Saturday Samosa – spicy vegetable samosa with filo pastry

It’s Saturday afternoon in the Alps and a concatenation of events means I’m making Samosa.

I’m stuck indoors – it’s been a cloudy, misty, snowy, drizzly few days in the Alps with few and far between fleeting glimpses of sun before the clouds come in and obscure and paint my view grim-grey. Added to which we’re in the final throes of Alpine living which means we are playing the “eat the contents of the fridge/store cupboard/freezer” game.  Plus our landlords are coming round tonight for drinks and snackies.

So Saturday Samosa is born. Or Fridge-Freezer Samosa if you prefer but that doesn’t have the same ring to it.

I’m going to miss French style supermarket shopping

Roger over at – Camerahols / Food, Photography & France seems to have all the sunshine at the moment, and his cheeky but funny comment about the “They’re devils how they hide, those Alps” made me think of sunnier days in Charente, visiting friends and making Samosa with the boys and taking them to an all day pique-nique. They were a hit by the way. (the samosas, everyone knew the boys beforehand). I also want to drop some off at the ski shop we use, the guys there are gems and have looked after us all season, their knowledge and helpfulness has made our trips out even more pleasurable, their good humour when frankly all around them is chaos is remarkable. Besides one of them cleaned our car today as they were washing down the skis prior to storage for the summer and he misses a good old British curry. Happy to oblige my friend!

The very last coffee on piste with a sunny view of Mt Blanc

And then as I was making them I realised that the light is completely crap. No two ways about it.  See I told you Roger has all the sun and blue skies this week. So no photo opportunities for show and tell today.  So I looked through the photo archive at the samosa we made in Charente, but I can’t use those as they have the kids in and I don’t have permission to use them (answer your texts my friend!).

So stop with the whingeing and on with the recipe.

I make samosa regularly, a party food special, but I don’t follow a recipe so stick with me. It’s all cooked by eye, look and feel and then tasted to finish.

The contents of our fridge – a cauliflower past it’s best, a couple of carrots that need using, a bag of soon to be soft potatoes, a few straggly green beans, a tomato that has seen better days and half a bag of frozen peas bought when I needed a cold compress for my bust shoulder. The ingredients don’t sound tempting written up like that do they? But by the time I’ve chopped and peeled and primped and cooked, they will be perfect samosa stuffing material.

Of course you can use perfectly lovely fresh veggies if you prefer.

When I make samosa for kids or French guests I tend to go easy on the heat, you can go easy on the heat if you like too 🙂

Spicy Vegetable Samosa with Filo Pastry

Veggie bits ~

  • 4 medium potatoes (preferably ones that will bash down a bit), skins left on and par-boiled, drained and then diced and bashed
  • 2 florets of cauliflower, broken up into teeny pieces
  • ½ an onion peeled and finely chopped
  • ½ cup of frozen peas
  • 1 carrot, finely diced
  • A handful of green beans finely chopped
  • 1 tomato chopped up

Spicy bits ~

  • 2 cloves of garlic peeled and finely chopped
  • An inch of ginger, peeled and finely chopped
  • 1 green chilli finely chopped
  • 1 tsp of mustard seeds
  • ½ tsp cumin powder
  • ½ – 1 tsp coriander powder
  • ½ tsp chilli powder
  • ½ tsp turmeric powder
  • 1 to 2 tsp of garam masala
  • 1 to 2 tbls vegetable oil for shallow frying
  • Salt and pepper to season

Pastry bit ~

  • 1 packet of filo pastry, defrosted and ready and waiting in the fridge

Making the Samosa Filling ~

  • In a large Wok or frying pan, heat the oil until it’s nice and hot and then add the mustard seeds, when they start to pop add the onion and fry gently until the onion is cooked, but not browned.
  • Add the garlic, ginger and chilli and fry for a minute
  • Add the chopped tomato and stir in well
  • Now add the spices – cumin, coriander, turmeric and chilli, stir and cook for a couple of minutes
  • Add all the veggies and mix in and cook for a few minutes
  • Now start to add water, a few tablespoons at a time, what you are doing here is cooking the vegetables till they are soft but you don’t want to end up with lots of sauce, the mixture needs to be dry
  • Taste test and add some salt and pepper
  • At the end of cooking sprinkle the garam masala onto the samosa mixture and stir it in
  • Leave the mixture to cool for at least an hour – you can make it the day before your party if you are clever and organised

Making the Samosa ~

  • Now spread the filo pastry onto a worktop, you need to work quickly here.
  • If you are using rectangle shaped filo pastry you can cut your pastry sheets either into 2 lengthways for large samosa or 4 strips for smaller ones. If you are using the round sheets cut in half.
  • Place a teaspoon or two of the mixture at one end of one strip of pastry, fold the pastry over them to form a rough triangle shape, and then keep folding up the pastry sheet until you reach the end. Seal the ends down with a bit of vegetable oil and place the samosa on a greased or lined baking tray. Repeat with the mixture until you have used all the pastry.
  • Put them in the oven on a high heat and cook for about 20 to 30 minutes until the pastry is golden in colour.
  • Remove from the oven and place them on a wire tray to cool.
  • Now pack them up for your pique-nique or eat a few before your visitors come round with some pickles!
  • If you have any mixture left over you can either freeze it for another days samosa fest or eat it will some flat bread and yoghurt.
  • Phew!

By the time I post this and you read it they can be Sunday Samosa if you like, or of course Friday Fridge Filo Freezer Night Samosa. Ok I’ll stop!

Bon appetit mes amis, I’m off to finish cooking and then try and tidy the apartment and myself, which means shutting doors and slinging my jeans on instead of my yoga pants and thermals, who says we’re not dressy people?

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