Spiral Curry Puffs

Childhood memories of my birthdays include Mum's cake and beef cutlets, my Aunt's mixed fruit wine and my Grandma's beef and vegetable noodles and chicken and vegetable curry puffs for a high tea, in the evening, after school, when my family and extended family got together to celebrate. My favourite in the list has always been the curry puffs.

Curry puffs found its way into our home menu through my Grandma's Malaysian family connections and it is simply a variation of the Malaysian Karipap. The simplest way of making this is to prepare a poori dough, make small balls and flatten it, fill it with your favourite filling, close the open edges and deep fry in oil (just a stuffed poori).
To post the recipe for curry puffs here in my blog, I wanted to do a pastry with a difference. I came across spiral curry puffs during one of my expeditions in the blogging world and decided to adapt this recipe for my pastry, substituting vegetable oil for shortening. You have to prepare two types of dough: a water dough and an oil dough which is then layered together. The folding method is clearly demonstrated in this video. The stuffing, made with pork and vegetables, is more or less similar to the one my Mum makes at home.
Verdict: Spiral curry puffs involve a bit more work than the normal curry puffs but the pastry is very flaky and quite crisp which we all loved.

Makes: 16 - 18 curry puffs
Preparation Time: 15 minutes (filling) + 1 1/2 hr (pastry) + setting time
Cooking Time: 15 minutes (filling) + time to fry the puffs

Ingredients

For the filling

• 2 cups lean pork, cooked in salt and pepper, finely diced
• 1 cup potatoes, cooked in salt, diced (2cm x 2cm)
• 1 cup potatoes, cooked in salt, smashed (or mashed in chunks)
• 1 1/4 cup brown onion, finely chopped
• 1 - 2 green chilly, finely chopped
• 1 tbsp minced garlic
• 2 tbsp minced ginger
• 1 cup carrot, grated
• 1 tsp curry leaves, finely chopped
• 1/3 cup frozen peas
• 1/2 - 1 tbsp coriander powder
• 1 - 2 tsp kashmiri chilly powder
• 1 pinch turmeric powder
• 1 tsp + 2 tsp garam masala
• 1 tsp white vinegar
• 2 tbsp cooking oil
• Salt and pepper, to taste

For the pastry
Water dough

• 200g plain flour
• 90 - 100g water at room temperature
• 3 tbsp cooking oil
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 25g caster sugar

Oil dough

• 90 g plain flour
• 40g cooking oil

Method
To prepare filling
1. Heat oil in a pan and saute' onion, chilly and ginger till onion starts to lose its colour. Add coriander powder, chilly powder, turmeric powder, 1 tsp garam masala, salt and pepper and fry till aroma rises. Then add carrot and curry leaves, mix well and leave in closed pan for a minute to cook. Add pork, peas, remaining garam masala and vinegar. Mix well and season to taste. If the mixture is too dry, add a few teaspoons of water now. Cook for a few more minutes. Remove from flame and mix potatoes. Keep aside to cool.

To prepare dough
1. Mix all dry ingredients for water dough in a bowl. Slowly pour water and lightly knead till a soft dough. Cover and set aside for 20 minutes.
2. Put flour for oil dough in a bowl. Slowly pour oil and combine to a soft dough. Cover and set aside for 15 minutes.
3. Divide water dough and oil dough into two balls each (4 dough balls in all). Flatten water dough and wrap oil dough inside. Press firmly to seal well. Dust the working flour and gently roll the dough into a rectangle. (You will notice that one side will be oily and the other a little dry). Flip over so that the oily side is on top. Fold the rectangle by 1/3 of the long length and fold the other end over the top. Gently flatten into a rectangle again. Now roll the flat dough to form a cylinder, like a swiss roll. Use water on the dough while rolling. Using a sharp knife, cut the dough into 16 to 18 pieces of small dough. (Please refer to video to understand this process clearly).
4. Flatten each small dough into a circular disc. Place 1 to 1 1/2 tbsp of filling in the centre and seal the edges using water. You can use a fork to gently press the edges or can form a plait by following the instructions in the video. Deep fry in oil until golden brown.

Serve hot!