Prepared in the form of a stuffed pastry, Samosa is a snack common to many countries of South and Southeast Asia as well as some parts of Africa.
Recognized by its typical triangular shape, this stuffed food is known by several names such as Somsa, Singada, Sambusa, and Sambosak. Making a samosa is not very difficult and you can easily try it at home. What you need is the procedure of preparation and a little practice in giving it the conical shape.
asic Ingredients
For Outer Cover: The outer portion of a Samosa is made up of all purpose flour (Maida). It is kneaded and rolled to give the shape of a chapatti.
1 cup Maida 2 tablespoons of butter or oil Water Salt to taste Some carom seeds (Ajwain)
And now comes the filling part…
Filling/Stuffing
4-5 potatoes 1 onion ½ cup peas Salt and red chilli to taste Spoonful coriander (Dhania) or in the form of chopped leaves ¼ grated ginger A pinch of garam masala, mango powder (amchoor), cumin seeds, and fenugreek (kasuri methi) A few raisins and cashew (to add to the taste)
Procedure
Making The Stuff
Boil potatoes and peel them. Mash then properly; avoid too much crushing as it makes them too slippery to touch. Boil some peas and keep them aside. Now heat oil in a pan, add some chopped onions, ginger, cumin seeds and fenugreek. Allow to sauté for a minute or so. Now add the mashed potatoes. Pinch some salt, red chilli, coriander powder, garam masala and mango powder according to the taste. Add to this mixture the boiled peas. Mix well and cook for about 4-5 minutes. Turn off the flame and take out the mixture. Keep it aside to cool a little bit.
Making The Outer Cover
Kneading:
Sieve some maida in a bowl and add water to it. Also add a pinch of salt. Now start kneading with hands. To make it lubricious, add a teaspoonful of ghee or oil. Knead it properly to make a smooth firm mass. Make sure that you add adequate amount of water and not overdo it. Otherwise, you shall not be able to roll it. Cover the dough with a damp piece of cloth in order to prevent it from drying.
Rolling:
Take some dough and shape it make a small ball. With the help of a rolling pin, start rolling this ball on a wooden or marble platform to form a chapatti (circular shaped).
Cutting And Giving Shape:
Cut a chapatti to make two semi-circular halves. Moist the corners of the semicircle, lift them gently and fold them together so that one part comes underneath the second a triangular cone is formed.
Adding The Stuff
Add the stuff prepared above through the open portion of the cone. When you are done, close the cone by sealing the fold with light pressure of your fingers. This is to be done with care so that no part of the fold remains unsealed and the stuff does not spill out of it while frying.
Frying
Heat some oil in a frying pan. When the oil is hot enough, drop the conical mass prepared in the above steps into it. Allow the Samosa to fry till it turns golden brown. Fry properly from both sides. Similarly, prepare other samosas. To avoid overcooking, fry the on medium flame. Also, do not put samosa in oil until it is hot enough or it will mar the taste. To check that, put an inch of kneaded flour in oil; if it becomes golden brown within 5-6 seconds, oil is ready to be used.
Serve the samosa with sauce or green chutney and tea. Eat as soon as it is ready as, otherwise, it may not taste delicious.
Variation With Stuffing
If you are a non vegetarian, you can replace typical potato stuffing with minced meat, fish, chicken etc. There can also be the variation in filling styles. You can skip the potato filling altogether and replace it with a mix of onions, cabbage, peas, and carrots. Some people prefer to eat samosa with mashed chickpea filling; such a style is common in Middle East countries, especiallyIsrael.
In western countries, tortillas and phyllo are preferred and instead of frying the samosa, they bake it. If you want to try a chicken filling, cook the meat in a pressure cooker for about 5 -7 minutes. You can also use pan for cooking it, but then, you will have to keep it for more than 10 minutes. There is no need to add oil while cooking the meat.