Malaysian chicken curry and leek pie

1. Malaysian curry filling

Ingredients

• 250g diced chicken thigh fillet
• 1 large onion, sliced
• 5 inch of leek (white part only), sliced
• 1/2 carrot, shredded
• 1 tsp ready-made Malaysian curry paste (I use the ‘A1’ brand)
• 1 cup of coconut milk
• juice of 1 lime
• 2 tbsp. desiccated coconut
• 5 deveined, and finely sliced kaffir lime leaves
• 1 tbsp. potato starch (or corn flour), mix in 3 tbsp. of water
• 1 tbsp. cooking oil
• salt and pepper to taste

Method

• In a deep frying pan, bring cooking oil to medium heat; add onion and leek; stir fry until aromatic
• Add chicken and curry paste, sauté briefly; add coconut milk, bring to a slow boil
• Add carrot, shredded coconut and kaffir lime leaves; simmer for 5 minutes or until the carrot is soft
• Add lime juice, then the potato starch mixture; gently cook the curry until the curry turns thick (takes about 10-20 seconds)
• Add salt and pepper to taste; remove the curry from heat to cool.

2. Making the pie

• Ready-made puff pastry, defrosted
• Ready-made shortcrust pastry, defrosted
• 1 egg, lightly beaten

• Depending on the size of the pie tins you use –  cut out the short crust pastry into discs for the base (and sides) of the pie; and cut out the puff pastry into discs for the top of the pie.  I used a muffin tin.
• Once the base of the pie is laid out and filled, brush a little egg on the edge before laying the puff pastry, and press down gently – this will seal better;  don’t forget to ‘poke’ a hole in the puff pastry to allow the release hot steam during the baking.  You may like to press a few patterns on the edges (use folk, fingers etc.) I use my icing tips.

The pies took 45 minutes in a preheated oven at 180c to bake.