Curry puff

Two doughs rolled and coiled together so the pastry bakes in visible spiral layers.

Chicken. Not vegetarian — contains chicken, fish sauce, lard.

Ingredients

water dough

• 250 g plain flour
• 60 g butter, soft
• 120 ml water
• 0.5 teaspoon salt

oil dough

• 180 g plain flour
• 100 g lard or shortening

filling

• 400 g potatoes, in small dice
• 250 g minced chicken
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons curry powder
• 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
• 2 tablespoons fish sauce
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 tablespoons oil
• oil, for deep frying

Method

1. TWO DOUGHS, ROLLED AND COILED, and that is what gives the spiral. A water dough and a fat-only dough are laminated by rolling one inside the other TWICE and then cutting across the coil, so the cut face shows rings. A single dough gives a perfectly good pasty with no layers at all.
2. Water dough: flour, salt, butter and water worked to a smooth soft dough, rested 30 minutes.
3. Oil dough: flour and lard rubbed to a firm paste, no water at all.
4. Divide each into 16. Flatten a water piece, wrap an oil piece inside it, and seal.
5. ROLL AND FOLD TWICE: roll each ball into a long oval, roll it up like a swiss roll, turn it 90 degrees, roll it out again and roll it up again. Chill 20 minutes.
6. Stand each coil on its cut end and roll it flat from there. Now the spiral faces you.
7. Filling: fry the onion in the oil, then the curry powder and turmeric 30 seconds, then the chicken, then the potato with a splash of water, covered, 10 minutes until the potato is tender and the pan is DRY. Cool completely.
8. A wet filling is the one thing that bursts these in the oil. It should hold together on a spoon.
9. Fill, fold into a half moon, and crimp the edge by folding it over on itself in small pleats.
10. Fry at 160C, not hotter, 6 to 8 minutes, turning. Low and slow is what separates the layers; hot oil seals the outside before the layers can lift.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Thailand · All recipes