Karipap Mak Timah

baked version: add a little eggwash

This new face of the blog gets me excited to post something...anything. So, without further ado, I would like to share my mom's puff recipe. Well, it's not really a puffy puff, just a short crust pastry filled with a filling of your choice then either bake or deep fry. I used to sell this at our local stalls when growing up, so this recipe really meant a lot to me and left me with a fond memories.. So here it is: 

yield 15-20 pieces of karipap 

Ingredients for the filling;

1. 2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled, cut into dice
2. 1 medium chopped onion
3. 1 celery stalk with the leaves
4. 1 tbsp dried shrimp, soaked in water for 10 minutes, drained
5. 3 tbsp meat curry mix (I use pre-packed curry mix, Adabi brand) stir with little water to make a paste
6. 1 cup of water
7. salt and sugar to taste
8. 200g minced meat (optional)
9. 100g fresh shrimp (optional)
10. 2 tbsp vegetable oil

Method:

1. Heat oil in a wok over medium-high heat, 
2. Saute dried shrimp until fragrant. 
3. Add curry mix paste. Stir for 2-3 minutes. 
4. Add sweet potatoes, onion and celery. 
5. Add water and cover until the sweet potatoes are tender and cooked through. 
6. Add salt and sugar at the end to taste. Keep aside to cool while you prepare the dough.

NOTE: if using minced meat, brown the meat in the heated wok until the juice from the meat evaporated, this may take up to 10 minutes. Then add shrimp, and continue step 2 onwards.

For the dough;

1. 3 cups all purpose flour
2. 2-3 tbsp margarine or unsalted butter(if using salted butter, omit the salted water)
   
3. 2-3 tbsp salted water, room temp (only water if using salted butter)

Method: For the dough

1. In a big bowl, add the flour.
2. Add margarine and using your fingers, crumble lightly into the flour. Avoid overworking the flour otherwise you'd get a chewy dough-not nice.
3. Add the salted water/or just water little by little (sprinkle if you may) while crumbling the flour/margarine mixture. Keep adding salted water/water until the dough binds together and still crumbly but soft, flour off the sides of the bowl
4. Make into two big balls, DO NOT work on it, just pat together into ball shape lightly.
5. Start rolling with a rolling pin on unfloured surface. Work one at a time.First, make it 1inch flat, then roll into a log, nice and packed. Cut into 1 inch disc and roll into a thin flat disc. If no mould, use your palm to hold the flat dough and scoop 1 tbsp of the filling onto your palm (hence, keeping them cool so it's easy to handle), bring one side of the dough, to make half-round shape and seal it either with fingers or mould. 



which would you prefer? bake vs. fry

6. deep fry or bake until golden color. Enjoy panas panas!