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Thai Green Curry Puff Pastries

Food

This post is sponsored by Hatfield

Easter is approaching and while I do not celebrate that holiday for religious reasons but only for the secular, food holiday like Christmas. Easter for my family involves a lot of delicious food that has a mix of vibrant flavors that is not necessarily traditional.

Mise en place for the pork Thai green curry portion of the recipe

Since pork is a mainstay in my household and I care about sourcing, I like cooking with Hatfield. Hatfield is committed to animal care and to sustaining American family farms. They raise their pigs without hormones, steroids and growth promotants. What is even better is Hatfield has prepared fresh sausages and ground pork that is ready to cook and makes preparing my dish easier.


Hatfield products are found at your local Shoprite supermarkets.

Cooking up the Thai green curry filling

What inspired me to bake Thai green curry puff pastries is when I talk to older Italian-American women about Easter and she would talk about her family’s Easter pie. But playing with the idea of pie and inspired by my incredible trip to Bangkok that I took literally a year ago, I thought why not bring the two together and make it portable and fun to eat? Thai curry pastes are commonly found in two colors: red and green. The green curry paste is very spicy and contains incredibly aromatic ingredients like fresh green chilies, cilantro, kaffir lime and Thai basil. With that in mind, this will be a mildly spicy recipe since not everyone can handle the head blowing heat level I have experience in Bangkok as there is an addition of coconut milk. I have made a rough puff pastry whose recipe is by Erin McDowell but you are more than welcome to use store bought puff pastry but the yield will vary.

Thai Green Curry Puff Pastries, before baking

Curry Puff Pastries
Makes 6 hand pies
Prep time: 5 hours for the puff pastry; 30 minutes to chop the vegetables
Cook time: 45 minutes to cook the curry; bake time 20 minutes

1 recipe of rough puff pastry by Erin McDowell (approximately 610g dough) or a package of defrosted store bought puff pastry
1 egg, beaten

Thai Green Curry
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 tablespoons fresh grated ginger
5 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
1 medium onion, finely diced into quarter-inch pieces
3 medium carrots, peeled and diced into quarter-inch pieces
3 stalks fresh lemongrass, sliced into large two-inch pieces
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped finely or finely sliced bird’s eye chili, optional
4 tablespoons Thai green curry paste
1 pound Hatfield ground pork
⅓ cup full-fat coconut milk
5 tablespoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons water
Juice of 1 lime

  1. Warm a medium sized deep saute pan with vegetable oil on medium-high heat. Once the oil starts to shimmer, add all of the ginger, garlic, and onions. Let them cook for about 10 minutes until it starts to sweat and the onions turn translucent, stirring them occasionally. 
  2. Add the lemongrass and chili pepper (if you like the filling really spicy) to the pot. Let them cook for 5 minutes. Add the ground pork and Thai green curry paste to the mixture. Let this cook and stir for about 10 minutes. Break up any large pieces of pork to cook thoroughly. Pour in the coconut milk, stir and let this simmer on medium-low heat for 5 minutes until it thickens slightly. 
  3. While the mixture simmers, make a slurry in a small bowl by mixing the cornstarch and water. Pour the slurry into the curry, gently yet continuously stirring the curry to evenly distribute the cornstarch. Add the lime juice and season to taste. Turn off the heat once the sauce bubbles for a minute or two. Pour the curry into a large bowl and set aside to cool, preferably at least 3 hours or overnight in the refrigerator. Pick out and discard the lemongrass from the cooled curry since it is not pleasant to eat.

Assembling the pastries

  1. Have a sheet tray lined with Silpat or parchment paper and set aside. Roll out the cold (yet defrosted, if you are using store bought) puff pastry dough until it is about ⅛-inch thick with little flour as possible. Using a ruler to measure into 12 equal sized rectangles (about 3×4 inches) and cut with either a pizza cutter or paring knife. 
  2. Add about ¼ cup of curry filling around the center of the rectangle and leave a ½ inch edge on all sides of the pastry. Brush a thin layer of beaten egg on the perimeter of the pie. Drape and gently stretch the puff pastry dough to cover the entire bottom portion of this hand pie. Make sure there are no air pockets while you are draping the top portion of the pie. 
  3. Using a fork, seal the edges of the pies by pressing it down. If the fork sticks onto the pies, dip the fork in flour then resume crimping. Use a paring knife carefully cut two small slits on the center of the pies. Brush a thin layer of beaten egg on each pastry. Set the pastry onto the prepared sheet pan and leave about 2 inches of space between each pastry. Refrigerate the pastries for an hour to firm up.
  4. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Bake the pastries until golden brown for about 25 to 30 minutes. Cool the pastries onto a cooling rack for about 5 to 10 minutes that pastries are still slightly warm but cool enough that the pastries have set its structure to when you bite down and enjoy the incredible flakiness. 

Best eaten day of but may be kept in a sealed container for 3 days in the refrigerator and reheated in an oven at 350°F for 10 minutes.

Baked Thai Green Curry Puff Pastries
Tina

I shoot, eat, and drink. My full time job is a hospital administrator. Moonlighting as a freelance photographer and food and travel writer.