Cocktail samosas

Samosas, a typical Indian side-dish or starter, are filo pastry casings filled with a variety of ingredients. When throwing a get-together a while back we chose to serve hearts of palm filled and potato filled samosas. While the hearts of palm filling gave our samosas a Brazilian feel/taste, the potato filled samosas kept to the Indian tradition.  

Potato and Heart of Palm Cocktail Samosas

(makes approximately 36 samosas)

Ingredients:

Filo pastry 

Clarified butter

2 hearts of palm, chopped

2 medium sized potatoes, chopped

50 gr fresh garden peas

1 tablespoon flour

125 ml milk

1 lime

1 onion, chopped

2 bay leaves

1 teaspoon cumin seeds, ground

2 red chillies, seedless and chopped

1/4 teaspoon mustard seeds, ground

1/4 teaspoon coriander seeds, ground

2 tablespoons fresh coriander, chopped

1 tablespoon fresh mint, chopped

1 tablespoon chives, chopped

Salt and pepper

How to make:

A. Heart of palm filling

1. In a pan, melt the butter and cook half the onions and bay leaves until the onions become transparent. 

2. Add the flour, and mix well until the onion and flour mixture becomes golden brown. 

3. Add the milk slowly to the mixture while stirring constantly. The end result should be a thick white sauce. 

4. Add the hearts of palm, season with salt and pepper, and turn the heat off. 

B. Potato filling

1. Cook the potatoes in boiling water and salt until soft. Drain and reserve. 

2. Do the same with the garden peas. 

3. In a frying pan, cook the remaining onions in one tablespoon of clarified butter.

4. Add the cooked onions, potatoes, peas, lime juice, the ground spices and chillies to a bowl and mash everything together. Season with salt and pepper. 

C. Assembling the samosas

1. Following the method seen in the video below, fold the samosas in sheets of filo pastry measuring 4cmx13cm. Use the potato filling for some and the hearts of palm filling for others. 

2. Place your potato and heart of palm samosas in a greased baking tray, brush each of them with melted butter, and bake them in a pre-heated oven at 180 degrees celcius for approximately 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.