Taro Puff

This is my first time making Taro Puff aka Woo Kok in Cantonese. I fried the first piece and it turned out great. It has the crispy flakiness appearance,  but the second and third pieces doesn't have the flaky  appearance as the first one. Then it dawned on me that maybe the oil was not hot enough. I should have waited for the oil to heat up again before adding the second batch. I am happy with this stayhome project . It looks legit though :)  I replaced shortening with lard since I have lard in the fridge and I know there are many recipes out that uses shortening.  I prefer lard to shortening though it has artery clogging factor. It is okay since we don't eat this often.

I kept some of the taro pastry overnight in the fridge to see if it gives the same result the next day. Wrapping done an hour before deep frying. Yes, the taro puffs has the same crispy flakiness to it. So it is confirmed that the oil must be very hot before putting in the puffs  and that the pastry can be kept overnight in the fridge .  This enable me to have crispy taro puffs at any one time instead of frying all and have to endure eating soft and soggy ones later.

 they remained crispy for the next two hours or so

 

the yam pastry is pliable and make wrapping easy

Taro Puff / Woo Kok

Ingredients for Taro Pastry - this recipe can make 11 pieces

300 gm taro ( weight of taro without peel )-  steamed and mashed

(A)

35gm wheat starch

45 ml boiling water

 (B)

1/2 tbsp sugar

1/2 tsp salt

 1/8 tsp  pepper

1/8 tsp five spice pepper

1/2 tsp sesame oil 

30g lard

Oil for deep frying

Preparation of taro pastry:

1.  Mix (A) together in a bowl till they form a crusty starchy texture.

2. In a mixing bowl, put in mashed taro,  (A)  and (B) and using the hand , mix all the ingredients together and gently knead till a soft and pliable pastry is form. Cover and keep aside until required.

Filling:

200 gm chicken / minced pork

half carrot - diced

1/4 cup sweet corns

4 dried shiitake mushrooms - soaked and diced

1 med. red onions - diced

1 stalk spring onions

1 clove garlic -chopped fine

1 tbsp oyster sauce

1 tbsp sugar

1/8 cup water

 2 tbsp thickening  

2 tbsp of cooking oil

Preparation for the filling :

Heat up oil in a wok and saute garlic till fragrant, add in diced onions, shiitake mushrooms , the chicken /pork and continue to stir fry till cooked,  add in oyster sauce and sugar and water .Add in the carrots, sweet corns and spring onions last. Continue to stir fry until the carrots and sweet corns has softened. Add in the thickening and continue to stir fry for a minute. The fillings is ready to be dish up once the gravy has thicken. Cool down completely before use.

Wrapping

Divide the taro pastry into 10 or 11 pieces , roll into round ball.  Flatten the ball into a disc of about 2.5 to 3 inches . Put a heaped tablespoon of filling in the center and fold over in half and seal the edges like making a curry puff except you don't need to pleat the edges. Repeat the process until all the balls are used up.

Heat up enough oil in a pot and once the oil is hot ( to test if the oil is ready, use a wooden chopstick to dip into the oil. if you see bubbles at the bottom of the chopstick , the oil is ready ) Put in the puff , one to two at a time so as not to overcrowd and too many pieces at one time will lower the oil temperature. Once the puffs have turned golden brown and  have the flaky appearance, they can be taken out and drain off excess oil on paper towel.