Surf and turf samosa

I was born in former South Vietnam and the cuisine from my birth place Vung Tau, often blends porc with seafood. I guess the label for this is 'surf & turf', at least that's the term frequently used in the US and Australia when meat is mixed with seafood.

I had thin filo pastry leftover and decided to make some samosas with my Vietnamese porc and prawn filling. You can make your own filling if you like, with bell peppers, or vegan samosa with sweat potato and ginger. The choice is yours. Indian samosa pastry is different - nice too when well done. And I prefer thin filo pastry over the Chinese spring roll pastry, but use whatever you can find easily. 

My crispy "surf & turf" samosas

Recipe (approx 16-20 samosas)
1 pk of filo pastry (10 round sheets = 20 samosas) 

400gr ground porc
50gr raw prawns - minced or finely chopped
3 teaspoons fish sauce
1 tablespoon flat parsley - finely chopped
1 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
2 small shallot onions - finely chopped
1/2 small yellow onion - finely chopped
1 garlic clove - minced
1 small carrot - grated
1 small turnip - grated
1-2 tablespoons vegetable oil
Oil for frying

"Surf & turf" ingredients

Method

Step 1 (approx 5 min): Optional step.

You can skip this step and add raw ingredients. This step makes the onion softer.

- Heat the oil over medium heat, add both onions and sweat 2-3 min, and add garlic and sweat 1 more minute. Leave aside to cool. 

Step 2 (approx 15min): Mixing

a. Mix meat and prawn with fishsauce. Mix well by hand for 5 min or use the blender (1-2 min). I used my hand since all my kitchen gear is in a warehouse outside Paris :)
b. Add the onion garlic mixture (lukewarm, but not hot if you decide to sweat it first), carrot and turnip. Mix by hand. You don't want to mash the carrot and turnip, or the herbs using the blender. That's why I added them last in the mixing order.
c. Add pepper and give a final mix. You can add other spices and herbs of your liking. I wanted the meat and prawn to be the central/main flavours, so I kept it simple. Besides I cannot make it too spicey as I have a toddler who would object :)

d. Transfer in a plastic bag and let sit in the fridge for 30 min. The flavours come more together when the meat is rested. However if you are in hurry, just skip and start production. Adapt to your time schedule. Cooking at home is supposed to be fun, not a hassle.

Step 3 (30-45min): Production 
a. If you use the round sheet, cut it in half. 

b. Add filling

Triangle filing does not need to be perfect

c. Fold in triangle - there are so many methods to fold samosas, some very mathematical - just google and you'll see. The below method is quick and easy - it does not make perfect corners - who cares? Bottom line is "taste" and "efficiency" at home

Fold and cover the filling

2nd fold - right or left - doesn't matter

3rd fold

4th fold - oups forgot to take photos - over to you to play :)

d. Cover all the samosas with a kitchen towel to keep them from drying

Samosa production

Step 4: Frying
a. Heat oil in a medium size pan.
b. When hot but not smoking, add 4-5 simosas. Fry for approx 60-90sec or until golden. Flip and fry the other size. When the oil is too hot, the filo pastry will burn easily and the inside is not cooked. So this step requires a bit of patience :)

c. Drain on a paper towel for excess oil.

I use sunflower oil and medium high temperature

You can also freeze the samosas if you don't want to fry them all. Just put them in an airtight container.

Dipping sauce (yield 1/2 cup dip)

I prefer a sweet tomato thick dip for my samosas, but you can use whatever dip you like, such as curry mayo, aioli, Thai sweet & sour, or no dip at all.

Ingredients

1 cup water
1/2 cup castor sugar
1/4 cup vinegar
1 tablespoon tomato puree

Bring sugar, water and vinegar to a boil and cook until reduced approx. 50%. Add tomato puree, mix and boil to reduce a bit further. Leave to cool. It will thicken more.

Et voila, ready to serve your guests.

Like this recipe? Please donate to Cycle4Girls Vietnam project :) 

Bon appétit,

Maison Emil Paris :)