The tastiest samosa's

Here is the recipe for - I think - the tastiest samosa's. I had tried lots from various places but they do seem to lack flavour. This is a recipe from Madhur Jaffrey that we have just tweaked a little to give us the required spice level. I have always found that the filling mixture far outweighs the pastry mix so I always double up and it makes 32.

For the Pastry
450g plain flour
1 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons vegetable oil plus a little bit more
8 tablespoons water

For the filling
4 largish potatoes microwaved or boiled with skins on and cooled
4 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 medium onion peeled and finely chopped
175g frozen peas
1 tablespoon ( or so ) finely chopped ginger
3-5 ( 5 ) finely chopped green chillis
4 tablespoons finely chopped fresh coriander
3 tablespoons water
salt to taste
2 teaspoons ground coriander
2 teaspoons garam masala
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon cayenne
2-4 tablespoons lemon juice
Vegetable oil for frying

Place flour and salt in bowl. Add oil and rub in like pastry until sort of slighly greasy breadcrumbs. This is really quick. Slowly add water until dough comes together into a ball.
Place on a floured board and knead for about 10 minutes. You don't need to go mad with it just nice and steady until it's smooth. Pour a little oil into your hands and stroke it over the dough. place in a poly bag or clingfilm and put to one side.

Peel skins from potatoes and dice into 1/4inch dice. Heat 4 tablespoons oil in large frying pan and pop in onions when hot. Stir until they start to go golden then add peas, chillis, ginger and fresh coriander.
Add water, cover and simmer until peas are cooked ( about 4 mins ).
Stir now and then and add a little more water if it becomes dry.
Add potatoes and all the spices and lemon juice. Stir gently and cook on a low heat for about 4 minutes. Check seasoning and add more salt or lemon juice if needed.
Take off heat and allow to cool.

Knead pastry again until smooth and divide into 16 balls. Roll out each ball untill small plateish size. Cut each circle in half and wet curly side with water. Fold into a triangle shape and stuff with filling -  be generous  these don't need to be mean. Seal edge with water and press closed. When all samosa's are made fry for a couple of minutes until golden brown.

Drain on kitchen paper and leave to cool. It's fair to say that at this point I just want to eat one but they are quite hot so wait for as long as you can bear before munching.

The original recipe calls for about haf the spice mixture and one chilli so we have upped the flavour with these. I guess that - as with most recipes - you have to make it your own and these are really good, So good in fact that I have to make another load this week for a charity bake.

Debs