I do think that cooking is an art, a labour of love – something one would do with a whole lot of passion and patience…and once all is done, one would sit back and enjoy looking at the end result and feeling pleased when the fruit of one’s labour is well-received and appreciated. Unfortunately, I do not think I fall into that category as most of the time, I would not bother about the ingredients – just see what I have in the fridge or the pantry and do it chin-chai chin-chai (anyhow) as long as I get to eat in a jiffy.
Well, I still had some of the pastry left in the freezer from that near disaster that, fortunately, did not turn out too badly in the end. I did use a bit more to make some pies with just cheese and ham and they were pretty good and that day, I decided to use the rest to try and make some curry puffs. For the uninitiated, if you’ve never tried making shortcrust pastry, the steps and photos are here in this post that I shared a long time ago. For one thing, I do think that if you use chilled egg, diluted with a bit of cold water, the pastry would be more crumbly – I would prefer that…and cutting down just a little bit on the flour would help somewhat.
For the filling, I fried one Bombay onion, peeled and chopped till fine, in a bit of oil and then added one stalk of serai (lemon grass), bruised (which I removed after cooking) and two sprigs of curry leaves, removed from the stems and cut into fine strips. Then I put in the potatoes, peeled and cut into tiny cubes…and pre-boiled to shorten the cooking time and finally, I added a can of tuna curry. Seeing that one can was not quite enough and I did not want to open another can, I added a spoonful or two of curry powder to add to the fragrance and taste. This was what I got in the end…
I also boiled two eggs and cut them into wedges for use.
Having done that, I took a bit of the pastry and rolled it out and placed it in a small pie dish. I put in a bit of the filling and the egg on one half of the pastry…
…and then I folded it and pressed the edges together and twisted it diagonally to seal…
Of course this was my first time and I was not good at it (plus I had a nasty fall a week ago and sprained my wrist and it did hurt quite a bit!!!). In fact, I thought we had the plastic mould in the house (my cousin says her son calls it denture holder) and when I rummaged through the drawers, I found it…but it turned out to be an egg slicer!!! *face palm* That was why I had to do it manually and considering that I had not done it before, I would say that it turned out rather well…
However, I felt that was slow and tedious and I was running out of patience so I decided to just do the rest without using the pie dish and of course, they all came out in different sizes…
…though the shapes did remain quite consistent. In my hurry, I also did not bother to egg-wash the top nicely and that explains the rather unsightly patches of gold on them.
My girl tried one first and she said it was very nice – the pastry was good and the filling too. I took one myself to see…
…and yes, it was good. I would think it would be nicer with beef though as it had a bit of that taste that one would get in sardine rolls or puffs which I am not particularly fond of and thank goodness I did not use another can of the tuna.
Well, I can always make some more and when that happens, I do hope I would have enough self-control to do it all slowly and properly but anyway, despite all that has been said about them, I would think that, at least, mine did look a bit nicer than the ones sold at one of the bakeries here…
*Archive photo*
Right or not? LOL!
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 
Ooh, you know how my mom did it? She uses a sandwich toaster and sandwich the filling with 2 slices of oat bread, sometimes can throw in a slice of cheese ๐
Isn’t that…a toast sandwich? We’re talking curry puffs here.
More like a curry toast. She uses the filling shown in your first photo.
Exactly what I was thinking!
With egg! Wow! This can beat IKEA’s famous puff already ๐
Blush! Blush! You flatter me, Merryn… ๐
I agree that cooking is an art! I love to cook, and whatever I make tastes good, but I just am not good at presentations. That egg and everything else here looks wonderful!
Thanks. I’m not good either – my missus does it a lot better. My main concern is mainly to get everything into the tummy. Hehehehehehe!!!!
wow! i love the idea of egg in a pastry! great job!
They put egg in places in the western part of the country – I had those and I loved them a lot. That was why I followed suit.
You call this chin chai? It takes so much effort to make these la.. Looks so so good.. I like curry puffs, but if I can make at home, I would do it the western style, maybe make some creamy mushroom chicken filling.. You are such a good cook, first time making it and already look so nice!
