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Did my first stab at sambusas for Ethiopian New Year.  If you know me, you know that I have a theory about the pocket foods of every culture (think: empanada, pierogi, ravioli, jiaozi, wonton, samosa, etc.).  My theory is simple.  Those foods are delicious and I generally adore them.   Sambusa is the Ethiopian version of those foods.  And while we have two very good Ethiopian restaurants in Milwaukee, neither does sambusas.  I decided to go to the all-knowing Google and see what I could do about this absence in my life, and by all accounts, these worked out pretty well.  The 40 I made certainly disappeared very quickly at the potluck.  Here’s the recipe (adapted from the first five Google results, which I probably should look up and cite and thank more specifically and will flag this to look back at later).

Sambusas frying on the stove

Two kinds of vegetarian sambusas

Lentil filling:

1 1/2 cup brown lentils
1 tsp cayenne
1 cup water
1 ½ tsp cinnamon
3/4 cup onions finely chopped
salt and ground black pepper to taste
4 garlic cloves minced
4 Tbsp spiced butter (you can substitute any kind of oil or butter)
1 Tbsp paprika
1 egg yolk beaten with 1 tbl water
1 tsp coriander seed ground
oil for deep-frying
wonton/egg roll wrappers

Rinse the lentils and bring them to a boil in the water. Reduce the heat, cover, and simmer for 45 minutes. Meanwhile, sautee the onions and garlic in the olive oil until the onions are translucent. Add the spices and simmer, covered, for three minutes, stirring often.

Remove the pan from the heat. When the lentils are tender, combine them with the sauteed vegetables. Season with salt and pepper.

Boca crumble filling:

1 bag boca burger crumble or whatever fake meat product you want to use
¼ cup spiced butter
2 garlic cloves minced
1 Tbsp berbere
lentil filling from above

Saute the boca crumbles in the spiced butter on the stovetop until fully cooked and dryish, but not burned.  Add the garlic and berbere and sautee another two minutes.  Then take a third of the lentil filling you made above and mix it into this.  Now you should have two bowls of filling, and can get to putting them into wrappers.
Cut the wonton wrappers in half to form rectangles. Place a wrapper vertically on a flat surface and brush it with the beaten egg mixture. Put a rounded tablespoon of the filling on the lower end of one of the rectangles. Fold the left bottom corner up and over the filling until it meets the right edge of the wrapper and forms a triangle. Next, flip the filled triangle up and over, folding along its upper edge. Then fold it over to the left on the diagonal. Continue folding until you reach the end of the wrapper and have formed a neat triangular package. Repeat this process with the other wonton wrapper rectangles.  This took a couple of trys to get right, though as long as they are sealed and won’t pop open in the pan you can do pretty much whatever.  With the two fillings, I made one package of egg roll wrappers (20 sheets) into 40 sambusas, and probably could have done another 40.  Instead, I took the extra fillings, mixed them together, and the family ate it on rice the next day for dinner and it was awesome.  Anyway, I digress…

Deep-fry each pastry until golden in 2 or 3 inches of oil at a medium heat. You can keep the fried sambusas in a warm oven until they are all prepared and ready to be served. Sambusas are best eaten hot.  You may want to serve with a bit of green salsa on the side.