We LOVE making samosas. One of the most therapeutic dishes to make as you get lost in the filling and folding of those filo parcels.
Admittedly, we cheat when making anything with filo. Like Mary Berry once said: “Life’s too short to make your own filo pastry.”
This recipe uses chicken mince, but you can use whatever mince you want – lamb and pork are other great options. And don’t be put off by the multitude of spices. You should hopefully have a lot of these already, but they bring vibrancy and flavour to each bite.
If you’re wanting to make mini-sized samosas, when you get to step three, cut into four equal strips, rather than three, and just tone down the amount of filling inside.
Ingredients
For the filling
- 500 gchicken mince
- 1onion, finely diced
- 3 Tbsp.vegetable oil
- 1garlic clove, crushed
- 1thumb-sized piece ginger, skin removed and grated
- 1red chilli, seeds removed and finely chopped
- 1 tsp.curry powder
- 1/2 tsp.each turmeric, ground coriander and ground cumin
- 2 tsp.garam masala
- 60 gfrozen peas
- 1/2bunch coriander, finely chopped
- 1/2bunch mint, finely chopped
- Zest 1/2 lemon
- 3 Tbsp.flour
- 1x 270g pack ready-rolled filo pastry (we used Jus-Rol)
- Vegetable oil, for frying
- Mango chutney, to serve
Directions
-
- Step 1In a large frying pan over medium heat, add your oil and cook your onion for 5-6 minutes, until translucent. Add the garlic, ginger and chilli and cook for a further two minutes. Add turmeric, curry powder, ground coriander and ground cumin and cook for a further two minutes. Add your mince and cook until browned, about five minutes.
- Step 2Remove from heat and add garam masala, frozen peas, coriander, mint, and lemon zest. Mix altogether and allow to cool.
- Step 3Meanwhile mix flour with 3tbsp water to form a runny paste. Stack two filo sheets on top of one another (you can stick them together with your paste) and cut into three equal strips. Keep the pastry covered with a damp cloth when not using to prevent it from drying out.
- Step 4To prepare the samosa, take 1tbsp of your filling mix and place it in the top left-hand corner of the pastry sheet. Fold the pastry corner over the filling, then from the opposite side fold over the corner in the opposite direction. Continue all the way down the pastry strip until you have a triangular parcel. You can use your paste to seal in between each fold. Repeat until all the pastry sheets and filling has been used.
- Step 5Fill a deep casserole dish or frying pan with oil about a third of the way up (about 750ml), and heat until oil reaches temperature of around 180ºC. Deep fry the samosas in batches for 4-5mins, until crispy and brown. Remove and drain on kitchen paper or wire rack. Serve hot alongside mango chutney.