Cheese and sweetcorn samosas

Cheese and sweetcorn samosas are made from easy homemade pastry, and stuffed with a spicy cheese and sweetcorn filling, before being fried until they turn crispy and golden.  They are easier to make than you might think and so much tastier than shop-bought.  Read on for my guide on making the easiest-ever samosas

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Samoosas or Samosas?

In South Africa, they spell the word with 2 ‘o’s and pronounce it SamOOsa as in moose.  The rest of the world seems to spell it with one ‘o’ and pronounce it SamOsa , as in ‘Oh these are so good’.   I’m inclined to go with the rest of the world on this – especially these cheese and sweetcorn samosas.  They are SO delicious I can’t stop eating them.

When I lived in Johannesburg, one of my favourite shopping excursions (did I mention I love shopping as much as food) was to the Oriental Plaza – an Indian street market where you could buy anything from A to Z.  After spending a couple of happy hours browsing spending money on things I didn’t need but just had to have, we always ended up buying a box of samoosas (spelt with 2 ‘o’s – we were in South Africa at the time) from one of the street food vendors.  We used to eat them in the car for lunch on the way home.  You could buy the traditional lamb, beef or potato samoosas, but my favourite samoosa flavour was cheese and sweetcorn, an amazing combination of curry spices, plump kernels of sweetcorn, and cheese.

The sweetcorn provided little pops of sweetness, which along with the creaminess of the cheese, helped to cut through the spiciness of the filling.

Home-made vs shop-bought

I have nothing against a good shop-bought samosa.  They are fine if you are in a hurry and want a quick snack, and you are near an outlet that sells them.

However, in my opinion, nothing beats home-made.  You can control the amount of filling you put in (I always try to squeeze in extra) and also adjust the amount of spice. Plus of course, you can make them any time the samosa craving hits.

The ready-made samosas that you buy in supermarkets all use phyllo (filo) pastry which tends to absorb a lot of oil when fried.  They can turn out very greasy, especially if you eat them cold. These homemade samosas are made with homemade pastry which doesn’t absorb a lot of oil and so makes them less greasy.

Plus these cheese and sweetcorn samosas are equally tasty served either hot or cold, so they are perfect for popping into a lunchbox.

What you will need

Equipment

To make these cheese and sweetcorn samosas, you will need a mixing bowl for making the pastry, and a large frying pan or wok for frying them. I like to use a large earthenware mixing bowl similar to the one in the link, because it means I can really get my hands under the flour to mix the dough easily.

To roll out the pastry you will need a rolling pin.

Ingredients

The quantities given in the recipe will make 16 x 3″ triangular samosas. Depending on how much of the filling you manage to cram in, you may end up with a little of the filling left over. If that happens, I pop it into a small tupperware box, freeze it and add it into my next curry meal.

**You can get the complete list of ingredients and full instructions for making this recipe on the printable recipe card at the end of this post**

For the pastry

Plain flour – don’t use self-raising flour – we don’t need any raising agent in the pastry.

Sunflower Oil – this forms the fat content of the pastry. You can substitute with an equivalent amount of ghee if you prefer.

Water – for binding the pastry. You may not need all the water so keep a tablespoon or so back and only add it if needed to form a soft, non-sticky dough.

Salt optional to taste

For the Cheese and Sweetcorn Filling

Sweetcorn – drain and reserve the water. I used a 340-gram can (or 12 ounces) undrained weight.

Onion – this needs to be finely diced, approximately the same size as the sweetcorn. You can use one large onion or 2 smaller ones. You’ll need roughly the same amount of chopped onions as sweetcorn. If you prefer, you can substitute the onions with shallots.

Cheese – grated. I used cheddar. Substitute with any cheese you would normally buy for grating. You can use half cheddar and half mozzarella if you want a more ‘stringy’ cheese.

Spices

• Ground Cumin
• Ground Coriander
• Garam Masala
• Chilli Paste or cayenne pepper – use this to your own taste depending on how much heat you like. I have to mention here that the sweetness from the corn and the creaminess of the cheese does act to counteract the heat from the chilli so you may need slightly more chilli than you thought you would. I added half a teaspoon of chilli paste which is normally sufficient for my taste, but I found I could have added extra.

Salt – to taste

You will also need sunflower oil both for frying the onions and for frying the samosas.

What do do

Make the pastry

This is my easy samosa pastry recipe.  It only takes a few minutes, but in my opinion, the difference in the taste between this pastry and store-bought pastry is huge.  If you do want to use phyllo pastry then of course you can do so, and I’ve included instructions on how to fold the phyllo pastry samosas further down this post.

Make the cheese and sweetcorn filling

At this point, you should taste the filling and adjust the seasoning. If it doesn’t seem spicy enough for you, add more chilli paste or if it is too bland, add a touch more salt.

Fold and assemble the samosas

Now we can get onto the task of folding and filling the samosas. This is my easy method, using the pastry that we just made. If you want to use phyllo pastry for making these samosas, skip to how to fold samosas using phyllo pastry

You might find it easier to just put the filling on the half-circle on a flat surface. Then bring the pastry over to form a quarter-circle and crimp it all around.  I find using the first method allows you to get more yummy filling in.

Word of warning – do make sure that the filling is completely enclosed with no holes in the samosa. If you do have any holes you will find the filling will spill out of the samosa when you fry it.

Fry the samosas

Once you’ve assembled the samosas as per the instructions above, you can fry them. 

Heat the oil in a wok or deep frying pan until it sizzles when you add a small piece of dough. 

Now add the samosas and let them fry gently for 3 to 4 minutes per side until they are crispy and golden. Don’t add too many samosas at once, leave yourself enough room to turn them.

Keep the heat to a low sizzle. If the oil gets too hot the samosas will burn before they are cooked through.

You could also put them on a greased baking sheet, brush them with sunflower oil, and bake for about 25 minutes in the oven at 200C/400F.

How to fold samosas using phyllo pastry

This method is for folding a samosa using shop-bought phyllo pastry.  Note these pictures were taken when I was making my recipe for beef samosas (which hasn’t yet made its way onto my website), and which is why the filling looks different to the filling in this recipe.

If you decide to use phyllo pastry to make this recipe, you will probably get double the quantity of samosas because you will use less filling per samosa.

Start off by cutting a piece of phyllo pastry lengthwise into 3 strips.

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Filling variations

This recipe is for cheese and sweetcorn filling, but you could experiment with your own fillings.  Why not try spinach and feta, or substitute pea and cubed cooked potato for the sweetcorn and onion.  You might even like to try this recipe for beef samosas with peas and potatoes for a meatier option. And of course, the curried mince from this recipe Vetkoek and Curried Mince would be perfect for making beefy samosas.

Just bear in mind when making fillings for samosas that the ingredients should be as finely chopped as possible so that you can easily fill the samosas.

Save for later

If you would like to make these cheese and sweetcorn samosas why not pin the recipe to one of your Pinterest boards so you can find it easily? Just click the image below.

Alternatively, you can save the recipe by clicking on the floating heart icon on the right-hand side of the screen.

Other recipes

If you enjoyed these cheese and sweetcorn samosas, perhaps you’d like to take a look at some of my other South African recipes.

• Koeksisters – a sticky sweet dessert normally made with yeast. My version is much easier and uses 2-ingredient dough.
• Crunchies – oaty biscuit bars.
• Bobotie – a traditional Cape Malay curry made with ground beef.
• Lamb Bredie – tender lamb rib stew made in a pressure cooker.
• Crustless bully beef quiche – a quick and easy savoury tart.

The recipe

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