My boyfriend Matt’s round to visit for a few days again and yesterday he took me to see Swan Lake in London as an early birthday present, which was absolutely incredible – I mean it, it made me cry it was so beautiful (my favourite scene, where Odette and Sigfried dance together and he pledges his eternal love was in such a stunning setting) – and today we just messed around and cooked a lot, we decided to make samosas for dinner, and then we made Olympic gingerbread men (recipe/pictures coming up soon) and they were both really lovely; the samosas were really well spiced and homely tasting, whilst still being really light and summery. I found this recipe in my The Gate recipe book, and it’s intrigued me for absolutely ages, so I thought that seeing as Matt was coming over, it would be nice to make the effort and try it out. Beware, it’s quite difficult when it comes to wrapping the filo around the filling, so be quite light and gentle with them, and persevere – I found that this recipe made more than six medium samosas, which is what they suggested it would, so don’t be put off if a few of them don’t work out :)

Samosas

Ingredients

200g pack of filo pastry

A little vegetable oil

400g of butternut squash, peeled and deseeded

One teaspoon of turmeric

One tablespoon of garam masala

One crushed garlic clove

One small onion, grated

One small piece of grated ginger

One teaspoon of caster sugar

100g of cashew nuts, soaked in boiling water for 10 minutes (not actually boiled, as Matt thought)

One small handful of coriander leaves, chopped

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Dice the butternut squash and mix with a little oil, then bake on a baking tray for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven, then turn the oven up to 220 degrees Celsius to preheat for the samosas.
2. Heat the garam masala, turmeric, ginger, onion and garlic. Cook until the excess water from the onion has evaporated. Add the sugar. When the butternut squash is cooked, add it to the mix, along with the drained cashews and coriander. Leave to cool.
3. To make the samosas, take one sheet of filo pastry, and brush with oil, then add another sheet directly on top, then cut the filo into strips about 8cm wide. Place a tablespoon of filling at the bottom corner of the strip. Fold the pastry over the filling to make a triangular shape. Maintaining the triangular shape, keep folding the pastry over itself to the top. When all the samosas are folded, brush with oil, then bake for 15 minutes.

Makes six

All six samosas