Spicy Sweet Potato and Kale Samosas with Cilantro Chutney

I love any food that comes in the form of a pouch. Dumplings, empanadas, ravioli, pierogies, hand pies ... the list goes on. And of course at the top of that list are samosas! Growing up, my mother and I would spend one day a year making a year's worth of fresh samosas (they freeze quite well). I always knew the day was coming when she would go to the local Asian supermarket and come home with two packets of frozen spring roll pastry.  My mother would make two types of filling (one potato and one yellow split pea) and we would spend the rest of the day filling and folding strips of spring roll pastry into perfect pouches. 100 potato samosas and 100 split pea samosas. And of course the best part of the day was frying up the first batch and biting into the tasty little triangles. Crispy on the outside and soft and pillowy on the inside. Always steaming hot and spiced to perfection. This year, I thought what better way to welcome autumn than to make sweet potato and kale samosas, as nothing is more exciting than coming up with new ways to use these autumn staples! And although my mother was not physically with me, I had her up on FaceTime so that we could video chat the whole time while I folded and sealed away.   

Ingredients (makes 40-48 samosas):

Samosas: 

• 3 medium sweet potatoes
• 2 Tbs extra virgin olive oil  
• 1 1/2 cups white onion, chopped (about 3/4 of one large onion) 
• 1 ts ground coriander
• 1 ts  ground cumin
• 1/4 ts sea salt 
• 1 1/2 cups lacinato kale, destemmed and cut into thin ribbons (about 4 medium leaves) 
• 1/2 cup cilantro, chopped
• 1 serrano pepper, minced (adjust amount to your preference, or use jalapeño)  
• 1 ts white pepper
• 1 Tbs garlic powder
• 1 ts lemon zest 
• 10-12 sheets of 8 inch egg-less spring roll pastry, thawed *
• 2 Tbs all purpose flour plus 2 Tbs hot water to make sealing paste
• canola oil for frying

Cilantro Chutney:

• 3 cups cilantro, chopped
• 1-2 medum serrano peppers, chopped (adjust amount to your preference, or us  jalapeño) 
• 1/3 ts ground cumin
• 1 Tbs grated ginger plus juices (use the smallest grating setting) 
• 1 Tbs cold water
• 2 Tbs extra virgin olive oil
• 1 Tbs lemon juice (about 1/2 of a lemon)
• salt (a couple of generous pinches, to taste)

Special equipment: Paper towels, plastic wrap, scissors, kitchen towels, frying pot and spider spatula, blender (I used a magic bullet). 

Preparation and Assembly (2 hours 10 minutes):

Samosa Filling (45 minutes):

1. Wash and dry the sweet potatoes.  Use a paring knife or fork to poke holes around each sweet potato. Wrap each sweet potato in a damp (not wet) paper towel and then wrap each one again tightly in plastic wrap so that no air can escape while steaming.
2. Place the sweet potatoes on a microwave safe dish and cook them in the microwave on medium-high heat for 5 minutes. Turn the sweet potatoes and cook them for another 5 minutes. Allow the sweet potatoes to cool while you prepare the rest of the filling.**
3. Heat the olive oil on medium heat in a large skillet. Add the chopped onion, ground coriander, ground cumin and salt. Stir everything so that the spices mix with the oil and coat the onions evenly.
4. Continue to cook the onions and spices for about five minutes until the onions turn translucent. If the edges start to brown, drop the heat. 
5. Once translucent, add and stir in the kale and cook for another 5 minutes, or until the vegetables have released most of their liquid. The mixture should be pretty dry. 
6. Transfer the onion mixture into a large mixing bowl.
7. Using your hands, peel the now cooled sweet potatoes (it helps to run a knife through the skin lengthwise on one side and gently pull the skin away with your fingers). 
8. Roughly chop the peeled sweet potatoes and add them to the mixing bowl.
9. Add the cilantro, serrano pepper, white pepper, garlic powder and lemon zest to the mixing bowl.
10. Using a fork, gently mash and mix the ingredients together until the sweet potatoes are broken down and everything is well incorporated.
11. Taste and adjust salt and spices as needed.  

