Growing up, my mum's curry puffs were the things I looked forward to the most for a special treat. Borrowed from her love of Indian food, and inspired by the curry puffs you could find in local eateries in Hong Kong, she fine tuned her own recipe, and I gobbled them up as fast as she could make them. Now as a fully grown adult, my love for these homemade curry puffs has not faded, and I have adapted her recipe with a few different ingredients - some things that we can't buy as readily over here. Its made with a lovely flaky puff pastry, beef mince, carrots and potatoes. You can substitute the beef for any other meat, or not use meat at all, and just add other veg like peas, or Quorn mince. Again, you can adjust how spicy you want to suit all ages and all tastes. It's a great afternoon snack, starter, or even a party dish! I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.
Ingredients to make 12 curry puffs:
1 ready rolled puff pastry sheet
3 medium to large size potatoes
300 grams mince beef (or substitute for any other mince meat/leave out and add your own veg choice)
1 white onion
2 carrots
1 heap tablespoon of curry paste (my favourite is Madras, choose your favourite, also adjust the amount based on your taste)
1 tablespoon oil
1 egg
1 tablespoon of flour for dusting
Salt and pepper
If you want to make your own curry paste mix: 2 tablespoons tomato paste, 1 tablespoon chilli powder, 1 teaspoon turmeric, 1 teaspoon garam masala, 1 teaspoon oil.
Before you do anything, take your puff pastry sheet out from the fridge/freezer and follow their instructions. Pre-heat your oven to 200 degrees C, or gas mark 6.
Prepare your ingredients by finely chopping your onions; peeling your potatoes and dicing into cubes; peeling your carrots and chopping into small cubes (1 cm). Boil a pan of water, and boil potatoes in a little salt until soft enough to mash. Mash the potatoes and set aside. Boil you carrots separately until cooked - these will not be mashed so should retain their shape. Heat your oil in a saucepan and add the onions when oil is simmering. Cook over medium heat, stirring onions frequently so they don't burn. When the onions become transparent, add your mince meat to the sauce pan. If you are cooking with vegetables instead of mince, boil the veg until tender before adding to the saucepan with the onions. Cook on medium to high heat and add your curry paste after 4-5 minutes. Mix your paste in, add the carrots, mix again, and then add the mash potato. Take the pan off the heat and spend time mixing all the ingredients together. Give your mixture a little taste, and add more seasoning or curry paste if you need to up the flavour.
On a flat surface, dust some flour before laying down your roll of pastry to prevent any sticking. Cut your sheet of pastry into squares - should be able to make 12 large squares. Take a pastry square and place your filling on one half, leaving a border around the sides. Brush edges with a lightly beaten egg (to help seal together). Press the edges together, you can use the a fork or spoon to make light indentations to seal. Brush the top with the beaten egg. Repeat with remaining filling and pastry. Bake for 12 -15 minutes until they have risen and are a beautiful gold brown colour. They are now ready to be eaten!
If you don't want to eat them all in one go, you can freeze the unbaked puffs. When you want to eat them again, get them out of the freezer, brush a bit of beaten egg or milk on the top and put them in the oven for 25 mins or so, or until golden brown.