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Meat samosas

From The Peoples Cook Book (book slide)
Alya Rafiq's spiced lamb and vegetable parcels make a delectable Indian snack to serve with drinks or to pack up for a picnic

Meat samosas

Method

1. For the filling: put the mince in a large pan over a high heat along with the most of the chopped onions, the garlic, ginger, spices, chillies, chilli flakes, chilli powder and salt. Cover the pan and cook for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until all the meat juices have been absorbed.

2. Meanwhile, bring a large pan of salted water to the boil over a high heat. Add the potatoes and boil for 10- 15minutes until just tender. Drain well. Add the potatoes and peas to the meat and cook over a medium heat for 3 minutes, then remove the pan from the heat and leave it to cool. Once the mixture has cooled, stir in the remaining onion and the chopped coriander.

3. For the pastry: mix the flour, oil and salt in a bowl and make a well in the centre. Add enough of the water to make a pastry dough and knead it well in the bowl until smooth. Using your hands, shape the pastry into 8 balls, about 5cm in diameter, and leave them to rest for 10 minutes, covered with a cloth.

4. Roll each pastry ball out on a lightly floured surface into a thin circle about 10 cm across. Cut the circle into quarters then pile all of the quarters up, with a sprinkling of flour between the layers so that they don't stick - set aside.

5. For the paste: stir the water into the flour until it is the consistency of single cream.

6. Take one piece of the pastry and brush a little of the paste along the curved edge. Shape the pastry into a cone, folding it and sealing the curved sides together so that you have one open side. Fill the samosa with a dessertspoonful of the cooled meat mixture and, using your fingers, moisten the open edges of the samosa pastry with more flour-and-water paste. Seal the pastry together over the meat so that you have a triangular package. Set aside and repeat the process with the remaining pastry.

7. Heat enough oil for deep-frying in a deep-fat fryer or heavy-based saucepan until it reaches 180C, or a cube of bread browns in 60 seconds. Add the samosas in batches and fry them for 5-6 minutes until golden, then remove with a slotted spoon and drain on a plate lined with kitchen paper. Keep them warm in a low oven while you fry the remaining samosas.

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Serves: makes 32

Prep: 1 hr
Cook: 20 min, plus deep frying

Ingredients
450g minced Lamb
3 Onions, chopped
5 garlic cloves, finely chopped
7.5 cm piece Ginger, peeled and finely grated
2 tsp Garam masala
1 tsp Cumin seeds
2 long green chillies, deseeded and finely chopped
1 tsp dried chilli flakes
1 tsp hot chilli powder
1 tsp Salt
225g Maris Piper Potatoes, diced
125g frozen peas, defrosted
bunch Coriander, finely chopped
vegetable oil, for deep frying