Cursed Pumpkin Currypuffs
Halloween is just around the corner! And with the spookiest time of the year, comes some truly spooky dishes as well.
As Halloween is so ingrained into American and European culture, so many dishes have spawned out of the tradition—from candy corns to caramel apples, shortbread slices shaped like fingers to bloody fruit punches with faux eyeballs, ghostly cookies to pumpkin in everything. But in Malaysia where I’m at, Halloween isn’t an occasion that is as widely celebrated.
That isn’t going to stop me from revelling in some haunting Halloween hilarity though, as I spookified some classic Malaysian currypuffs to celebrate the occasion! Ooooh~ spooky!
About the Dish
Like traditional currypuffs, these cursed—or you might think they’re cute 😂—currypuffs are made up of two components—a pastry outer shell and a curried filling. But in each of the two components, this cursed version takes a distinct departure from the traditional.
For one, the pastry of a classic currypuff is made to be deep-fried to crisp, golden perfection. But in this case, as we are cutting out two eyes and a mouth for it, the filling would leak out of the orifices when deep-fried. So, I’ve tailored the recipe for the pastry to turn out well after baking as well, keeping to a typical oil dough, but reducing the amount of liquid for a tighter dough, and giving it an eggwash to give it a golden, burnished look.
And when it comes to the filling, traditional currypuffs are often filled with a chicken and potato curry, with the extra lush ones even having egg in them. Everything in the curry is diced up evenly, so you get chunks of potatoes and chicken that adds texture to the whole eating experience. Taking from this, I Halloween-ified the curry by using pumpkin in place of the potatoes, dicing it into small cubes, and cooking it juuust enough so it maintains its cubic structure and gives you a similar texture as a potato filling would, but with a bit more sweetness and charm thanks to the squash.
More specifically, I used kabocha squashes for the filling that came from Korea, thanks to the sponsors of this recipe—K Fresh! Their Korean kabochas are compact and dense with its sweetness, and works particularly well in instances where you want a bit of texture in your dish. And in my opinion, for this recipe particularly, kabochas are your best bet, as it holds more flavour and less moisture than the more common pumpkins and butternut squashes, and gives the curry more body as well! (If you’re in Malaysia and looking to get some good quality kabocha squashes, K Fresh recently started doing online delivery for these beauties too!)
Put the two together, and you’ll have a cutely cursed version of a Malaysian classic to snack on during the Halloween weekend! Happy Halloween y’all!
Tips for Success
To make these horrifying delights, here are some useful tips:
What squash to use: For this recipe, you can either go with a traditional Halloween pumpkin, though I much prefer to go with a sweeter squash. Butternut squashes work well, Honeynuts would be excellent if you’re in the US, but my favourite general-purpose squash that also tastes great are kabochas. (If you’re in Malaysia, you can get some Korean ones from K Fresh!)
Dicing up the pumpkin: For this recipe, you’ll need to dice up the pumpkin or squash into small cubes no larger than 1cm wide. This can be a time-consuming process, but it’s necessary to make sure the pieces are cooked evenly without some pieces getting overly mushy. To peel the pumpkin or squash, I’d suggest using a knife. Unless you have a really heavy-duty peeler or a really soft squash, I wouldn’t recommend using a peeler for this. Then, just de-seed your squash, slice them into strips, and dice away.
The currypuff dough: There are two types of traditional Malaysian currypuff doughs. A regular, oil-based dough, or an extra crispy, swirled, layered dough that makes a version of currypuffs known as karipap pusing. Texture-wise, I much prefer the latter, but for this recipe, I went with the former, as it’s easier to make, plus we’ll also end up with more distinct cutouts for the eyes and mouth.
Cutting out the face: The easiest way to cut out the eyes and mouth for your cursed currypuffs is by using a pair of scissors, I find. You can use a knife too but it’s a little more finicky. But in terms of the pattern, you can totally go wild with it, add a nose, give it some teeth maybe, or maybe even do a full on 3D face on it by sticking on some extra dough!
