Karipap Gai (Chicken Curry Puff)

Today's post is a substantial hike in the difficulty levels! Normally I try and make dishes that are easy to follow and make but Karipaps (Curry Puffs) are particularly difficult, or the pastry is at least. As you might be able to see it's a multi-layer puff pastry that is folded in such a way that ends up with an open spiral-like finish. This is the first time I've ever tackled anything like this so it really was a challenge but with a bit of practise, hopefully you can manage it too.

The filling is a fairly simple chicken and potato curry-at least that part is easy to do!

The pastry involves making two lots of dough, both slightly different mixes.

For 8 curry puffs, you'll need:

For the Inner Dough:

• 120g plain flour
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil

For the Outer Dough:

• 300g plain flour
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1/3 cup water (you may not need all of it)
• big pinch salt
• big pinch sugar

For the Curry Filling:

• 4 small/2 medium potatoes, peeled, cut into 2 cm squared cubes and pre-boiled for 3-4 minutes
• 2-3 chicken thighs, cut into 2 cm squared pieces
• 1 small onions, finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon mild curry powder
• 1 teaspoon of chilli powder
• 1 teaspoon turmeric powder
• a big pinch salt
• vegetable oil for frying

Start by making the filling, as it'll need to be cool by the time you make the doughs.

Heat a small splash of vegetable oil in a pan until hot, then fry the onions until softened. 

Add in the chicken pieces, frying until cooked; about 2-3 minutes. Pop in the spices and salt and mix well. 

Gently add in the cooked potato, stir everything well and cook for a couple minutes more. Leave to cool while you make the pastry...

Make the inner dough

Pour the oil into the flour, it'll quickly and easily make breadcrumbs and then with a little further squeezing and kneading will become a smooth, oily dough. Divide into 8 equal balls (each will be about golf ball size).

Make the outer dough

Put the sugar and salt into the flour, add the oil as before, using your fingertips to make 'breadcrumbs'- this will be a dry mix at this stage. Slowly add in the water bit by bit, kneading gently to bring the dough together. You do not want a dry crumbly dough, it needs to hold together so add enough water to make sure you've got a smooth, pliable dough that will hold itself together.

Divide the outer dough into 8 equal sized balls and use a rolling pin to roll them into a flat circle.

No need to leave the dough to rest, lets move straight on to the rolling....

Making the pastry...

Work on an oiled work surface or board to make life a lot easier for yourself.

Place a ball of the inner dough into the middle of a flat circle of outer dough and fold and squeeze the outer dough around the inner dough ball so it's fully encased. Repeat for the rest of the dough. You now have 8 enclosed dough balls.

Take one of the enclosed dough balls and roll it flat rolling only forwards and backwards- you want a long, narrow 0 shape to the dough, as thin as you can get it.

Loosening the dough from the work surface, roll it up like a cigar, rolling away from yourself (open rolled ends are to your left and right)

Pick up the rolled dough and turn it 90 degrees (an open rolled end is facing you). Use the rolling pin to roll out the dough, like we did at the beginning, into a long narrow 0 shape. Again, use your hands to roll it up like a cigar (or sausage roll!) pushing it away from you before turning it 90 degrees.

Rinse and repeat... 

Altogether I did 3 cycles of rolling out, cigar rolling and turning. As long as you do the same actions each time and turn the dough in the same direction you'll be fine.

On the final cigar roll, smooth the roll off, smoothing the ends into the dough as much as possible and gently manipulate into a more even roll. Cut this roll into 8 equal slices, leaving you with something resembling the picture above.

Give yourself a well deserved pat on the back!!

Filling & Cooking

Heat a deep fat fryer or heavy pan of vegetable oil while you start to fill the dough. Yes more oil, these are not healthy snacks!!

Take one of the dough slices, placed flat on the work surface and roll flat with the rolling pin straight down on top of the layers, again, aiming for an elongated '0' shape. As you roll, you'll see the layers start to stretch and open up. Aim to get the dough quite thin, about 5mm is ideal.

Lift up the rolled dough and place a tablespoon of the cooled curry filling into the inside, fold both halves of the dough together and pinch and twist the edges to seal it tightly.

Repeat with the remaining pastry and filling.

Cooking in batches, deep fry for 6-8 minutes until crispy and light brown.

Serve with pickled cucumber/chilli/shallot (known as ajaad- click for the recipe) to help cut through the rich pastry.

