It’s a heatwave here and for the last two weeks a diet of mediterranean olives and tomatoes has been perfect but now as the heatwave grows again my taste buds are calling for spicy foods. My most favourite being samosas. But what if I can’t make them? That bubbly skin that I adore. Beach food in a parcel for all these fabulous beach days we are having here in Hastings.
I have only just tried to make samosas a few days ago and today when I decided to have a second go for this blog I felt so beautifully chilled and calm doing them. It’s a good place to be and such a wonderful way to spend a day chopping everything really really finely. This is the key to making the filling into a triangle when assembling them.
The first time I did this pastry a few days ago I struggled with rolling perfectly round and über thin discs with a rolling pin. But today I thought, pasta machine. That will create perfect strips. Wrong! Not enough gluten so the dough tore.
So round two I miked 00 pasta flour with plain in equal measure. And then we were back on the pasta factory. So I moved them up 4 notches. Thin and long enough for a single samosa. About 30cm. Don’t worry about random ends it all tucks away.
Ingredients
Pastry:
750g plain flour (or 00 pasta flour and plain flour)
90ml rapeseed oil
250ml water approx
1tsp fine sea salt
Filling:
1.5kg 🥔
300g onions
300g 🥕
300g peas
300g spinach
1 🌶
2tbs ground cumin
2tbs ground coriander
2tbs garam masala
1tbs fennel seeds
1tbs black mustard seeds
1tbs yellow mustard seeds
2tsp salt
Flour Glue:
2tbs flour
Water
Method
Add the flour and salt to a bowl. Add the rape seed oil and rub in with your fingers. Then add the water an mix to a soft moist dough. Cover and chill in the fridge until needed.
Boil the potatoes 🥔 in their skins and leave to cool. Lift off the skins with a teaspoon. Chop finely into small cubes.
Fry the finely chopped onions and when soft stir in the chopped chilli 🌶 spices and salt and stir. Turn off the heat. Boil the peas and finely chopped carrots 🥕 to soften. Wash the spinach and squeeze out the water. Then chop finely. Mix all the filling ingredients together.
Brush the skin with the flour glue and then build a small triangular mound of the filling.
Pull the end over the mound. See how the flour glue looks like Copydex? Love the gluing bit.
Now lift and fold like origami. I love this bit. Especially as it means it’s almost time to fry and eat them.
Keep folding to the very end. Woohoo. So satisfying, it really is. Look at this like three sided joy.
So fry in hot oil. Be slow and only do two at a time. Enjoy the fruits of your long labour. Mmm time to tuck in.
And now I am beach ready. The sea has finally reached bath temperature and I’ve a backpack full of samosas. I like to swim on a full stomach.
Thanks for all the support out there. It still thrills me that folk read these blogs. Thanks to this and you, and all the typing, I’ve been on a writing course, though you’d never guess from this. My first script is off with those magic people who know good shit when they see it. So fingers crossed folks that I can post some extra joy soon. I’m bursting with creativity. Ive so many ideas to get written and I can’t stop. Hence the absence from here. I’m sorry. But the stories I’m crafting are taking over my life. Hoping to perfect my plant based fauxsages this week to share with you. But the beach beckons and I’ve got the best fodder.
