NIGERIAN BEEF SAMOSA

Ok so I know this is not the traditional dough used to make samosa, but I had extra wrappers remaining and decided to make samosa and I find this is a much easier (no need to go through the hassle of making the dough from scratch)

Ingredients

• 2 Medium Irish Potatoes
• 4 Carrots
• 100g Minced Meat
• 3 Spring Onions
• 1 tsp All Purpose Seasoning
• 1/2 cup Green Peas
• 1/4 Cabbage
• Vegetable oil
• 1 Stock Cube
• 1 tsp Cayenne Pepper (optional)
• 1 tsp Ginger
• 1 tsp Garlic
• Spring Roll Pastry
• 1 tsp Flour
• 2 tsp Water

How to prepare:
- Wash, clean and peel cabbage, carrots, spring onions and potatoes. Dice potatoes and spring onions and grate carrots and cabbage finely. Boil the potatoes until soft if using fresh peas boil them also.

- Heat up a little oil in a deep frying pan add spring onions grated garlic and ginger fry for a few minutes, add the minced meat stock cubes, cayenne pepper and all purpose seasoning and fry until meat is ready.

- Add peas, carrot, cabbage and potatoes to minced meat, mix properly and set aside to cool completely.

- To wrap the samosa create a "binder" by mixing flour and water to a smooth paste, cut the pastry diagonally (each sheet  makes two samosa). Fold into a cone like shape, fill pocket created with the samosa filling spread a little of the binder over the opening and press together to seal tightly.

-Fry in the same way as spring roll and enjoy.

NIGERIAN SPRING ROLL

Ingredient

• 250g  chicken breast
• 4 medium carrots 
• Half a cabbage 
• Spring roll wrappers
• 3 spring onions
• 1 stock cube
• 1 tsp cayenne pepper (optional)
• 1 tsp all purpose seasoning
• Vegetable oil
• 1 tsp grated garlic 
• 1 tsp grated ginger
• 2 tsp soy sauce
• 1 tsp flour
• 3 tsp cold water
• 1/2 cup chicken stock
• Salt to taste

How to prepare:
- First thing I do is wash cabbage, carrots, spring onions and chicken breast. Shred the cabbage and finely slice the carrot, spring onions and the chicken (some people choose to mince chicken).

- In a large pot place shredded cabbage, add chicken stock and boil until cabbage is tender. Add sliced carrots and simmer until carrots are tender. Pour into a strainer to strain out liquid from vegetables and place aside.

- Into a large frying pan heat up a spoonful of vegetable oil, add the spring onions, grated garlic and ginger, fry for a little bit then add shredded chicken.

- Fry the chicken until the colour changes from pink to white add stock cube, soy sauce, all purpose seasoning and cayenne pepper. Taste for salt and add as needed.

- Now add the vegetables to the chicken mixture, mix well and stir fry for about a minute or two. Remove from the heat and leave to cool completely.

- To fold spring roll,  first create the binder to seal the ends together, to do this combine flour and water and mix until there are no lumps.

-  Lay out wrapper to look like a diamond, place a spoonful of vegetable filling near the bottom corner on the wrapper making sure not to over fill the sheet.

- Take the tip of the sheet under the line of vegetable mixture and fold over making sure to tuck in, fold in the sides and continue rolling, with a pastry brush or clean fingers spread "binder" on the last corner.

- Into a large frying pan place enough oil to deep fry spring rolls and heat up. Fry spring rolls until golden brown.

- Remove fried spring rolls and place on a paper towel to drain excess oil.

For a different taste after vegetables have cooled down add about 2 tablespoons of mayonnaise before rolling in wrappers. I usually make a lot of these and keep them in the freezer before frying they can last about a week all you have to do is defrost, fry and enjoy.

NIGERIAN PUFF-PUFF

This is a snack that is enjoyed through out Nigeria, usually as finger food or "small chops" at weddings or parties.

Ingredients

• 1  1/4 cups flour
• 1  tsp quick rise yeast 
• 1/2 cup sugar (adjust down for preference)
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1 cup lukewarm water
• Vegetable oil 

How to prepare:

-In a large mixing bowl, sift flour, sugar, salt, yeast and nutmeg then combine with a whisk until thoroughly combined.

-Slowly combine lukewarm water and mix by hand, it should be a smooth mixture free from lumps (using lukewarm water allows yeast to rise faster.

-Cover with aluminum foil or table cloth (make sure it is air tight) and set aside in a lukewarm place for 45 minutes to 1 hr for yeast to rise and mixture double in size and has some air bubbles.

-Set a large deep frying pan on medium heat and add oil. (oil should b 2-3 inches deep so puff puff balls become spherical and don't end up flat).

-Test the oil to see if it is hot enough by  putting a drop of batter into the oil, if it sizzles up immediatly then it is hot enough.

-Once the oil is hot scoop the mixture with hands by or  ice cream scoop and drop into the oil, try not to crowd the pan.

-Fry until the underside is golden (usually 2-3 minutes) then flip to fry top side as well.

- When bot sides are golden brown, take puffpuff balls out of the frying pan with a slotted spoon and place in a sieve lined with paper towels (the paper towels help soak away excess oil).