Babotie Samosas – Spiced Minced Beef Samosas
These babotie samosas take a classic South African dish and transform it into a quick and convenient snack or starter.
Babotie is a dish of sweet spiced minced meat covered with a layer of milk and egg mixture which is then baked. The flavours are classically South Africa employing not only Indian spices but also fruit jam or chutney. The spiced mince meat is perfect as a filling in these crispy and more-ish samosas.
The samosas are made using spring roll wrappers to make them extra crispy and a lighter alternative to the normal pastry-based samosas found in Indian cuisine. These samosas are then baked in the oven instead of deep fried to make them an even lighter snack to enjoy.
Serve these samosas as a snack or as a starter to an Indian meal or even barbecue. These samosas go great with an Indian pickle such as Hot Mango Pickle which can bought at an Indian grocery store.
For this recipe, I have suggested 2 samosas per serving.
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 bay leaf
- 50 g red onion finely diced (about 1 medium red onion)
- 50 g red pepper chopped small (about half a red pepper)
- 70 g carrot chopped small (about 1 medium carrot)
- 400 g beef mince
- 2 clove garlic finely chopped
- 1 green chili finely sliced
- 3 tbsp Madras curry powder
- 1 tbsp ground paprika
- 1 tsp turmeric powder
- 1 tbsp tomato puree
- 1/2 tbsp fruit jam or chutney (e.g. Mrs Ball's or Dower House)
- 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
- salt to taste
- 1 packet spring roll wrappers
- 1 egg whisked
Add 2 tbsp of vegetable oil to a frying pan along with the bay leaf. Heat the frying pan to a medium heat and add the onions. Fry until the onions start to soften.
Add the carrot and fry for 2 minutes before adding the red pepper and frying for a further minute.
Add the beef mince to the pan and fry breaking the meat up with a spatula. Fry for 2-3 minutes then add the garlic and chili. Fry until the garlic and mince meat is cooked through.
- Add the dry spices (1 tbsp madras curry powder, 1 tbsp paprika powder, 1 tsp turmeric powder) and fry for 1 minute until fragrant.
Add 1 tbsp of tomato puree and fry for a further minute. If the mixture is too dry add a little water but avoid making the mixture saucy.
Stir in ½ tsp jam or chutney and 2 tbsp red wine vinegar. Cook for a further minute, add salt and check for seasoning. If the mixture is too wet continue cooking until it has dried out a little.
Let the mince mixture cool completely and remove the bay leaf before filling the samosas.
Cut each sheet of spring roll wrapper in two and using a brush of egg join the two shorter sides together to make a long strip of pastry.
Place a heaped tablespoon of the cooled mince mixture at the end of the strip of pastry. Fold the pasty to make a triangle.
Continue folding all the way along the length of the pastry. Use another brush of egg to seal the triangle-shaped parcel.At this stage the samosas can be frozen for up to 3 months. The samosas should be cooked from frozen.
Heat an oven to 200ºC with the fan.
Coat each samosa with a little oil (you can rub each one with your hands) and place on a baking tray.
Cook for 20 minutes turning every now and then to ensure they are not sticking. The samosas are ready when the pastry is golden and crispy.
Serve warm with chutney such as hot mango chutney.