Fall into a heap!!

Gaeng Kari Moo & Ajaad (Pork Indian style curry & cucumber pickle)

This was just the right kind of dish for a cold evening, warm and comforting, spicy but not hot. It’s as close a dish as you’ll find in Thailand to how we stereotypically think of a curry. It’s name (Gaeng= Curry in Thai, Kari = Curry in Tamil) basically means that it is a Thai interpretation of an Indian curry and as such has a lot of spices that you would normally find in garam masala. In terms of looks and main ingredients, it is also quite similar to a Massaman curry and is kept very simple, using just meat, onions and potatoes but the paste has some obvious differences. Feel free to change the meat to chicken or other veggies. The ajaad (pickle) adds sharpness and acidity to balance the mild and slightly sweet curry sauce.


For two big portions use:


For the yellow curry paste-

• half a red onion/ 6 thai shallots, peeled and roughly chopped


• 1 stalk of lemongrass, peeled, trimmed and roughly chopped


• 1 bulb of garlic, peeled


• a thumb sized piece of galangal, roughly chopped


• 2 red chillies


• a tablespoon of coriander seeds


• a heaped teaspoon of cumin seeds


• a teaspoon of fennel seeds


• a tablespoon of tumeric powder


• a heaped tablespoon of mild curry powder

in a dry pan, add the coriander, cumin and fennel seeds and lightly toast over a gentle heat until they smell fragrant and are just starting to go brown. Get them off quickly otherwise they’ll burn and be useless. Pour them into a mortar and grind into a fine powder. After, add in the powdered turmeric and curry powder, stir and pour out into a bowl.

Take the fresh herbs (garlic, chillies, galangal, lemongrass and onion) and like I did for the Khao Soi recipe, put these ingredients into a tin foil parcel and place directly over a low flame or place in the grill. This will roast/ char the ingredients but keep an eye on them all the time and keep moving the foil parcel- especially if you use direct flames. Take off after 5 minutes or when the herbs have softened and have some colour on them.

Put them into the mortar and bash them up until you have a paste. Put the paste into the bowl with the dry spices and mix well.

That’s the curry paste done. Now onto the pickle….


For the pickle use:

• about ¼ of a cucumber, thinly sliced and cut in half


• about 50ml of white wine vinegar


• about 50 ml of water


• ½ a big red chilli, sliced


• a sliver of red onion/ 1 shallot, very finely chopped

Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl and let them steep in the vinegar while you make the rest of the curry


Finally, for the curry, use:

• 200g of lean pork leg, cubed


• 8 new potatoes / 2 big potatoes (peeled), cut into bite size pieces


• 1 white onion, cut into bite size pieces


• 200ml of coconut milk


• 300ml of water


• a splash of liquid seasoning (stock/ maggi/ a stock cube etc)


• a big pinch of sugar


• a big splash of fish sauce (nam pla)


• fresh coriander for garnish.

In a wok, heat the coconut milk on high, try not to stir and after a few minutes it should start to split,and the oils will become visible. At this point add in the curry paste and stir well. It should become a very thick sauce. Cook for a minute before adding in half of the water, the stock, the pork, onions and the potatoes. This bit takes the longest; depending on your potatoes, it can take up to 30 minutes for the potatoes to soften. Keep an eye on the liquid, and keep topping up the sauce if needed. When the potatoes have softened, add in the sugar and fish sauce and have a taste. If everything’s fully cooked and to your liking, serve with fluffy rice or even flatbread and sprinkle over the coriander, serving the ajaad on the side.

Moo Satay & Ajaad (Pork Satay and Cucumber Pickle)

(or the satay that isn’t really). If you’re wondering why there are no sticks that’s because I forgot to buy them before I made the recipe. It was too late to go out and buy them so just imagine the meat came on sticks ok?

This dish takes a little bit of prep time but is fairly straightforward to do, both the sauce and the pickle can be made ahead of time.


