Cream Corn Samosa

I have a confession to make. I find cooking vegetarian food scary.

I am going to blame my genes for this. Ask a Parsi to make a veg dish and they will either give you a bowl of plain gravy or at the very max it will have a lone potato or at best some green peas floating in it.

Give me any piece of meat or fish and even if its unfamiliar, like veal or scampi, I’ll still figure out how to cook it and make it edible if not delicious. But, ask me to make something that doesn’t contain either meat or eggs and my brain freezes. However, as a caterer, especially in India where a majority of the population is vegetarian, you can’t escape from  cooking vegetarian food. Now that I am in the business of cooking Parsi food full-time, I’ve been racking my brains  to come up with more options that still tastes uniquely ‘bawa’ but don’t contain potato, paneer or egg in it.

A few months ago, I was experimenting with making cream corn at home (if you knew the price for a can of creamed corn in India, you’d do the same) when the idea struck me that the cream corn combined with some cheese could be a great filling for a starter. I couldn’t use potato as per my self-imposed rule and any kind of patty sans an egg wash is generally extremely fragile. I stuck my head in the refrigerator for some inspiration and found some samosa patti’s languishing in the back which were bought a while ago but no one knew what to do with them. And, that’s how the cream corn samosa was born!

I love these samosa’s because not only are they easy to make but they can also be pre-filled and frozen so that you simply have to remove the ones you need and fry as per your craving. Here’s how you can make some at home.

To start, place the corn in boiling hot water and let it cook for 10 – 15 mins until it is tender. Don’t overcook it though as you still want it to have a little ‘bite’. While that’s happening, finely chop up the coriander and the green chillies.

To make the ‘cream corn’, melt some butter in a pan and add in the flour. When the flour is cooked, add in the milk and which well.

Once blended, add in the fresh cream too and simmer to make a thick sauce. Now, add in the coriander, chillies, salt, pepper and corn. If it’s too runny, add in a little more flour. You want this to be a consistency that you can easily pick up and spoon into your samosa later.

For the samosa, I used pre-made samosa patti’s and I suggest you do the same. You will require some rice flour mixed in with water to seal your Cream Corn Samosa’s so keep that ready on the side. Now, take one strip and fold it in to form a triangle.

Fold it once more diagonally to form a cone.

Fill the cone with the Cream Corn filling and then gently keep folding the patti around to create a triangle samosa. Seal with shut with a little of the rice-flour slurry. If you’re going to freeze your samosa’s you can now line them into a box taking care to put baking paper between layers of samosa’s so that they don’t stick to each other.

If you’re frying them to have immediately, simply deep fry until they are golden brown. The patti takes a while to cook on the inside so I suggest frying them for longer but at a slower heat so that the outside doesn’t burn.

Strain out the oil and serve your Cream Corn Samosa’s hot with some ketchup on the side.

To make about 25 samosa’s you will need:

100gm butter
300ml milk
100ml cream
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
200gm corn kernels
1 fistful of coriander
3 – 4 green chillies
25 Switz Samosa Patti‘s (you’ll find them at any Indian store overseas else in bigger food supermarkets and e-stores like Big Basket)
Oil to deep fry