Crab Samosas
I always thought samosas were difficult to make - even my Grandad who was an amazing cook didn't quite master them due to the tricky pastry folding - and previous cheats I've tried have been really disappointing... like this Jamie Oliver recipe with filo pastry that I made for an article last year.
Recently though, I tested some recipes from Nadiya Hussein (last year's Great British Bake Off champion) who has a new book out with all sorts of family friendly ideas that aren't just cakes. Her recipe for easy samosas uses flour tortillas as a replacement for pastry and it REALLY works. See:
I've made her aromatic lamb samosa recipe about five times already now in huge batches, and now feel confident enough to start mixing it up with the filling. I started thinking, why do you get veggie samosas, meat samosas and chicken tikka samosas but never fish ones? Of course, not all fish would be good but I've had some fairly amazing crab malabar type curries in the past (the most notable of which at the French/South Indian restaurant La Porte des Indes) and I felt it would work brilliantly encased in fried pastry. Guess what, it does.
So, get yourself a medium sized fresh crab.
I've never prepared crab myself before, but this video was helpful: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/video/2013/apr/03/how-to-prepare-crab-video
It took about half an hour and required a big knife, the end of a teaspoon, some nutcrackers and latterly some corn on the cob holders as I don't have the right picking tools. If you can't be arsed then buy the fresh prepared stuff from Waitrose, or I'm actually really happy to use good quality cans of the jumbo crab meat and had some on standby in case of abject failure with the fresh crab.
You'll end up with something like this hopefully:
For the curry you will need:
1 large potato
Large handful frozen peas
100ml coconut milk
2 tsp garam masala
1/2 tsp turmeric
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 inch piece ginger, grated
Juice of 1/2 a lime
2 green chillis
Tsp chilli flakes
Handful fresh coriander, chopped
Pinch of salt
100ml water
Tortilla wraps
1 egg, beaten
Vegetable oil
Dice the potato into small pieces and put in a saucepan with a splash of oil, the spices, garlic, ginger and chillis. Let the spices sizzle away for a minute or two then add the coconut milk and the water. Cook for 10 or 15 minutes until the potato is almost done, then add the peas for a further 5 minutes.
Next, stir in the coriander and the crab meat and season with the salt and lime juice to taste. Leave to cool.
For the 'pastry', cut the tortillas into quarters. Nadiya only halves hers but I found the resulting samosa to be giant:
Heat about 2 inches of vegetable oil in a large pan I tend to set myself up a little conveyor belt system of tortilla, eggwash, filling and kitchen towel for draining the finished samosa.
For each samosa you'll need to brush the edges of the tortilla with egg and dollop a spoonful of the filling in the middle. Don't overfill them or they'll be a nightmare to seal.
Fold the two straight edges together, then press the curved side together. Like so:
Don't worry too much if they unstick, you can just quickly reseal before you drop them in the oil. I tend to do them in batches of four or six for ease. Once they're frying, they only take a couple of minutes each side.
Then lift them out using a slotted spoon and drain.
And voila. Life changing stuff. They freeze pretty well too and you can just crisp them up in the oven before eating.
Crab is good but the lamb versions are still better btw.