Name: Curry Crescents (咖喱角)
Cuisine: Chinese
Ingredients: 3 cups all-purpose flour; 2 tablespoons sugar; 6 ounces (12 tablespoons) almost-frozen sweet butter, cubed; 10–12 tablespoons ice water; a pinch salt; 1 large walnut-size nugget fresh ginger; 3 large cloves garlic, stem end removed, lightly smashed and peeled; ¼ teaspoon sugar; ¾ pound ground top round beef; 1 scant tablespoon cornstarch; 3½ tablespoons corn or peanut oil; 1 large, firm onion; 1 medium whole scallion, cut into 1½-inch lengths; 2 tablespoons Chinese rice wine or quality, dry sherry; 2 tablespoons thin (regular) soy sauce; 2 teaspoons Chinese or Japanese sesame oil; additional flour, for rolling out the dough; 3–4 tablespoons curry paste; coarse kosher salt to taste; 1 large egg beaten with 1 teaspoon water; 2 ounces almost-frozen lard, cubed

Preparation info

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

The Modern Art of Chinese Cooking

By Barbara Tropp

Published 1982

About

The amalgam of spices known as curry was an Indian import to China, which became popular in a small number of stew-type dishes. My personal favorite is this delectable meat-stuffed pastry, a standard item in the dim sum repertoire.

The classic Chinese pastry is superbly flaky, but it is also greasy and requires lengthy kneading and folding of a lard-soaked dough, which is a bit like handling a jellyfish. The food processor pastry called for here is a 3-m