Curry puffs

This recipe comes from my favourite food writer's column, Tom Norrington-Davies, writing for delicious. Talking about snobbery towards curry powder, yes I am guilty too, we all seem to have a tub of the stuff lurking at the back of the cupboard, yet tend to use a array of delicious spices to achieve that hot, aromatic base for 'curry' in it's place. I use 'curry' as the word we British in particular use for anything even slightly spiced and not really authentic.
This recipe for a simple cheats samosa really caught my eye, if I can give in too curry powder I can live with a puff pastry style samosa.





Chicken curry puffs, from Tom Norrington-Davies.
450g potatoes, cut into 1 cm dice
3 garlic cloves
2 shallots
3 -4 sprigs fresh coriander
1 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp mild curry powder
1 tsp tomato puree
3 tbsp soy sauce
3 tbsp groundnut oil
250g coarsely minced chicken
500g block puff pastry
1 egg

Cook the diced potatoes in a pan of boiling salted water until they are just tender. Drain and cool.
Chop the garlic, shallots and coriander to a near paste using a food processor, place in a small bowl and season with the curry powder, sugar, tomato puree and soy sauce.
Heat the groundnut oil in a frying pan, and fry the curry paste over a medium heat for 10-15 minutes until it is a deep golden brown colour.
Add the minced chicken and a couple spoonfuls of water to moisten and continue frying until the meat is cooked through.
Fold in the cooked potatoes and check the seasoning, you might one more soy or a pinch more sugar. The flavour should be spicy-salty-sweet. Cool completely.
Preheat the oven to 200c / gm 6, roll out the puff pastry. Use a saucer as a guide and cut out 8 smallish discs; the size is up to you really, they could be canape or snack size. I use a 13cm saucer.

Make a egg wash by beating the egg with 3 tbsp water. Egg wash the edges of the pastry discs and fill the centres with the curry filling. Fold the discs into turnovers and crimp the edges before egg washing the pastries.
Line a baking tray with baking paper. Place the curry puffs on the tray, bake for 125minutes or until they are golden and fluffy. Rest for 5 minutes before attacking.

I was unsure how the curry puffs would live up to my beloved samosa but the filling of cooked potato and spiced chicken, tasted absolutely divine, so good that I almost did away with the pastry and had the filling as a side. Combined with buttery, flaky pastry these were a real treat along side my Saturday night 'curry' definatley a keeper. I will make these time and time again.