Kachori aka spicy pea pasties

This dish is all about showcasing the humble green pea, but also provides a host of options for feeding vegans and vegetarians as a tiny canape, a small starter and several as a main dish. It is also beautiful to cut or bite into, bursting with a vibrant green interior and a cocophany of flavours. It can take a bit of practice to get used to filling the pastry, but the key is to let the pea mix cool before trying to stuff into the pastry. Go on, give the veggies a treat!

What you will need

 

Pastry

150g chapatti flour

50g fine semolina

1 table spoon olive oil
 

Filling

400g cooked green peas
1 onion finely chopped

2 tea spoons mustard seeds

8-10 curry leaves

2 tea spoons ground coriander

2 tea spoons ground cumin

1 tea spoons garam masala

½ tea spoon asafoetida

4 cloves garlic

A thumb sized piece of ginger

4-6 green chillies

 

Firstly start by making up the pastry or puri mix. Mix together the flour and oil with enough cold water to bring the dough together. It should look like the photo below. Set aside in the fridge.

 

Next, crush or blend the green chillies, garlic and grated ginger together into a paste with some salt.

 

Next, crush the green peas in a blender or crush them with a potato masher.

 

Heat some oil in a pan and add the mustard seeds and curry leaves when hot, followed by the onion, garlic, chilli and ginger mix. Cook for 5-10 minutes. Next, add all the spices, the coriander, cumin, garam masala and asafoetida. Finally add the peas.

 

Stir through and cover, leaving the mix to reduce for 10-15 minutes to remove the moisture from the peas. Leave the peas to cool and remove the curry leaves.

 

Finally, to stuff the peas into the pastry, roll out a 10p piece sized ball of the dough to about 8-10 cm in diameter. Take the pastry into your hands and place a heaped table spoon of the mix in the centre.

Next, fold the pastry in half and clip together with your fingers to seal the ends and create a crescent moon shape. Pinch the ends of the pastry together to create a pattern if desired. This dough should make about 8.

 

Finally heat some oil until hot enough to fry the pastry. Fry a few at a time for 3-4 minutes until browned and crisped.

Serve these immediately, either hot or cold with some green or tamarind chutney, or even ketchup, if you so wish!