Samosa Recipe
Description
It is a typical rainy day in Portland today, and days like these remind me of the monsoons in India when on rainy days, we used to run to the corner shop for hot samosas. On a rainy day, samosas and hot sweet cardamom tea are like a core memory. But the proper corner shop samosas in the U.S are a little hard to come by, so I did what any self-respecting Indian home cook would do and called my mother 😊. And these samosas came out amazing, tasting a little bit like my childhood. I hope you enjoy them as much as David and I did.
Ingredients
Samosa dough
Samosa filling
Method
Samosa pastry dough
- In a large bowl, add the flour, carom seeds, salt, and oil. Rub the oil into the flour till the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
- Add the water slowly, one tablespoon at a time, and bring the dough together. Do not knead the dough but press it together till it forms a stiff dough. The dough will stop being sticky at this point.
- Cover the dough and let it rest at room temperature for 25-30 minutes.
Samosa filling
- Wash, boil, and peel the potatoes. Boil the potatoes till they are just done, and when pierced with a fork, the fork presses in without resistance. The potatoes should not be mushy.
- Heat two tablespoons of oil in a pan on medium heat. Add the cumin seeds to the pan. When the seeds start sputtering, add the ginger and chopped green chilies, and sauté for about a minute.
- Add the coriander powder and stir for 30 seconds.
- Next, add the potatoes, peas, and salt, and mix till everything is well incorporated. Cook for 3-4 minutes until all spices are mixed well with the softened potatoes and peas.
- Remove from heat, add the chopped coriander, and let the mixture cool completely.
Making the samosa
- Divide the pastry dough into equal pieces. I like making small samosas, so I take golf ball-sized dough. If you want to make bigger samosas, you can make larger dough balls.
- Roll out the pastry to 1mm thickness. The pastry should be rolled out into a roughly oval shape.
- Cut the pastry into two equal halves.
- Using a brush or your finger, brush some water along the edges of the pastry. Bring the two edges together, slightly overlapping, and press the edges together gently, shaping the pastry into a cone.
- Add the filling into the cone and seal the samosa. Press the base of the cone down a little. This will help the samosa stay upright once it is shaped. Press the edges to prevent any cracks. Gently seal the tip of the cone too, to prevent the filling from leaking during frying. Repeat the process for the remaining pastry dough.
- Heat oil in a pan on medium heat. The oil should not be very hot, otherwise, the samosas will not be crispy. To test the temperature of the oil, add a small piece of pastry dough to the oil. It will slowly rise to the top, and you will not notice any bubbling or sizzling. However, if the dough rises too fast and gets golden immediately, the temperature of the oil is too high.
- Gently add the samosas to the oil, one by one. I usually add 4-5 samosas to the pan for uniform cooking. The samosas will not sizzle, and you will see tiny bubbles only. This is normal, and the oil is at the perfect cooking temperature. Do not move them at this stage. They will start rising up, and at this stage, they have firmed up enough to stir to fry them evenly to a golden color.
- Samosas take a long time to fry, so do not increase the heat. When they turn golden, remove them from the oil, and place them on a paper towel to drain excess oil.
- Enjoy with mint chutney or tamarind chutney.
samosa, aloo samosa