Then it becomes a chicken pie already… Should use puff pastry but I prefer shortcrust.
They looked good to me. And some more you were been creative here by adding eggs.
All the giant curry puffs in the peninsula have egg inside. I like!!!
Is it? Never tasted any. ^^ something like the char siew pau. I love egg in char siew pau. I think I would love the curry egg puff too.
Ya, I love those with egg in the peninsula.
Our thinking is quite aligned. I do think cooking is some sort of an art, and requires patience and love… but not for me! Lazy man is always hungry and have no time to be patient ๐ .
Yeah, your puffs look better than those in the last photo ๐
I thought so too. They look rather “kasar” to be sold commercially.
Your curry puff looks good. Homemade is the best, can add a lot of “liao” like what you do, add egg.
Will try again. Use beef next time.
Your homemade curry puff is the best curry puff in Sibu…
By virtue of the fact that there are no really nice ones here…
Oh my goodness, yours look so mouthwateringly wonderful. I definitely think they look better than those found in bakeries.
I do too. Hehehehehe!!! Self-consolation. ๐
look so yummy!
you can open a cafe and sell it, then can hire me as waiter too, thanks 1st boss ^.^
Come, come. Waiter so handsome, sure will attract a lot of female customers. LOL!!! ๐
Oh ya..cooking is an art..exactly.
For me, I would not really bother the amount of food that is served—as long as it is nice and I would take a long time to really enjoy the food, not merely for the sake of filling up my tummy..quality dominates quantity.
You must be like my daughter then – she is a very very slow eater, enjoying every bit of what she loves.
*You are very resourceful
Thank you.
I would rather skip the meal if I have to finish it hastily…lol…
I eat very fast but that does not necessarily mean that I will finish first. Wink! Wink! ๐
I don’t mind trying one or two.. never mind about physical look.. most important its yummy on the whole.. :p
Yes, for own consumption – not so important. Want to give to people, maybe I will have to try and make them look a little bit better.
It can’t be a chin-chai job, STP. It illustrates that you’ve given it your love by carefully sealing the pastry dough and ensuring that the ingredients inside aren’t leaked out during baking.
The presentation looks good, though; it’s individual and unique, not the stereotyped ones. ^^
Thank you, thank you. ๐
I am impressed! Looks really good and the best part is that your curry puffs are baked and not fried. I’ll give this a go one day! What happened to you? Hope the wrist is better now.
Humpty Dumpty…had a great fall!!! Tripped and fell flat on my face – luckily no injury, just a sprained wrist. God must have sent his angels to hold me up when I fell, praise the Lord! Bet that took quite a few of them – I’m so fat and heavy! ๐
The food looks amazing, I’m really drawn to the first dish. I think I’d add a sweet red pepper to that dish. With or without I’m sure it would be delicious. ๐
Have you watched the movie, Scent of Green Papaya? That was a movie set in Vietnam during the 1940s and1960s and while it’s a story about romance, it also speaks about the art of cooking. I love that movie. ๐ Like Water for Chocolate is another movie that makes me think about how artistic side of cooking.
No, I don’t think I’ve watched any cooking-related movie. My girl had read The Hundred-Foot Journey but I don’t think they will ever screen the movie here. We only get those violent, action or horror movies. ๐ฆ
The first dish was the curry tuna and potato filling for the puffs. I only used whatever I could find in the house…as usual. ๐ฆ
I guess that’s one of the reason why I don’t really like cooking, as cooking is kind of like troublesome for me, hehe!!
But if you have the flair for it and you enjoy it, it’s a pleasure. Same with any work that you do, even the profession you’re in. You’ll not be happy if you’re stuck with something you have no passion for. Some people are in that kind of position – all for the money.
Oh I’m so lazy I use the puff pastry available from Tesco ๐
Cooking made so easy ๐
Yes, shortcut. I used them before when they were available here, not so nice but easy. They do not sell them here anymore, not popular, I guess…or maybe, they got too expensive. If I’m not wrong, they’re imported from overseas.