Ingredients for enough for two:

For the marinade:

• 200g of lean pork, cut into reasonably thin slivers


• 1 teaspoon of turmeric powder


• 1 stalk of lemongrass, trimmed and very finely chopped


• a big splash of light soy sauce


• 1/3 can coconut milk


• a big pinch of sugar

For the peanut sauce:

• a heaped tablespoon of Massaman curry paste (some supermarkets sell this)


• the remaining 2/3 can coconut milk


• a big splash of fish sauce (nam pla) an easy supermarket find these days


• a large handful of salted peanuts


• a small splash of tamarind extract (if you can’t find this add the juice of half a lime)


• a heaped tablespoon of sugar


• 4 cloves of chopped garlic


• a small piece of galangal (use ginger if you can’t get it), very finely chopped


• 3 small red chillies, very finely chopped


• 4/5 kaffir lime leaves, shredded and chopped very fine (some supermarkets sell them fresh, dried are pretty rubbish- use lime zest instead


• 1 stalk of lemon grass, trimmed and very finely chopped

For the cucumber pickle:

• 3-4 inch piece of cucumber, peeled, seeds scooped out then finely chopped


• a small piece of red onion/ shallot very finely chopped


• 1 or 2 small red chillies, very finely chopped


• a big glug of white wine vinegar


• a big pinch of sugar

Start with the pork marinade- place the pork in a bowl and add all the ingredients listed. Stir well then leave somewhere cool for at least 1 hour, longer if you want.


While the pork marinades, make the pickle. Mix all the pickle ingredients in a small bowl and leave it to sit while you made the peanut sauce.


Start off by toasting the peanuts over a medium heat in a frying pan. Keep watching them and moving them about so they don’t burn, toast until they just begin to change colour. Take them off the heat, pouring in to a pestle and mortar and crush them. Take them out and put them to one side for now. Put all the herby ingredients (garlic, galangal, chilli, lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves in the mortar and bash these up into a more paste- like substance. Into the empty frying pan, over a medium heat; add this paste and the leftover coconut milk and the remainder of the sauce ingredients. Let this heat through for 5 minutes, before adding the crushed peanuts. It’ll take a while, maybe 15 minutes, but very slowly reduce this down until you have a thick and gloopy sauce. this can now be kept to one side until serving time.


Back to the pork- thread the meat onto skewers and cook under a medium high grill for about 10 minutes, turning as needed. Let them get a little bit of char to them. If, like me you forget the sticks, just lay the pieces of meat onto a foil covered grill try in one layer and cook in the same way.


Finally, grab your three components and get dipping!

Tod Mun Pla (Fried Fishcakes)

Every Thai restaurant in the UK sells these and everywhere you go they are pretty much identical. I’ve come to the conclusion that *most* restaurants will buy them in ready made and while they are generally very tasty and have that quintessential rubberyness, can’t help but feel a freshly made tod mun pla would be so much better. On that note, I admit I have cheated and used my favourite Thai red curry paste brand, Mae Ploy but by all means make your own red curry paste from scratch.


For around 20 fishcakes use:

• 3 fillets of white fish (I used pouting; coley and pollock are good too) skinned and cut into chunks


• around 8 green beans, sliced very fine


• a heaped tablespoon of red curry paste (Mae Ploy being my choice but all supermarkets sell red curry paste now)


• a good splash of fish sauce (nam pla) easy to get in supermarkets


• 5 or 6 kaffir lime leaves ( forget dried ones, bigger Sainsburys sell fresh. Frozen are fine too. Roll them up into a cigar and shred very fine. 


• a big pinch of sugar


• 1 egg


• vegetable oil for frying

For the cucumber pickle you’ll need:

• a thumb sized chunk of cucumber, cut into a fine dice


• a big splash of white wine vinegar


• 2 Thai shallots or the whites of 2 spring onions, finely diced


• 2 or 3 birds eye chillies, finely chopped


• a small pinch of sugar

Start off by making the pickle, mix all the ingredients listed above in a small bowl and leave to ‘pickle’ while you make the fishcakes.


Put all the ingredients other than the fish into a bowl. For the fish, place a few chunks at a time into a pestle and mortar and then bash away for several minutes until the fish becomes a paste. Keep going until all the fish has become a paste and add to the bowl with all the other ingredients. Mix everything together well. Fill the bottom of a frying pan with the oil and heat. When it’s hot, scoop out a spoonful (aim for a golf ball sized amount) of the fishcake mixture, flatten into a small cake and gently place in the oil. Don’t overcrowd the pan, do as many batches as need be. After a few minutes, check on the fishcake colour, if it’s looking a deep golden brown, turn it over, if not give it a little more time. They should take around 4-5 minutes total. Flip them a few times if need be.

Drain onto kitchen paper before serving with the pickled cucumber.