One great recipe, two great dishes: Part one - samosas

After all the delicious food I ate in India, imagine how surprised I was that the best dish of the entire trip was a samosa I purchased from an old lady in an airport.

We ate lots of wonderful things on the trip, beautiful freshly caught fish, hot jungle curries, local lobsters cooked simply on the BBQ, and fabulous curried omelette's for breakfast, delicious. Street vendors also provided us with some great eatings; skewered hot chicken marinated in exotic, mysterious spices, and curried meats wrapped up in roti, topped with crispy fried onions and yet more spice, a delicious holiday - my ideal.

Journeying back from Goa on my way home was when the magnificent samosa presented itself. I was starving hungry, having been travelling for hours and not being sure how long it would be before I was in Mumbai, and it was then that I spied her, the old lady with a bright blue cool box.

She really did just look like someones granny who was selling homemade samosas, not your usual food retailer at all. I'd like to say that I thought to myself that if I was ever going to experience a good and authentic samosa, that now was the moment. But I didn't. I was just plain hungry and would have considered eating anything at that point.

The pastry was just the perfect thickness and a mixture of crunchy and soft in parts, a great texture combo that I always like in samosas, and the filling, whilst incredibly simple, was exquisite tasting. It seemed to be pureed pea and potato, with ginger, onion and garlic, heavily spiced and fragrant with a blend of spices that I'll never be able to properly figure out.

I think part of their magic was their packaging, specifically their shape. Instead of flat triangles stuffed with the filling, they were pyramids, 3D pillows, so not only a delight on the tongue, but one on the eye too.

It wasn't hunger that made me go back and buy five of them and eat them all to myself (shamefully greedy I know), I'd gone beyond hunger into indulgence, not needing them, but wanting them because they were so darn good.

I can't promise the other worldly experience that I had when you eat these, or the pyramid structures (a mathematical feat I can't figure out) but I've made them several times and think this recipe is pretty good!

Six medium-large sized maris piper potatoes, halved and peeled if using a masher, halved and unpeeled if using a ricer

Two golden onions, cut in half and finely sliced

200g frozen peas

7 sheets filo pastry

100g butter / ghee

100mls frying oil, for the mixture

1l frying oil for frying the samosas

A little bowl of water and a pastry brush

Two tablespoons cumin

One tablespoon turmeric

Two tablespoons corriander seeds

17 cardamom pods (a random number I know, but that's how many tasted excellent!)

1.5 tablespoons ground fenugreek

One large clove of garlic, or two smaller ones, finely chopped

Three red chillies (deseed them if you don't like it too hot)

Natural live yogurt and a small handful of chopped fresh corriander to serve

Several generous scrunches of sea salt

- Boil the potatoes until mashable, then drain and either put them through the fine setting on a ricer, or mash them until finely mashed, then leave to cool in a large mixing bowl

- Put a frying pan on the hob and add your dry spices to the pan, then heat it dry (ie without any oil) on a medium heat, for around 6 minutes, frequently tossing the pan so the spices don't catch, until the aromas of the spices are released.

- Once done, put the toasted spices into a pestle and mortar and grind for a couple of minutes, then pick out the cardamom shells (not so nice when you're eating to find them caught in the mixture), then set the spice mix aside 

- Heat half the butter and oil for frying the mixture in a large saucepan on a medium to high heat, once hot add the onions and cook on a medium heat, moving frequently so they don't burn, for around 10 minutes. You're looking for them to go past being translucent to being light golden brown

- Once you've reached this stage add the fresh garlic, chillies and ginger to the pan, turn the heat down to low and stir for a further five minutes, gently cooking the new ingredients through with the onions, and combining the mixture

- Now add the remaining butter and frying oil, followed by the salt, spices and the frozen peas to the onion mixture and cook on a low heat for a further five minutes, adding a dash of water to the pan if it starts to catch

- Once cooked and ready - the mixture should be pretty dark with the toasted spices, oil and dark brown onions - add the mixture to the potatoes and mix through with a fork

- Now its time to make the samosas, but before you begin, split the potato mixture in just over half and put the larger half in the fridge for recipe two another day

- Lay out a square of filo pastry, and in the bottom left hand corner place a large tablespoon of the potato and pea mixture

- Now this is where the descriptions get a bit strange, I tried to explain how I rolled them into the triangles, but found it a bit confusing so think the easiest way is to look up 'samosa making' on Youtube, it's a really simple process, where one sheet of filo makes one samosa, but written down it was just too messy sounding

- Once ready, heat your deep frying oil in a pan, or turn on the deep fryer (should you have one) onto a medium-high heat, and wait for it to heat for around 7 minutes

- Carefully place the samosas a couple at a time into the hot oil, don't crowd the pan or they steam rather than fry, and cook them for 8 minutes turning them over so that both the sides turn a rich golden brown, once ready remove and drain on kitchen paper, then serve with a cooling yogurt dip