Kukulhu Bajiyaa

You can think of Kukulhu bajiyaa as bajiyaa made extra special because there’s chicken in it.

To fry our bajiyaas as well as make the filling and the pastry, we’ve used Sunar Sunflower Oil which we got from one of our partners Standard & Origin (S&O). The oil is both light in taste and appearance and it got our kukulhu bajiyaas fried really crispy.

Makes: 20

Ingredients:

For the filling

• 3 large onions
• 1 scotch bonnet pepper
• 10 curry leaves
• 1 tsp grated ginger
• 1 lime
• 180 grams shredded boiled chicken
• 3 tbsp. chicken curry powder
• ¼ tsp turmeric powder
• 1 tsp. salt
• 2 tbsp Sunar Sunflower Oil
• 3 inches pandan
• 3 inches cinnamon
• 4 cardamom pods
• 1 small clove
• 2 ½ tsp sugar

For the dough

• 2 cups flour
• 1 tsp. salt
• 4 tbsp. Sunar Sunflower Oil
• 12 tbsp. hot water

For frying

• 3 cups Sunar Sunflower Oil

Instructions:

1. Take one and half of your onions and slice them horizontally very thinly. Set aside.
2. Take the remaining one and half onion and this time slice it thinly vertically. Set aside.
3. Slice half of your scotch bonnet pepper thinly and mince 5 curry leaves.
4. In a bowl and using your fingers, mix together the horizontally sliced onions, scotch bonnet pepper, grated ginger, lime and the minced curry leaves. You’ll have to really squash and squeeze it until the onion releases its juices and becomes soft. You might also need to wear some gloves to protect your fingers from the scotch bonnet.
5. Add in the chicken, chicken curry powder, turmeric powder and salt and mix well (since different curry powder brands vary in taste and strength, you might want to add it gradually to the mix so that you can adjust the taste according to your preference; you might want to adjust the lime, salt and scotch bonnet pepper too). Set aside.
6. Heat the oil in a pot and add the vertically sliced onions, pandan, 5 curry leaves, cinnamon stick, cardamom pods (with their ends snipped off) remaining half of your scotch bonnet pepper and clove. Sauté on medium heat until the onions are soft and begin take on a nice golden brown colour. For us this took around 6 minutes.
7. Add the chicken mixture along with the sugar, mix well, and sauté for three more minutes.
8. Then take it off the heat and let the mixture cool down.
9. In a large bowl mix together the flour and salt.
10. Add in the oil and use your fingers to mix it together with the flour.
11. Gradually add in the water, a couple of tablespoons at a time; also, every time you add in the water mix well using your fingers.
12. Knead the dough until it is soft and elastic. It shouldn’t be sticking to your fingers and it also shouldn’t be dry.
13. Divide the dough into 5 equally sized balls. Also, do keep a small piece of dough aside; we are going to use that later for testing the oil temperature.
14. Take a dough ball and using a rolling pin, roll it into a circle with a 10-inch diameter.
15. Use a knife to cut the circle into four equal parts.
16. Repeat this for the rest of the dough balls. Take care when setting aside the dough pieces that you cut. If they touch each other there’s a chance they will stick together.
17. Divide the filling into 20 equal portions. Also, remember to remove the cardamom pods, cinnamon, pandan and clove from the mixture before you do this.
18. Place one of the rolled-out dough pieces on your palm; the round edge should face towards you.
19. Place a portion of the filling in the center.
20. Fold the right side edge over the filling. It would reach somewhere a little beyond the center. Dip your finger into a little water and run your finger along the edge.
21. Dip a finger into some water again, and this time run it over the edge on the left and fold it again so that the filling is now fully enclosed. Your piece of dough should now look like a cone with the filling inside.
22. Wet the remaining edge by doing what you did before and fold it in. Press gently so that it forms a nice triangular shape and pinch the edges to make sure they are closed.
23. Repeat the steps above until you run out of dough and filling.
24. Heat the oil in a pot and drop in the little piece of dough you kept aside.
25. Wait until you see bubbles forming around the dough piece. When the bubbles become rapid, gently place the bajiyas in the oil. Don’t put all the bajiyas in there at once, fry them in batches; we did ours in four.
26. Fry the bajiyas until they look golden brown. You might need to flip them to make sure they cook evenly. For us it took around 5 minutes per batch.
27. When you remove the bajiyas from the oil, put them in a steel strainer to drain off the excess oil. Then lay them on a tissue paper lined plate to get rid of more oil.

Note: If you can’t find Sunar Sunflower Oil from a shop near you, contact 301 5533 or 301 5522.