Beef samosas – with peas and potatoes

If you thought samosas were difficult to make, then you’d be wrong. These beef samosas with peas and potatoes are so easy to make. Just follow my step-by-step instructions and you’ll be tucking into these delicious samosas tonight.

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Beef samosas with peas and potatoes

These samosas have to be the best beef samosas I’ve every tasted. They are filled with a spicy ground beef curry, potatoes and peas. The pastry is light and crispy and you can make them as hot or as mild as you like.

The reason these samosas are so good is because they are absolutely packed full of the spicy filling of ground beef, peas and potatoes. And the reason they are so packed with filling is because of this secret tip that allows you to cram more filling into the samosas before the pastry splits and spills the filling out.

Before I give away the secret, let me just tell you what a samosa is. It is a super delicious triangle of fried, crispy pastry stuffed with either a finely chopped meat or vegetable filling, lightly spiced with curry. Meat samosas are normally made with either beef, chicken or lamb. Vegetable samosas contain a mixture of vegetables such as peas, potatoes, carrots and corn. The choice is up to you really as to how you combine the ingredients. Why not take a look at this recipe for cheese and sweetcorn samosas. They are really special.

Samosas are normally served as starters with any Indian meal in a restaurant, but they can also be served as snacks or even a light supper.

Samosas can either be made with filo (phyllo) pastry (in which case this tip will not work) or with a more robust pastry made with oil and flour, which is rolled out as thinly as possible.

What is the secret?

Normally when you make a samosa you have to be careful not to over-fill them or the pastry will be inclined to split. I’ve found that if you place the rolled pastry in a hot, dry, frying pan (no oil needed) for about 5 seconds, the pastry will harden slightly and will be much easier to handle and fill.

How to make beef samosas with pea and potato

This recipe makes 12 large samosas.

There are a few steps you have to follow to make samosas.

• Make the pastry
• Make the filling
• Roll the pastry and assemble the samosas
• Fry the samosas

You can get the complete recipe from the printable recipe card at the end of this post.

Make the pastry

For the pastry you will need 200g (7 oz) plain flour, 1.5 tablespoons of sunflower or other neutral flavoured oil, 100 ml water (which is 2/5 or .4 cups) and 1/2 teaspoon salt.

• Place the flour, salt, oil and most of the water in a mixing bowl.
• Mix thoroughly to combine (get your hands in – you’ll find it easier than using a spatula). Then tip out onto a work surface and knead until the dough comes together in a soft ball.
• The amount of water will depend on the strength of the flour you are using. You may need to add a few drops more if the mixture is too dry.
• Note – you don’t have to be TOO precise with the measurements. If you find you have accidentally added too much water and the dough is too sticky, it’s absolutely fine to add a little more flour.
• The texture you are looking for is a soft ball of dough that is not too sticky and retains an imprint of your finger if you press it gently.
• Cover the pastry with a clean cloth and allow it to rest while you make the filling.

Make the beef, pea and potato filling

For the filling you will need 250g ground beef, a large onion, a tomato, approximately 2 cups of diced potatoes and some frozen peas. You will also need 2 tablespoons of sunflower oil for frying the onions and beef. Try and get ground beef with a low fat content (The meat I used for these beef samosas was 5% fat content).

For the spice mix you will need – ground cumin, coriander and cardamom, garam masala, dried chili flakes, salt and fresh coriander for garnish. You can adjust the heat of the samosas by adding more or less chili flakes according to your own taste. I found 1 teaspoon gave enough heat without being overpoweringly hot.

What you need to do

Roll the samosa pastry

This is the only tricky part because you need to roll the pastry out into a circular shape. I’ve described the way I do it below.

• Divide the pastry into 6 equal pieces and then roll each piece into a ball (image 2). Each ball will make 2 samosas.
• Flatten the ball with a rolling pin (image 3).
• Now roll the dough carefully with the rolling pin until it forms a circle, approximately the size of a side plate (image 4).
• While rolling, you can sprinkle the pastry lightly with flour to ensure it doesn’t stick. Also, roll in all directions, turning the pastry if necessary, to get the circular shape.

Form the samosas

• Peel the onions and cut into a fine dice (not larger than 1cm) and fry gently in the oil until they are translucent. Add the spices and continue to fry over a low heat, stirring continuously, until the onions are well coated with the spices (image 1).
• Next, add the ground beef and stirfry with the onions until the beef is completely separate and crumbly, and no longer pink (image 2).
• Chop a tomato into fine dice and add to the meat and onion mixture. Apart from extra flavour, the tomato will add a small amount of moisture to the mince. Cover the pan with a lid and allow to steam gently until the tomato has softened and disintegrated (not shown).
• Meanwhile, peel a large potato and cut into 1cm dice (image 3). Don’t make the potato pieces too large or they will not fit into the samosa.
• Place the chopped potato into a dish, sprinkle lightly with salt, cover with a lid and microwave on full power for 4 minutes until the potato is soft and cooked through.
• You may need to adjust the amount of time in the microwave depending on the wattage of your microwave. I have a 900W microwave and 4 minutes was sufficient to cook the potatoes..
• Add the cooked potato to the meat mixture and mix well (image 4). Then mix in 1 cup of frozen peas and heat through until the peas have defrosted (not shown).
• Allow the filling to cool.

• Make a ‘glue’ with a mixture of flour and water. This will be used to stick the samosas into shape (image 2). You will need approximately 2 tablespoons of flour and 4 tablespoons of water. The consistency should be like thick yoghurt. Add more flour or water if necessary to get the right consistency.
• Place each circle of pastry in a hot, dry frying pan for 5 seconds (no longer) until it just started to firm up (image 1). The reason for doing this is to harden the dough and make it less prone to splitting when the filling is added.
• Cut a circle of pastry in half across the middle to form 2 semi-circles (image 3). Each of these semi-circles will be formed into a samosa.
• Using your finger, rub a small amount of the flour glue across half of the flat edge of one of the semi-circles of pastry. This will form the seam of the samosa and the glue will help it to stick together.

• Form the semi-circle into a cone shape, making sure that the glue is on the top of the seam, and press the pastry together along the seam to stick together (image 1).
• Now spoon some of the meat filling into the cone, filling about 2/3 full. Press the filling down gently to get as much filling in as possible, but don’t over-fill. Leave enough space so that you can glue the top opening together (image 2).
• Once again, using your finger, rub a small amount of the glue around the top edge of the cone (image 3) .
• Press the top edges together to seal. Make sure that the pastry is completely sealed (image 4).
• Take care not to break the pastry, or the filling will spill out when you fry the samosa.
• Repeat this process until you have filled all 12 samosas.

Fry the beef samosas

• To fry the beef samosas you will need approximately 1″ of oil in the bottom of a large frying pan or wok. Do not use olive oil for this. The smoke point of olive oil is too low and the oil will not get hot enough. Rather use sunflower or canola oil.
• Heat the oil. The oil will be hot enough when a small piece of dough, dropped into the oil, sizzles and rises to the top. Don’t allow the oil to get too hot or the samosas will burn before the pastry has had a chance to cook properly.
• Carefully place a few samosa nto the hot oil. I like to place the samosa on a spatula and slide it into the oil.
• Fry the samosas gently for about 5 minutes until the underside is golden brown (image 2) then turn them over and allow the other side to brown (image 3).
• Once the samosas are completely brown and crispy, remove from the oil and drain on a paper towel (image 4).
• Garnish with chopped coriander and serve hot with a selection of dips.

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Recipe – Beef Samosas with peas and potatoes

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