Samosa Pride

Today is a cooking day.  It started with me flipping through cookbooks (I am currently loving The Masterchef Cookbook).  It's got a ton of fab recipes and simple instructions - plus lots of photos which I think are a must in a cookbook!  So much of food is visceral.

Anyway, one recipe that I am not cooking from there today is a practice for an upcoming dinner party.  A group of Mr B's and my friends have started Come-Dine-With-Me style dinner parties.  Fortunately there is not judging going on, but it's basically to make sure we get our arses in gear and reciprocate dinner!  Our turn is coming up, and so far the canapes on offer have been pretty bloody good!  For mine, I have decided on two things so far: beetroot scones with goats cheese, and miniature samosas.  I have to admit that the beetroot scones are a second choice as I initially wanted to make beetroot meringues as they do at the Ledbury in London (thanks to Gourmet Traveller for the photo and inspiration) but after numerous trials (and a lot of errors!) I wasn't getting anything like I wanted!

Anyway, the samosas are the main point of this entry!  I suppose this recipe is actually a cross between a samosa and a spring roll as the veggies I used in it were supposed to be for a stir-fry, but I flavoured them with Indian spices.  Either way, if you pack your filo with lots of filling they are very yummy indeed!

Baked Vegetable Samosas

250g pack of stir-fry vegetables.  I used one with bean shoots, carrots, peppers, and cabbage.  Make sure the chunks aren't too big if you are making canape-sized samosas.

1 garlic clove

1 flat tsp ground cumin

1 flat tsp ground coriander

1 flat tsp mustard seeds

3/4 tsp tumeric

3/4 tsp mild chilli powder

salt to season

100ml water 

150g ready made filo pastry

30g melted butter

1) Dry fry the spices for a minute or so in a wok.  Add a small dash of oil and the crushed garlic clove and cook for another minute or so.

2) Add the vegetables and stir well.  The tumeric will turn everything yellow.  Add 100ml of water and salt and cook the until the vegetables are cooked through and are turning slightly soft.  Remove from the heat.  Preheat the oven to 180C.

3) Taking one sheet of filo at a time, brush it with melted butter and then cut the sheet into 5cm wide strips (or 8cm if you want larger samosas)

4) Place a heaped teaspoon or so of filling on the filo strip at one end. Fold the end of the strip into a triangle shape and keep folding until you reach the end of the strip. Place on a baking tray. Below is a very skillful drawing(!) of folding the samosas:

5) Keep on going until you run out of pastry, filling or patience!  You should be able to make 16-20 samosas.  Once you are done, put the samosas in the oven for 10-15 minutes until golden.

6) Serve hot with chutneys and raita.