Samosas recipe

These samosas are crisp and golden pastry triangles have a spicy curried beef filling and make a tasty starter served with mango chutney or cooling cucumber raita. 

They make a great starters, and if you are serving up to guests, they're such an impressive appetiser to have made yourself. You can prepare them a few hours in advance and deep-fried just before serving, or deep dry them in advance and keep them warm in the oven until your guests are seated. This recipe is suitable for meat-eaters, but if you want to do a veggies version, add 225g frozen diced mixed vegetables to the fried onion instead of the minced beef.

Ingredients

• 2tsp sunflower oil
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 200g lean minced beef
• 1 small potato, peeled and finely diced
• 1tbsp medium curry paste
• 100ml water
• 50g frozen peas
• 2tbsp fresh chopped coriander
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 4 large sheets of filo pastry
• Sunflower or groundnut oil, for deep frying
• Coriander sprigs, to garnish

Method

1. Heat the oil in a frying pan and fry the onion for 5 mins. Add the minced beef and fry over a medium-high heat until browned all over then add the potato, curry paste and water and cook for 10 mins, stirring occasionally.
2. Add the peas and cook for a further 5 mins. Stir in the coriander and season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Cool.
3. Cut each filo pastry sheet into 4 long thin strips. Place a teaspoonful of the mince mixture onto the bottom of one pastry strip. Fold over a corner of the pastry to enclose the filling then continue folding the pastry in a triangular shape to the end of the strip. Seal with a dab of water. Repeat to make 16 samosas in total.
4. Heat the oil in a large deep frying pan until a cube of bread dropped in the hot oil browns in 30 secs. Fry the samosas, a few at a time, for 3-4 mins until crisp and golden brown. Drain on kitchen paper. Serve immediately, garnished with coriander sprigs.

Top tip for making samosas

If you don't fancy deep-frying them, that's fine - you can just bake them in the oven. Simple brush each pastry strip with melted butter before filling and folding then bake at 190°C/375°F/Gas Mark 5 for 15 mins until crisp and golden.

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