Samosa Assembly (1 hour) (see instructional image below):

1. Make a sealing paste by mixing the all purpose flour and hot water in a small mixing bowl (you may need to keep adding hot water if the paste becomes too thick as you work). 
2. Gently peel and remove a few sheets of spring roll pastry from the packet and then place the packet under a kitchen towel (or in a large tupperware). You will want to work with 3-4 pastry sheets at a time, as the pastry sheets dry out rather quickly.
3. Using scissors, cut the pastry sheets in half lengthwise, stack the halves and then cut again lengthwise so that you make 4 sets of 8x2 inch pastry strips.
4. Starting with one set of strips, peel a single strip away from the stack and place it on a cutting board (place the remaining strips under a towel or plate so they do not dry out).      
5. Using a spoon, scoop about 1 tablespoon of  samosa filling and place it on one end of the pastry strip.
6. Fold one corner of the pastry strip over the filling and bring it over to meet the opposite edge.
7. Continue folding the pasty to create an even sided triangle, using your fingers to gently push the filling around to fill in the corners as you fold. 
8. Once you get to the end of the strip, use your finger to dab some of the flour and water paste onto the leftover portion of the pastry and fold it over onto the samosa, pressing gently to seal. 
9. Continue to work with a few sheets at a time until all the filling is used up.
10. Store the samosas in an airtight container until ready to fry. They can keep in the fridge up to 4 days or in the freezer up to 1 year.   

Samosa Cooking (15 minutes):

1. Heat canola oil in a frying pot. 
2.  If the samosas have been frozen, place them in a microwave safe dish, cover with a damp paper towel and thaw by heating them in the microwave on medium heat for 1 minute.
3. PAT DRY BEFORE YOU FRY :)
4. Once the oil is heated, test the temperature by placing one samosa in the oil, turing it over once it starts to lightly brown on one side. Once the samosa shell is nicely browned all around, remove it from the oil and place it in a bowl lined with paper towels. Once cooled, break (or bite) the samosa to see if all the layers of the pastry shell have cooked. If the extrior is fully browned, but the interior layers are undercooked, drop the temperature of the oil slightly. The temperature is right when the interior layers cook in the same amount of time that it takes for the exterior layer to get evenly browned and crispy (about 10-15 seconds per side). The interior pastry layers will still be soft, but they should not taste raw.
5.  Once you have found the right temperature, cook the samosas in batches, turning over once in the oil as they brown on one side. Keep in mind that the oil temperature will drop so adjust temperature as needed.
6. Place the cooked samosas in a bowl lined with paper towels to absorb excess oil.
7. Serve immediately with cilantro chutney. 

Cilantro Chutney (10 minutes):

1. Place the cilantro, seranno pepper, ginger, cumin and salt into the base of your blender.
2. Pulse the ingredients a few times. Add the water to loosen everything up a bit.
3. Continue to pulse the ingredients, adding the remaining liquids (olive oil and lemon juice) little by little.
4. The cilantro should release enough liquid, but if not, add a little more water (no more than a few drops at a time) if the chutney is too thick and not blending together.
5. Once the chutney is blended smooth, adjust the salt and lemon to preferred taste. 

Notes:

  * You can find egg-less spring roll pastry sheets in the freezer section of most Asian supermarkets. The packaging won't necessarily indicate that it is egg-less, but read the ingredients. I used Spring Home TYJ SPRING ROLL PASTRY. They come in packets of 25 or 50 sheets. You can freeze whatever you don't use, or double the filling recipe here and make more samosas.

** It is essential that the sweet potatoes are steamed in the miccrowave, as the microwave will help dry them out. If you boil or use water to steam the sweet potatoes, the filling will be too watery and the samosas will split apart while frying.