My First Curry Puff

Tomorrow will be the Dragon Boat Festival and certainly, the first thing that pop up in our minds would be bak zhang or zongzi, a traditional Chinese dumpling. Legend says that this festival is held to honour Qu Yuan, a pioneering poet and patriotic official in ancient China during the Warring States period (475-221 B.C.) A wise and articulate man, he was loved by the common people He did much to fight against the rampant corruption that plagued the court; thereby earning the envy and fear of other officials. He was banished to a remote area by the King after those officials persuaded the King and soon, his country had been defeated by enemies.

As a result, he committed suicide by drowning himself in the Miluo River of today's Hunan Province, on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month in 277 B.C. As he was deeply loved by the people, the local folk did what they could to search for him in the river. They rushed out in long boats, beating drums to scare the fish away, and throwing zongzi into the river to prevent the fishes from attacking his body. Since that time, it has been a customary on this day to enjoy zongzi as a memorial to the patriotic poet. In commemoration of the initial attempts to find Qu Yuan's body, boat races are also held, and the day is also known as the Dragon Boat Festival.

Enough on the history of the dumpling. For people like us who are living in the overseas, it is very unlikely for us to get to make them ourselves, let alone buying them. So, I decided to make something anyway, to make up for it; despite the fact that I am still in the midst of my mid-term examinations at the moment. Besides, seeing her baking and making so many stuffs over there, how can a kiasu person like me lose to her, right? Of so many things, I went for curry puffs 'coz it is quite simple using the recipe I took from my aunt the other day.

Chicken is not in the picture 'coz I was soaking them, and the recipe's paper is on the bottom left.

As you can see from the picture above, my curry leaves are dried ones. I brought them over all the way from Malaysia because where can you find fresh curry leaves in Japan, right? I know lah it looks like damn pity, so you guys in Malaysia better make full use of freash curry leaves wtf. Anyway, just in case you are interested in making them, here is the recipe.

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Dough:
1 bowl of wheat flour
3 tbsp butter
¼ cup ice water
½ tsp salt

1. Mix the flour and butter together and knead them evenly.
2. Add salt and a bit of ice water, just enough to make it a dough.
3. Leave it aside.

Filling:
½ piece chicken breast
3 potatoes
1 big onion
3 tbsp Baba’s curry powder
3 curry leaves (optional)
1 tsp salt

1. Dice potatoes, onions and slice chicken into tiny pieces.
2. Mix Baba's curry powder with some water. See lah, I'm promoting Baba's brand wtf. But this is by far, the best curry powder ever (according to my mum)
3. Put some oil into the pan and stir fry the curry powder.
4. Add the chicken and curry leaves.
5. Add potatoes and onions and cook them until they are soft. Along the way, add some water to make sure it doesn't get burned or chau ta.
6. Add salt accordingly.

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Once the dough and the filling are ready, now is the time to wrap them. Again, I was not equipped with the proper utensils and hence, I had to look for alternatives. I used a chilly sauce bottle to replace the rolling stick, and a round container cover to cut the dough as I don't have the kiap kiap mould .

It will be up to your own preference to make the curry puffs into whatever shape you like, whether to make them into elephants, cat or even hippopotamus. But I was not that lame and I just make them like normal ones. But I am not good at all in folding the edges, even though that is one of the most important parts to make sure the filling inside the puffs don't spill out while frying them. I know lah they looked really impaired and she was laughing at how bad I am in folding the edges. As you might not know, my fingers are damn big. So you cannot expect me to bend them like Beckham Ronaldo, right?

Please tell me you still able to recognise these as curry puffs.

So, after you are done with wrapping the puffs, just throw them into hot oil and deep fry them for about ten minutes and you are done with your curry puffs. I got to make 15 pieces from the recipe above.

The skin looked damn thick, but it was only for that piece. That doesn't mean that I am thick skin okay wtf.

I know my curry puffs do not look as nice as the one you can get from the mak cik selling 20cents kuih, but I tell you it taste just as good as those. Okay lah, maybe not exactly the same level, but it is already almost there. Afterall, this is only my first time making curry puffs. And like I always believe, "Taste is on the eyes of the eater".