Samosas are essentially crispy triangular pastry parcels of savoury food and are originally Asian in origin. I love the idea of samosas; it’s the perfect portable lunch, less messy than a sandwich and a lighter alternative to the pie. Samosas are little pockets full of flavour and spice and are served with complimentary chutney. I recently had this strange idea that kedgeree would work really well as samosas. I couldn’t find a recipe so I just formulated my own. So this dish is one hundred percent S’tasty original. It tastes delicious and you won’t find it anywhere else 🙂
Here’s how:
Samosas
– small knob of butter
– 60g of uncooked basmati rice (cooked with 2 parts water)
– 1 small smoked mackerel fillet
– 1 medium sized shallot, skinned and diced
– 1/4 tsp. of turmeric
– 1 teaspoon of garam masala
– splash of olive oil
– 1 large egg
– 1 tbsp. of chopped parsley
– 1 tbsp. of cream
– Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
– 1 packet of ready-made filo pastry
– 30g of melted butter.
Begin by cooking the rice. Melt a knob of butter in a saucepan. Add the rice and then add twice as much water to the rice. Place the lid on the saucepan and simmer on a low heat to let the rice steam. Don’t be tempted to stir, once kept at a steady low heat, the rice should be perfectly cooked and fluffy in twenty minutes.
Meanwhile, skin the mackerel and break into bites size flakes. Remove any bones. Next add a splash of olive oil to a frying pan. When it starts to sizzle, add the diced shallot. Cook until soft and translucent, and then add the turmeric and garam masala. Cook for another minute, and then remove from the heat.
Boil the egg in boiling water for 8 minutes until hard boiled. Place immediately in cold water and then remove the shell. Chop the egg into small pieces. Mix the onions with the cooked rice, add the flaked fish, chopped egg, parsley, cream and salt and pepper to taste.
Next pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Line a large baking sheet with greaseproof paper.
Filo is not that scary, and it’s kind of fun to work with. All you need is some patience and a delicate touch. Unroll the pastry and cover with a damp tea towel. Filo dries out really quickly, and if it does dry out, it becomes impossible to work with, so it’s important to keep the damp towel over the filo. Peel off one piece and keep the rest covered. Lay the pastry sheet flat on a clean surface and brush with the melted butter. I made small samosas so I halved this sheet widthways and made two samosas out of the one sheet. Fold in one third of the pastry lengthways towards the middle. Brush again with the butter and fold in the other side to make a long triple-layered strip.
Place one heaped teaspoon of the kedgeree filling at one end of the pastry strip, leaving a 1 inch border. Take the right corner and fold diagonally to the left, enclosing the filling and forming a triangle. Fold again along the upper crease of the triangle. Keep folding in this way until you reach the end of the strip. Brush the finished samosa with more melted butter. Place onto a baking sheet and then continue to make the rest of the samosas the same way. Bake in the oven for about 20-30 minutes until golden brown.
I served my samosa with home-made spicy tomato chutney. You could of course buy ready-made chutney if you are short on time.
Spicy Tomato Chutney
– 175g of tomatoes – skinned and diced
– 1/4 tsp. of turmeric
– 1 tbsp. of water
– 1 tbsp. of vegetable oil
– 1/2 tsp. mustard seeds
– 1 and 1/2 tsp. of cumin powder
– 1 tsp. of hot chilli powder
– 1 tsp. of garam masala
– 1 tsp. of sugar
– 2 tsp. of tomato puree
– salt to taste
To begin with score an x with a knife on the top and bottom of the tomatoes. Plunge them into a bowl of boiling water for a few seconds and then place in a bowl of cold water. Remove from the water and peel away and remove the outer skin. Chop the skinned tomatoes into small dice. Place the tomatoes in a saucepan with the water and turmeric. Cook until the tomatoes are mushy and soft. Take off the heat and break down the tomato pulp with a fork.
Meanwhile heat the vegetable oil in a small frying pan. Add the mustard seeds and heat until they just start to pop. Next add the cumin, garam masala, chilli powder and sugar and tomato puree. Heat for less than a minute, any longer and the chilli will become bitter. Next add salt to taste. Take off the heat and allow to cool, it should be a jammy texture. Place a couple of teaspoons of the chutney in a small bowl and serve alongside the samosas.
