I was stuck. I was going to a dinner party and had no idea what I wanted to bring. Correction: I had too many ideas of what I wanted to bring and thus was in a holding pattern. I wanted to bring something seasonal and yet easy to eat at a party.
I scoured my cookbooks and the internet for inspiration. Finally, I stumbled upon a recipe from Whole Foods that sounded so good, I decided not to change a thing about it!
Samosas are little pieces of pastry with savory filling. They are a popular snack in South Asian countries. What I love the most about this recipe is that it uses sweet potatoes and apples for a comforting autumn feel and mixes in South Asian spices for a completely exotic flavor. I just love them!
While delicious, they are a bit time consuming to make.
First, I made the spiced apple sauce. Basically, just cook chunks of apples until soft and stir in a spice mixture of cumin seeds, tamarind, cloves, and cayenne. Yum!
Then, I made the filling. I braised the sweet potatoes in the spices and stirred in some peas at the end. Then, I used a fork to coarsely mash the filling. That’s it.
The time consuming part was assembling the samosas. I used prepared puff pastry, like the recipe called for, which did end up saving considerable time and was pretty easy to work with.
I divided the pastry into four sections. Then, I worked with one section at a time. On a floured surface, I rolled the pastry out a little bit to make it thinner and bigger. It was probably 8 inches square. Then, I cut it into eighths by cutting a plus sign through the square (4 pieces), then an X through the square. I ended up with 8 triangles.
Brush each triangle with egg and place about a heaping teaspoon of filling onto each triangle.
I tried many methods of wrapping the filling and ultimately found one that was easy and looked nice once baked. While samosas are traditionally in triangles, they don’t have to be. Mine ended up in squares.
Fold one of the side corners over the filling.
Fold the bottom edge so it meets the dough.
Fold the other side corner over the filling.
Fold the top corner over the filling and pinch any remaining openings closed.
Place on a parchment-lined baking sheet and brush the tops with more egg. Bake for about 20 minutes.
The tops should be nicely browned when done.
These are best served warm with the spiced applesauce.
I just had these a couple days ago and now I’m craving them again after writing this post! I must have some sweet potatoes around here somewhere! 🙂
You can view the recipe on the Whole Foods recipe page.