differently when cooked, creating a light and dark spiral pattern or actually flaking differently to create a three-dimensional raised pattern when completed.
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