After torrential rain and grey skies, the sun is finally (sort of) here in London which means cute summer wear, cocktails and the perfect time to experiment with tropical flavours! Brace yourselves – this recipe is probably not something you’ve seen before. Since it was the 50th anniversary of Jamaican independence, we thought it was the perfect opportunity to share with you our Caribbean-inspired recipe! We’re taking delicious jerk pork, butternut squash and sweet potato and putting them into samosas. As Joey from Friends would say “What’s not to like? [jerk pork], good. [squash and sweet potato], good. [samosas], GOOOOOD!” (Incidentally, this is how a lot of our recipes are created.) And because we’re all worried about our health, we made the samosas whole-wheat and baked them instead of frying them.

For the jerk seasoning, we adapted the wonderful Chef and Steward recipe (found here). We used minced pork in this recipe, but we reckon you can use any meat or vegetable. It’s an incredibly simple, if not slightly time-consuming recipe that we hope you’ll enjoy!

Ingredients
(makes 16 samosas)

Filling

1 medium onion
5 spring onions
8 stalks of fresh thyme
1 tsp garlic paste
1/2 tsp ground allspice
2 red chillies (though Scotch bonnets are more authentic)
1 tsp ginger paste
1 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp brown sugar
salt to taste
150g diced butternut squash and sweet potato
200g minced pork

Samosa covering

240g wholewheat flour (chappati flour/atta is best)
cool water to mix
a chef’s pinch of salt

1. Finely chop and blend all ingredients for the filling in a food processor except for the spring onion, butternut squash, sweet potato and minced pork. Fry the pork until it is browned and add the rest of the filling ingredients to the pan including the chopped spring onions. Cook until the butternut squash and sweet potato are soft.
2. This is a good time to taste the mixture and season if necessary.
3. Leave mixture to cool completely and then refrigerate for at least 30 minutes so that the marinade has further time to work on the pork. Yum!
4. Meanwhile, make the samosa dough. Mix the wholewheat flour and salt by hand with enough cool water and knead so that you end up with a soft, slightly sticky ball of dough.
5. Cover the dough with a cloth and leave it to one side for 15 minutes (or longer if your favourite TV show has just started!)
6. Divide the dough into 8 balls. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius (or 160 degrees Celsius for fan-assisted ovens).
7. Using a floured rolling pin and floured surface, roll each ball into a roundish/oval shape that is about 1-2cm thick.
8. Cut in half and place 2 teaspoon’s worth of the filling in the middle of each half.
9. Moisten with water the edges of each half and form a cone by folding over each corner (left corner to right hand side and right corner to left hand side). Fold over the remaining flap and seal with water.
10. Place all samosas on a greaseproof paper-lined baking sheet and brush each samosa with oil.
11. Bake for 25 minutes or until golden. Enjoy with hot sauce, ketchup or whatever condiment you prefer.

Note: we did have some pork left over and it was absolutely delicious with rice!

So what do you think? Feel free to share your questions and comments below! We’d love to hear what you have to say.