Purple Sweet Potato Pierogi-style Curry Puff

Not a thing, but why not!!

So I had this purple sweet potato left. And I am officially done with tarts for a while, so the potato galette, while delicious, will not be making a comeback until probably winter time. After all the pies and tarts I’ve made this month, I’m much more confident in my pie dough game. Onto other things!

But in the mean time, this potato. Quite a journey to arrive at this fun idea.

The first thought that came to mind was sweet potato agnolottis, but Noah mentioned that I’d have to thin out the filling to compensate for the starchiness since regular sweet potatoes have a lot more moisture. For that, I considered using my leftover sour cream and some cream or chicken stock. The sour cream + potato reminded us of a pierogi, and we were just gifted a giant block of cheddar in the Fridge Breakdown of 2020… so a sweet potato agnolotti, but pierogi-style filling? On top of that, I was already making some kao mok gai spice to use up the chicken and the yogurt, and I thought the curried flavor would be a fun combo. At that point, it became strange to put in an agnolotti - how would I even serve this abomination? But curry potato… sounds like a curry puff! Totally legitimate and sensible, and a handheld snack at that.

Weird Curry Puff to use up some stuff, for funsies:

Cute lil appetizer portion

Ooey gooey rich and chewy inside

The filling:

For this, I consulted some pierogi filling recipes online and Thomas Keller’s sweet potato agnolotti recipe, simply to confirm that I was going in the right direction.

1. Prick sweet potato with a fork everywhere, wrap in foil, and bake in a 350F oven until tender (about 1 hr).

2. Peel sweet potato, and grate/rice into a fluffy mash.

3. Mix in: (these are guestimates; I kept adding until the texture and flavor was to my liking. the only thing I wish I put more is spice mix, but I didn’t save enough and 2tsp is just an estimate of what I think I should have used.)

   • 3 Tbsp sour cream

   • 3 Tbsp chicken stock

   • 1/2 cup shredded cheddar (or about 1:3 cheese to potato mix)

   • 2 tsp kao mok gai spice, or curry powder or some warm spices

   • salt & pepper, to taste

the potato in question

Added much more than amt shown here

Cream washes out the purple color :(

The dough: (makes 8 two-biter puffs)

Also just confirming on the internet that a classic flaky curry puff dough is comprised of an oil dough, laminated into a water dough, kind of like an egg tart.

1. Combine and knead until smooth:

   • 100g flour

   • 1/4 tsp salt

   • 65g water

2. Combine and mix until smooth:

   • 37g flour

   • 15g oil

3. Divide both doughs into 2, and wrap the oil dough (2) inside the water dough (1). Make sure to seal the seam very well.

4. Roll into a rectangle-ish oblong, about twice as long as it is wide.

5. Roll the rectangle up from an edge to make a log. The shorter edge gives you more coils, but it’s harder to handle that way. Your choice.

6. Cut each log into 4 equal pieces with a beautiful spiral. (8 pieces total)

7. Flatten the spiral gently/roll it out a little into about 1/4-inch thick. Not to thin, or you’ll lose the flakes. (I rolled mine a little too thin.)

Oil dough inside water dough

Spirals after roll, cut, and squish

Piped the filling, because I am a professional

Assembly:

See saltena post for pleating gifs. These are much easier to assemble, since there isn’t a liquidy filling.

Normally these are fried, but I fried some stuff just five short weeks ago and I am not quite ready to dive back into that yet, so I tried to brush with oil and bake for 20 minutes… not the same. Instead, I resorted to flattening them and panfrying - you still need enough oil for halfway up the sides, or the pleats won’t fry.

Imperfect pleats, but that's okay

One got messed up :(

Attempt at baking

Serve with a tangy and herbaceous sauce, if you’d like. I mixed some yogurt into the kao mok gai mint+cilantro sauce, but anything fresh and light will do. (This turned out to be a very kao mok gai adjacent recipe, I’m realizing.)

Notes:

• Weird “recipe.” But fun! The gooey sweet creamy potato filling, + some chicken, a crispy pie dough - definitely fits evokes a sense of pierogi as well as curry puff. Maybe more pierogi than curry puff to me.

• I actually had an extra chicken drumstick that didn’t fit in my rice cooker from making kao mok gai, so I put some (cooked) meat in each - very delicious.

• This combination totally works! Cheddar + curry is a really fun combo, and the potato made for a creamy and nice filling. Like I mentioned above, I really think a little more spice would have been the perfect balance.

• This was totally a one off thing, but I’d seriously consider making something like this again. Next time, I might skip the cheese and pierogi fusion, and add garlic+ginger+cilantro to the potato, and just make a true kao mok gai potato curry puff, hah.