Spiral Curry Puff - a buttery, flaky reminder of home

i absolutely love curry puffs - deep fried (ok, i love most things that crisp up in hot oil) pastry filled with potatoes and other ingredients such as chicken, onions, hard boiled egg mixed in with an aromatic blend of southeast asian spices. back home, such treats can be found almost everywhere. there's the malay version epok epok, the chain store version and the many mom and pop versions. of course, finding these treats here is near impossible so i took up the challenge of making it from scratch. images of how my terribly failed attempt to make croissants haunted me but i was comforted by the fact i'm in a much drier and cooler country (read: less likely for butter dough to break through to make an oily mess).

i wanted to share my recipe, but due to the lack of pictures capturing the process, i decided to just post the final product

Kimchi Chigae

the korean craze has many countries a decade ago..till today, i catch myself sometimes secretly wishing i was korean..and many times i find kimchi chigae so comforting, so here's how i do mine

slice 3 stalks of green onions diagonally into 2-inch length
slice 1 large shallot
mix 1 tablespoon of gochujang, 1/2 tablespoon of doenjang paste and 1 teaspoon of red pepper powder

Heat some oil in a pot, stirfry the green onions and shallots till fragrant
add in about 1 cup of kimchi and 1 tablespoon of kimchi juice
put in sliced protein of choice - here i'm using thinly sliced pork loin
add in the paste mixture and stir it into the ingredients till nicely coated
add in enough water to cover ingredients and stir to ensure paste is dissolved
bring to a boil, add it the cubed tofu and serve at lava hot temperature

i usually have my kimchi chigae with rice dunked into the hot soup (coz that's how koreans in those k-dramas do it)..yummeh!