Pastechi Galiña (Chicken Pastechi) is a traditional Aruban recipe for a classic dish of pastry stuffed with a Surinamese-style chicken curry that's deep fried to cook. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic Aruban version of: Chicken Pastechi (Pastechi Galiña).
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Ingredients:
For the Pastry:
750g of flour
150g of margarine, diced
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
350 ml water
For the Galiña (Chicken) Filling:
4 boneless, skinless, chicken thighs
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1/2 red bell pepper, diced
1 onion, finely chopped
half a tin of tomato purée
1 tsp ground cumin seeds
40g curry masala powder
1 madame Jeanette pepper, pricked
400ml chicken stock mango chutney, to taste
salt and freshly-ground black pepper, to taste
oil for deep frying
Method:
Sift together the flour and salt in a bowl. Whisk in the sugar until, well combined then add the margarine and rub into the flour with your fingertips until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add the water about 50ml at a time mixing until the ingredients come together as a dough.
Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface and knead well. Wrap in clingfilm (plastic wrap) and set aside to rest and chill in your refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.
Season the chicken thighs with salt and freshly-ground black pepper. Heat some oil in a pan and brown the chicken on high heat. Remove from the pan and set aside. Fry the onion and garlic in the same pan until the onion is translucent. Add the tomato purée and fry briefly until lightly darkened. Now add the cumin seeds, curry masala and Madam Jeanette pepper and fry briefly.
Return the chicken (and any roasting liquid) to the pan with the spices. Deglaze with the chicken stock, pop in the chilli and let it stew slowly for about 90 minutes with the lid on the pan.
Remove the chicken from the pan and pull the meat apart to shred. Remove and discard the chilli. Mix this with the sauce, so that a nice homogeneous mass is created.
Season to taste with salt, freshly-ground black pepper and mango chutney then set aside to cool.
In the meantime, take the chilled pastry from the refrigerator, set on a floured work surface, dust with flour and roll out to about 5mm thick. Cut out circles from the dough (about 12cm in diameter) then roll out the scraps and cut out more circles.
Taking one circle at a time, fill with 1 or 2 tbsp of the filling mixture. Brush half the edge with water then fold the dough closed, creating a half moon. Press the edges well to seal then fold the edge over and press with a fork. Transfer the prepated pastechi to a baking tray lined with baking paper and flour to prevent sticking.
Heat a deep fryer or large pan with sunflower oil to 180C. Once hot, add in the pastechi and fry about 15 minutes, flipping them over occasionally, until golden brown and cooked through.
Drain on kitchen paper and serve hot with hot pepper sauce on the side.
As a variant, in Curaçao, a boiled and peeled quail's egg is nestled in with the chicken mixture before folding over the pastry and frying.
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