Filo Pastry Samosas

prep time:: 20 min
total time:: 1 hr

Makes 28

Anupama Puranik

Delicious spicy samosas made easier with Filo Pastry

ingredients

Just the thing to eat on a rainy day. That’s what came to my mind when I made these. Crispy and spicy they are the kind of food that everyone fantasizes about on a wet rainy day, don’t we? . So for a perfect ,almost Utopian afternoon indulge yourself with these samosas , make yourself a hot cup of alyacha chahaa (ginger tea) to go with them , settle down near a window where you can see the rain pouring outside with a book by your favourite author and sink into complete bliss. Wow!! Wouldn’t we all just love that!
Well to bring this into reality you have to first start making the samosas at least. Right? Well here goes then.
I made these with Filo Pastry and that made my task oh so easy. I used Filo for the first time and was not sure how exactly to go about it but the instructions on the pack were so clear with such good illustrations that it was a breeze.
For the Filling I used:
3 cups frozen green peas (I thawed them in the microwave before cooking them)
1 onion chopped finely
1 cup dessicated coconut
Paste of 5 to 6 green chillies,
1 tblspn minced garlic
1/2 tblspn minced ginger
1 tblspn garam masala
1 tspn red chiily powder
1 tspn coriander powder
1 tspn cumin powder
1 tblspn whole cumin
1/2 tspn hing (asafoetida)
1 tblspn sugar
Juice of 1 lemon
Oil for cooking
salt to taste

directions

1
Method:
2
Before starting the actual cooking I put half the peas in a dry grinder and coarsely ground them while leaving the other half of the peas whole. This lends a nice texture to the filling.
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1. In a heavy bottom pan heat 2 tblspns of oil and add the whole cumin first. After a few seconds add the hing followed by the chopped onion. Fry the onion lightly . Doesn’t have to be browned.
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2. Next add all the spice powders and the green chilly paste and fry further for about half a minute.
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3. Now add the green peas (crushed and whole), coconut ,salt ,sugar and lemon juice. Give it all a good stir. Add a little water to the mixture and cover and cook until the peas are completely cooked. Keep adding small amounts of water intermittently if the mixture becomes too dry.
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4. Give it a taste and adjust all the seasoning as necessary. Let the filing cool completely before assembling the samosas.
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Assembling the samosas:
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Now the Filo pastry that I bought was the frozen kind and came in a pack of 6 sheets placed one on top of the other. I left the pastry in the fridge overnight to defrost and then at room temp for 1/2 an hour before using it. I cut all 6 sheets at once into 4 long strips each measuring about 2 inches in width. So I made 24 samosas from one pack.
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Place a tablespoonful of the filling at one end of a strip and pull the left corner of the sheet diagonally to the right so that it forms the first triangle . Keep rolling the samosa further in the same way maintaining the triangle shape.
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Apply a few drops of water to the last bit of the sheet to seal the samosa tightly. Assemble all the samosas in the same way while keeping the ones already done covered so that the pastry does not dry out.
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Fry the samosas in hot oil at moderate to high heat and serve with a combo of mint chutney and hot and sweet tomato sauce. These go very well together.