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.

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!

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?
They sound really tasty I will make some of them I think, I suppose you can add meat if needed. I love samosas, thanks for the receipe.
I love making Samosas, they turn out different every time I make them. But I have to admit I’ve never tried making meat ones, but I know my fellow blogger – http://a-boleyn.livejournal.com/ makes them (and the pastry too!)
yum yum, wish I could drop it for a taste!! thanks for recipe. Will file it away for next time I’m in the mood for samosas.
You’d be welcome, mind you this whole batch (about 20) were well and truly scoffed 🙂
I love samosas. I’ve never made them with filo — I use a whole wheat wrapper dough. I’ll post them once pea season gets going because samosas are one of the things I can hide a few peas in and still eat them.
I’ll look forward to seeing your recipe one of my favourites is a simple one of potato and peas. Perfect little treats! I like the filo as it means I don’t have to fry them like I would with proper Samosa wrappers
I bake mine, Claire.
even better!
Sounds delicious. Enjoy following your posts and travels and glad you had fun with FR.
Everyone loved the Skiing post with her at the Pinnacle and with you, Claire.
It was a great pleasure Ruth to host Flat Ruthie, and a lot of fun! And of course it was the North American’s who commented on her to me while I was in the telepherique – the rest of the world (Europeans, Asians etc) all pretended to ignore me 🙂
We’ll see what the rest of the year brings 🙂
Ha ha the tractor at the supermarket finally made its appearence….only in France:-)
Have fun tonight. Hope the samosas go down well with Mr and Mrs T!
The samosa went down well with neighbours and the ski shop 🙂
Jealous! Saturday afternoon in the Alps…
The weather really hasn’t been very cooperative of late – cloudy and drizzly and snowy so you ar enot missing much of a view!!
I’m with Yummy, tho I am looking forward to some warmer weather! told you i liked samosas.. c
I thought you might/did ! you can play around with the fillings to your hearts content, and a great fix when you HAVE to have Indian snacks.
And yes please to warmer weather, I’ve had to put my thermals back on this last week or so. Humph!
Great use of fridge ingredients. If you’re ever in the mood to make your own samosa dough, I have a tasty and easy version which is very authentic compared to the ones I’ve had in restaurants and at the Indian grocer’s. 🙂
I haven’t made my beef samosas in ages cause I don’t like deep frying, so when I DO, I make a double batch of appetizer sized ones ( 5 doz) and freeze the extras.
Hi there, I remember the post, but now I can’t find it. Could you add a link? Oh and I always think homemade are the BEST!
I haven’t ever posted the recipe for the samosas (dough or filling) on my LJ but may have shared it on someone’s blog in the comments. As I can’t remember where or when, it’s a definite excuse to make them and post the whole recipe if I can find the time and space in my freezer to put the extras. I’ll see what I can do. 🙂
PS: Turns out I posted the dough recipe here … and probably more places. 🙂
http://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CCcQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffoodblogandthedog.wordpress.com%2F2011%2F10%2F12%2Fpea-and-potato-samosas-with-plum-chutney%2F&ei=5xOLT8O5H46e8gSPqLnQCQ&usg=AFQjCNHeagW0ikrYI7QKZwmcz4IwWq5L4g
Fantastic! My memory must have been playing tricks…. it usually does 🙂
It’s hard to do all my own cooking I’d like to do AND try the new recipes that I run across when there’s only me at home to eat the results. At least with desserts, I can give them away at work. 🙂 One day SOON though I’ll make samosas again… (I hope).
I love Samosa’s anf love your recipe here. I have never put so many vegetables in a samosa and now I really can’t wait to!
He, he you know I don’t usually add quite as many veggies either, but it was a case of use it or lose it, mind you there is still soup to be made!
I think if pushed my favourites are the simple ones – maybe 2 or 3 veggies/lentils max. I also love playing with the spices, adding fennel, or corriander seeds at will and depending on what I’m using 🙂
The contents of your fridge sound like mine… especially the few straggly beans! I’m looking forward to trying this recipe 🙂
I’m glad I’m not alone on this! They are really easy to make, I plan to do some more at home, and I’ll post a few tips and photos on how to do them easily 🙂
Your samosas sound tasty, Claire, very flavorful. I do hope the clouds break, giving you a chance for a few parting shots. This is no time for the Sun to be shy!
So do I John, I’d like to see “my mountains” one more time before we leave
I’m going to have to remember this.. we’re always stuck at the end of the summer with odds and ends in our fridge at the lake. What’s worse, people who leave sooner bring by their left over food.. and we get stuck with that as well!!
That’s too funny about your neighbours, but I can see how it would happen! Mind you having said that we are leaving stuff for our friends 😉
Hi. I nominated you for the Liebster award…Good luck
Thank you, that is so kind of you 🙂
Sunday Morning Samosa here for me! Love them, and I am now asking msyelf “why have you never made these in Spain Tanya?” Answer, “because you just didn´t think of using filo pastry”. Brilliant, and a great use of those veggies!
The filo pastry is a blinder as it means you don’t have to fry them – so a bit healthier too. Besides I generally have filo lurking in the freezer 🙂
What a clever use of ingredients that need to be eaten 🙂
Thanks Tandy, they were appreciated by all who ate them 🙂
I just like your style! I love that you’ve made a beautiful dish out of what some people would simply discard for expediency! I almost always have a few veggies “hanging around” that I’m not sure I even want for soup, but given the spices and delicate filo pastry I’d be styling! I hope you get some clear days for your farewell! Debra
Pleased you like the recipe style Debra, I do think that there is only so much soup a person can eat! The forecast is showinga teeny bit of sun tomorrow, phew, I really can’t stand lots of days on the run without a dash of sunshine in my life
We used to do our weekly shopping at the Super U in Mauritius when we lived there.
Grand sounding recipe.
🙂 Mandy
He he, I love it! Hope you have a super week Mandy 🙂
I hit that little “more” button to access “email this post” to forward your recipe to maggie. She is a huge fan of Indian/Thai/Arabic food and a wicked good cook, like you!
I also commend you for not using photos of friends or relatives without getting permission first. I won’t even mention people by name in my blog without asking, and I always wondered if other bloggers did the same!
Hi there and thanks, I hope Maggie like sthe samosas, once you figure out how to mak ethem life is that bit better 🙂
And thanks for the comment about photos – I guess it’s also a bigger deal when it comes to kids and trying to protect them. The not naming people does feel a bit odd though, like they are partly here and partly not! I guess it’s about finding what you are comfortable with that matters most 🙂
Love the sound of these. I’ve never made samosas – now I think I’ll try, especially as they are not fried – thanks! 🙂
I hope you do try to make some they are ridiculously tasty! A little bit fiddly at first but you soon get the knack of folding them over. 🙂