Egg Puffs

Is there any one who does not like Puffs? I really dont think so. Whether it may be sweet(Ameican style) or spicy-hot(Asian style), everybody like the flaky layers which melts into the mouth with the yummy filling inside. Usually in India the hot and spicy puffs are popular and on demand while we also enjoy the sweet jammy,or coconut filled sweet puffs.

Puffs usually come with egg filling, meat, chicken as well as vegetable filling. I have personally tried them with egg, chicken,mutton,vegetable and even soya-masala. It goes well with all these fillings.Its really-really yummy.

Me,Myself and my sister's favorite is Egg Puffs which contains half the boiled egg with the spicy onion-masala. My husband also love them with the egg-masala,the tastiest ever. So the most frequently made one in my home is the egg-puffs.

Whenever I make them at home I memorize the days I had with my sister,she used to love these puffs like no snacks she ever ate. I think of those days my mom used to get puffs at home from bakery. In the evening, by the time we are on the table it will be served hot with tangy ketchup sauce. They will vanish from my sister's plate in seconds and try for a bite from mine. It was her finger-licking favorite. Good old days....

Dedicating this recipe to my sisters back in India....

Ingredients
1. Egg, Boiled- 2
2. 3 Onion sliced length-wise
3. 1/2 a tomato chopped
4. 2 green chillies finely chopped
5. 2 tsp ginger-garlic paste
6. 3 Eggs
7. 1 1/2 tbsp Chilly powder
8. 1/2 tsp Turmeric powder
9. 1 1/2 tbsp Coriander powder
10. 2 tbsp Meat masala (Eastern brand masala is the best for this)
11. 1/2 tsp mustard seeds
12. 1 strand of curry leaves
13. 2 strands Coriander leaves
14. 3 tbsp Coconut Oil
15. Puff Pastry, store bought.
16. Salt,to taste

For the filling:
The same procedure for my egg masala recipe can be followed.
1. Heat oil in a pan and splutter mustard seeds.
2. Add the sliced onion,a few curry leaves,chopped green chillies. Saute till transparent.
3. Add ginger-garlic paste and the chopped tomatoes. Saute till tomatoes gets cooked.
4. Add the turmeric powder,chilly powder,coriander powder and meat masala and salt, fry till the raw tastes of the masala goes or till it becomes dark brown(3-4 mnts).
5. Add 1/4 glass of water. Stir and Cook open so that the masala gets mixed well. Dry the masala with no sign of water/ gravy.
6. Cut the egg vertically at the middle into two equal halves and then take each egg half and cut into 4 equal halves; so that we get eight equal halves from an egg.
8. Put these eggs into the gravy in the pan with yellow portion facing down. Give it a very gentle mix.
9. Keep aside,let it cool.

Working with the pastry:

1. Buy the puff-pastry available in the market. These are available in the frozen-section in the super-markets.
Make sure you pick the pastries for puffs and not for the thin pastries used for arabic sweets or the pastries for crab rangoon.

2. There will be two separate folded layers. Pick one from them. Keep them outside to thaw for 30 minutes so that it becomes soft so that we can easily work with it without tearing the hard dough.

Make sure the dough does not become too moist, it will make working with them difficult. Open the three-layers. Sprinkle some all-purpose flour on top so that it does not stick to each other and on the surface. Be careful while working with the pastries there are chances of tearing them, if so just add a touch of water to the torn part and stick them to each other, its easy.

For small,cutie and fluffy puffs cut one layer into three equal squares. For large puffs cut them into two equal halves. Smaller ones are more appealing and gets cooked well inside, so more tasty too.

3. Take each square pieces one by one and keep the filling exactly in the middle with the yellow portion of the egg facing down. Do not keep hot filling into the pastries, it will make the dough soft and soggy. In any of these steps if the dough came out soggy, make sure you keep them in the refrigerator for 20 minutes and the dough has set as thick layer.

Close with one side either to become a triangle or a rectangle as shown.

4. Seal the edges using a fork, as shown in the pic.

5. Now brush the top of each puffs with egg-wash.
Egg wash is basically a mixture made by mixing an egg with 2 tsps of water.

6. Pre-heat the oven to 400 degree Fahrenheit.(keep the oven for 15-20 minutes in 400 degrees).

7. Now transfer the puffs into a baking tray with an aluminium foil and keep inside the oven.

8. Cook for 15-20 minutes. Check in between and make sure it turns golden in color.

9. Switch off the oven. Now each layers of pastry get separated puffs to become fluffy and flaky which melts into the mouth.

10. Serve hot or later with tomato sauce and a hot coffee.