Putting the 'East' in Easter

Every Easter, my father and I host our entire extended family. The body count usually ends up being from 16 to 20--the perfect appetizer crowd! This is always an exciting prospect for me, as I usually cook for just one person. But at Easter time, the opportunity of venturing into the world of stuffed mushroom caps and cheesy dips was upon me!

Yet, my father insisted for weeks leading up to the gastronomic event that one of our guests would be bringing some sort of appetizer platter. My vacation from the college menu of frozen pizza had been thwarted. I logged off of AllRecipes.com and closed "The Joy of Cooking," muttering curses.

Spring break, a.k.a. the time I could have used for planning some delightful dish, came and went, ending on Easter. Being the good hostess I am (read: my dad is a part-time scatterbrain), I double-checked the status of the guest with the pre-dinner booty. But my inquiries were met with much confusion. "Who's bringing what, now?"

Right.

Using my AllRecipes DinnerSpinner app (fun AND delicious), I flicked through some of the options. I had to be able to make these munchies on the fly--it was the morning of, after all! That's when I saw a recipe for the (strangely named) Chicken Nut Puffs by Karen Bush. They were a kind of pastry with diced chicken and almonds, all spiced with Worcestershire sauce, parsley, seasoning salt, celery seed and cayenne pepper.

But the reviews labeled them as mediocre. Some users called them bland or tasteless, others even complained that they cooled into a hard, inedible block! The morsels, in theory, seemed like such a perfect, bite-sized option for our guests, but I couldn't chance it; if I was going to serve up these puffs, I was going to have to fix the recipe's two huge problems.

The spice problem wasn't such a huge deal after all. Even before reading the comments regarding the blandness, I had already considered subbing the celery seed (not my favorite, I'll be honest) for something a little more bold: curry powder. Something about the toasted almonds and chicken struck me as Indian. At the market, I grabbed spice tins left and right, smelling those aromas right through their protective seals. I finally settled on a mixture of curry powder and ground ginger as my flavor base, throwing out the original recipe's spice list completely.

As for the second issue, it was slightly more difficult for me, a bit of a novice, to craft a solution. I knew it had something to do with butter. (Doesn't it always?) Bush's recipe called for a 1/2 cup of vegetable oil. I halved that and made up the other half with some real, salted butter to make it softer and fluffier. What can I say? Fat works that way, you know? It's what makes puff pastries so good.

Anyway, voila! They came out great! Oh, and by the way, I grabbed some delicious fig spread in the cheese section of my grocery store to make a sweet and smokey condiment. I would have preferred some chutney, but that's not always easy to come by here in the States. Maybe I'll make a chutney one day, but that's for another holiday (and another blog post)!

Oh yeah, I also renamed my puffs because, well, I kind of made them my own, didn't I?

Chicken and Almond Curry Clouds

Yields about 5 dozen puffs

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups cooked chicken, finely chopped

1/3 cup toasted almonds, finely chopped

1 cup chicken broth

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup salted butter

1 1/2 - 2 tbsp curry powder

1 tsp ground ginger

salt

white pepper (optional)

1 cup all-purpose flour

4 eggs

Directions:

First, after chopping the chicken and almonds, combine them and set them aside. (CAUTION: When toasting almonds, keep an eye on them at all times. Almonds burn easily!) Next, preheat your oven to 450°F (230°C).

In a large saucepan, combine the chicken broth, vegetable oil, curry powder, ginger and salt (to taste), but DO NOT add the butter. (If you want your clouds to have more of a bite, adding a teaspoon or so of white pepper might liven the party.) Bring the mixture to a boil.

In a medium-sized, microwave-safe bowl, melt the butter in the microwave. Then, make a sort of roux by adding a 1/4 cup of your flour to the butter and mixing briskly until smooth. (Adding this before the rest of your flour will ensure that the batter will not clump.) Stir this into the saucepan mixture then add the rest of your flour all at once. Mix until a smooth ball forms. Remove from heat and let stand for 5 minutes.

Next, add in one egg at a time, beating the mixture well after each. Then, mix in the almond-chicken mixture, making sure the mixture is combined evenly.

Drop batter balls onto a greased baking sheet. Just like baking cookies, a heaping teaspoonful will do, however, the batter will only rise slightly and will not flatten, so you don't have to space them too far apart.

Finally, bake them in the preheated oven for 12 to 14 minutes or until golden brown. Serve immediately plain or with a fig spread or chutney.

Enjoy!

Also, major thanks to Karen Bush's original recipe for saving my Easter Sunday!

Posted in: Almond,Chicken,Curry,Easter,Fig,Pastry,Puff