This recipe is sponsored by K Fresh by First Pick, a brand bringing premium air-flown Korean fresh produce to Malaysia.
Cursed Pumpkin Currypuffs
Makes one dozen currypuffs
Ingredients
Pumpkin curry
1/2 small pumpkin/kabocha squash (~250g pumpkin flesh; I got mine from K Fresh)
45ml (3 tbsp) vegetable oil, or any other neutral oil
1/2 onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
5g (1 tbsp) meat curry powder
2g (1 tsp) turmeric powder
1 chicken breast (~150g)
10g (1 tbsp) brown sugar
2g (1/2 tsp) salt
0.5g (1/4 tsp) black pepper
Dough
120ml (1/2 cup) oil
400g (3 1/2 cups) all-purpose flour
150ml (1/2 cup + 2 tbsp) water
2g (1/2 tsp) salt
1 egg, for eggwash
Directions
Dice pumpkin: Wash your pumpkin or squash and remove its skin with a knife. Scoop out the seeds with a spoon and discard them. Slice the pumpkin flesh into 1cm-thick cubes or smaller, and set it aside.
Make pumpkin curry: Pour the oil into a pan or shallow pot, and place it over medium heat. Put the diced onion into the pan, and sweat it for 3-5 minutes, until slightly translucent. Add in the minced garlic, and saute for a further 1-2 minutes. Then, add in the curry powder and turmeric powder, mixing and sauteing for another 1 minute, until the fragrance of the curry fills the kitchen air. Then, add in the chicken breast, together with the diced pumpkin, brown sugar, salt, and black pepper. Stir this all until the chicken and pumpkin are evenly coated in the curry mixture. Turn the heat down to low, then cover the pan and let this cook gently for 12-15 minutes, until the pumpkin just cooks through but isn’t mushy. When done, give the curry a taste and add more salt if you desire. Then, transfer the curry to a bowl and let it cool down to room temperature, before chilling it in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. (You could also make this the day before.)
Make dough: For the dough, heat up the oil in a pan until piping hot (but not smoking; anywhere from 100-150°C is good). Then, in a bowl, combine the flour and salt, and pour the hot oil into it. Then, with a fork or spatula, stir the oil-flour mixture together until it forms lumpy, sandy pieces. Then, add in the water, and mix everything together for 2-3 minutes, until they form a smooth dough. (If the dough is overly dry or wet at this stage, feel free to adjust with more flour or water.) Cover the dough with a cloth or kitchen towel, and let it rest for 30 minutes. (You could also keep it in the refrigerator overnight.)
Baking prep: Line a sheetpan or flat baking tray with baking paper. Heat an oven to 180°C, ready to bake the currypuffs in.
Fill currypuffs: Split the dough into 55g pieces. (You should be able to get a dozen portions.) Then, working with one dough at a time, roll the dough out into a long log (roughly 15cm long), curl the log up into a snail shell-like spiral, tucking the end into the middle. Using a rolling pin, roll out this spiral into a circular dough disc roughly 8cm in diameter. (If you’re confused by this method, feel free to just roll it out into a ball and press it out into a round disc.) Spoon a tablespoon of curry (~50g) into the middle of the dough, and fold the dough over to form a semicircle pouch. Seal the edges, and crimp it to secure the filling. Then, using a pair of scissors, cut out two eyes and a mouth for a jack-o’-lantern face on your currypuffs. Repeat this for all of your dough and currypuff, then lay them all out onto the lined baking tray, with at least 1cm of gap in between each currypuff.
Bake currypuffs: Make an eggwash by beating an egg in a bowl. Then, brush a thin layer of this eggwash onto each currypuff. Bake the currypuffs in the oven for 30-35 minutes, until they’re golden.
Serve and eat: When they’re done baking, remove the tray of currypuffs from the oven and let it cool down for 5-10 minutes. The currypuffs are best eaten while they’re still warm, though they also keep well in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. If you’re storing them for later, just reheat them in the oven or toaster for 5 minutes at 180°C before eating.
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