The triangular shaped flaky pastry filled with spicy potato, chicken or lamb filling is a popular snack in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and other Middle Eastern countries too.
A samosa with a steamy cup of tea is my every other day evening snack, surviving through hostel.
Recipe
Samosa Dough
2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon carom seeds
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon oil
water to knead the dough
Samosa Filling
3-4 medium boiled mashed potatoes
2 tablespoons oil
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
2 teaspoons crushed coriander seeds
6-7 black peppercorns
5-6 dried red chillies
1 teaspoon finely chopped ginger
1 medium sized onion finely chopped
1 green chili chopped
1/2 cup +2 tablespoons green peas I used frozen green peas which I soaked in warm water for 10-15 minutes before using
1/2 teaspoon dried mango powder
3/4 teaspoon salt or to taste
oil, for deep frying
Steps
Make the samosa dough
1- Start by making the samosa dough. To a large bowl, add all purpose flour, carom seeds, salt and mix well. Add the oil and then start mixing with your fingers.
2- Rub the flour with the oil until the oil is well incorporated in all of the flour. Do this for 3 to 4 minutes, you don’t want to rush this step. Once incorporated, the mixture resembles crumbs.
3- Now, start adding water, little by little and mix to form a stiff dough. Don't overwork the dough and don't knead a soft dough. It should just come together and form a stiff dough. I used around 6 tablespoons of water here.
4-Cover the dough with a moist cloth and let it rest for 40 minutes. I usually soak a paper towel in water and then squeeze out all the water and then cover my dough with that. While the dough is resting, start working on the filling.
Make the potato filling
1- On medium flame, dry roast the cumin seeds, fennel seeds, coriander seeds, dry chillies and peppercorns. When roasted, you will feel the aroma of the spices. Let them cool down and grind into a coarse powder.
2- Heat oil in a pan, add the onions, ginger, and green chillies. Once the onions are light brown, add your mashed potatoes, peas, the above made spice powder, dried mango powder and salt. Mix well. Once it's all well incorporated, remove pan from heat and let the filling cool down a bit.
Shape & fry the Samosa
1- Once the dough has rested, give it a quick knead. Then divide the dough into 7 equal parts of around 58-60 grams each.
2- Start working on a piece of dough, keep the remaining dough balls covered at all times with a moist cloth else the dough will dry out.
3- Roll one dough ball into a circle-oval kind of shape, around 6-7 inches in diameter and then cut it into two parts.
4- Take one part and apply water on the straight edge/side. I usually mix some flour with water so that it forms a nice glue.
5-Now bring the two ends of the straight edge together and pinch them to form a cone. See step-by-step pictures above for a better idea. Pinch the pointed ends to make it a perfect cone shape.
6- Fill the samosa with the potato filling, around 1 to 2 tablespoons. Don't overfill the samosa.
Now again apply water all around the circumference of the cone as you have to seal it. Pinch the opposite side (side opposite to where you pinched to form the cone) to form a plate (see step-by-step pictures above). Then pinch the edges and seal the samosa.
7- Your samosa is now ready. Repeat the same process with remaining dough. Always remember to keep the filled samosa covered with a moist cloth while roll and fill the others. You will get 14 samosas.
8- Now heat oil in a kadai on low heat. To check if oil is ready, drop a small piece of dough into the oil. It should take few seconds to come up to the surface. That means the oil is ready.
9-Drop the shaped samosas into the oil.
Fry on low heat. After around 10-12 minutes, the samosa will become firm and light brown in color. At this point, increase the heat to medium and fry until it gets nicely browned.
Don't overcrowd the kadai/wok, fry 4-5 samosas at a time. And each batch will take around 20 minutes since we fry on low heat so be patient.
10- Once you finish frying one batch, lower the heat again to low and wait until the temperature of the oil drops and then add the second batch.
P.S. You can make it versatile. If you are vegan, you can make the above mentioned potato filling. If vegetarian, you can add cottage chesse (paneer). If you are non-vegetarian, you can make a filling of minced meat. I once did a twist and made a filling of corn and cheese.
If you don't want to make the dough you can also use the spring roll sheets/ phyllo dough available in the market.
Another version is that instead of deep frying, you can air fry them or bake them too. Preheat the oven to 180°C (356°F). Brush a little oil over them and bake for 15- 20 minutes.
I have copied the recipe from internet and modified it at some places according to how I make them. (Because this whole lot would be too much work, when I know the basic recipe is available on internet). I have added all sorts of modification that can be done. Ofcourse, there are still lot others. Also, I have changed the recipe a little and cut out ingredients that are not easily available in all countries. (For eg: if available, you can add garam masala and chat masala as well).
Let me know if you make them and how they turn out. Also, tell me if you have heard of them before or better eaten them before.
-Tab 🌼 (subconscious_bitch)