Pea and Potato Samosas...

...as those of you that read all my posts know, we have had veggie friends staying this weekend...and on Friday night I made a Veggie Indian Feast for us...so far I have shared the Paneer Fritters, Saag Paneer and Raita recipes with you...well here is the next...Anjum Anand's Pea and Potato Samosas...from her Indian Food Made Easy Book...There are a few spices in the filling...all of which bar one were already in my store cupboard...

Prep time: 10 mins (plus cooking time for potatoes)
Cooking time: 30-35mins for finished samosas
Makes: in this case 12, but up to about 20 if using 2 packs of filo.
Ingredients: (the list is long, but none of it is hard to get)
*Vegetable oil
*1/2tsp mustard seeds
*60g chopped onion
*6g fresh ginger - grated
*60g frozen peas
*1Tbsp ground coriander
* 1tsp ground cumin
*1/4tsp chilli powder
*1/2-3/4tsp garam masala
*salt to season
*600g cooked potatoes, boiled until soft, peeled and then slightly crushed...or finely diced
*4Tbsp chopped, fresh coriander leaves
*1 pkt filo pastry
*5Tbsp melted butter


Method: Filling...the whole filling only takes about 6-7 minutes to make (but you do need to cook and chop the potatoes beforehand!!)

Step 1: Fry the mustard seeds in a tiny bit of the oil until they start to splutter - should only take about 10 seconds or so...

Step 2: Add the onion and ginger to the mustard seeds and cook on a high heat for about 2 minutes...

Step 3: Pop in the peas...

Step 4: Then the spices...

Step 5: A splash of water next, and give it all a shake and a stir to mix well...cook for about 1 minute...

Step 6: Take the cooked potato and carefully mix into the peas, along with the coriander...

Step 7: Cook the whole thing for about 3 minutes, have a taste and season as needed...This can now be set to one side to cool a little before assembling the samosas...or can be cooled completely, covered and popped into the fridge overnight...

Assembling The Samosas: I had never made samosas until Friday last week!! So was a little apprehensive about the actual folding...but I needn't have been, as they were really straightforward and easy to do...The most important thing to remember is to keep the filo covered with a damp tea towel whilst you fiddle about with the folding!!

So here we go...take a piece of filo, brush with melted butter...fold lengthways into thirds and then cut in half to give you two triple layer pieces about 10-12cm long...

Brush again with the butter, pop a bit of the filling at one end and...

...fold one of the corners over to the opposite side to make a triangle shape...

...keep folding, so that you end up with...

...a neat triangle full of lovely filling...brush with a bit more butter...

...pop onto a lined baking tray and cook for 30-35 mins at Gas 6/200c until golden brown...The recipe says this amount of filling will make 20 samosas, but the packet of filo only had 6 sheets, with two samosas to a sheet...so 12 was the magic number for us!!

...serve with lemon wedges and dips of your choice...obviously we had the Raita I'd made, mango chutney and chilli sauce...

The filling can be made in advance...Well that's what I did anyway, I made it on Thursday and then made the samosas up on Friday evening just before they were needed...and any leftover filling is great reheated for a quick lunch or supper with some salad bits and pieces...in fact, we did just that...