Samosa is probably the only snack food that is found all over India in different shapes tastes and sizes. It can make for a perfect tea-time snack on a dull rainy day.
In case you didn’t know, Samosa is a stuffed pastry / dumpling usually filled with either vegetables or meat. Though it is also prepared by baking, most Indian varieties are deep-fried. Previously I had posted a video on how to prepare Samosa
Photo Credit - http://www.flickr.com/photos/kalyan/
North Indian Samosas usually have a filling of mashed potatoes and are served with Chutneys. The South Indian varieties are filled with a mixture of vegetables and Chutneys are usually not part of the standard menu when serving them.
Perhaps the most difficult part in making a Samosa is getting those perfect triangular shapes. But with a little practice and a little more food love, you should be able to make them without a problem (like my mom says
).
Serve them as an appetizer with Mint Chutney or thoroughly enjoy them as an evening snack.
Three Samosa Recipes are featured here:
- Mixed Vegetable Samosa
- Aloo Samosa
- Sweet Samosa
Also included (see at the end) is a Green Chutney recipe to serve your Samosas.
Samosa Tip: To get crispy samosa outer cover, add some rice flour to the dough. You can also add a pinch of soda to the cooking oil to add to the crispiness.
1. Crispy Vegetable Samosas
Ingredients:
For the pastry:
- All Purpose Flour (Maida) – 2 Cups
- Ghee or Hot Oil 3-4 Teaspoons
- Salt to taste
- Cooking Soda – ¼ teaspoon
For the stuffing:
- Potatoes (big) – 3 (about quarter Kilograms)
- Green Chillies, Chopped – 4
- Garlic – 4 flakes
- Ginger – 1 inch piece
- Onion (chopped finely) – 1
- Fresh Peas (shelled) – 1 cup
- Garam Masala – 1 teaspoon
- Cumin power – 1 teaspoon
- Coriander powder – 1 teaspoon
- Mint leaves – a handful chopped fine
- Amchoor (Mango) Powder
For Frying:
- Vegetable Oil – half a liter
For the seasoning:
- Cumin seeds – 1 teaspoon
- Oil – 1 tablespoon
How to Make / Method:
Preparing the dough
- Sieve the flour, salt and cooking soda together and put it in a bowl.
- Add heated ghee or oil to this and mix well.
- Add water and prepare it into a soft dough.
Preparing the Masala stuffing
- Boil the potatoes, peel them and cut them into small pieces
- Grind the garlic and ginger together into a paste
- Heat a tablespoon of oil in a Kadai and season cumin seeds in it.
- Add the ginger and garlic paste into the oil and stir for a while.
- Add the chopped chillies, finely chopped onion and peas; fry till these are cooked and soft.
- Next add the chopped mint leaves, cumin powder, coriander powder and salt into this and sauté it for about 2 minutes
- Remove the pan from the fire
- Finally add the mashed potatoes and mix well with the other masalas. This Masala should be dry and water content in it will not result in a proper stuffing.
Preparing the Samosa
- From the dough that you first prepared, divide it into small and equal parts
- Prepare small balls and roll them into thin chapathis.
- Heat a Tawa and put the chapathi tossing both sides.
- Make several chapathis from the dough balls
- Cut each of these chapattis into half.
- Take one half and fold it into a conical shape. Place the potato and masala stuffing inside this (the cone).
- Seal the edges of the chapatti cone with maida dipped in little water.
- Prepare Samosas from the all the chapattis that are prepared.
- Heat oil in a deep frying pan.
- Fry the Samosas until they turn golden brown.
- When they are crisp and brown, remove from oil using a perforated spoon.
- Use a tissue filled dish to absorb excess oil from the Samosas.
- Serve hot with chutney or tomato ketchup.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
2. Sweet Samosa
For the sugar syrup
For the filling
- Grated/scraped coconut – 2 cups
For frying
- Ghee & oil – equal amounts
For the dough
- Maida (All purpose flour) – 2cups
For decoration
- Saffron strands
- Silver waraq
How to make / Method:
- Make the pliable dough with given ingredients.
- Make sugar syrup into one thread consistency (See sugar syrup consistency here).
- Mix the condensed milk and coconut into a smooth mixture for filling.
- Work with the dough for 1-2 minutes on a flat board, and divide into equal balls, roll out like Samosa pouches, fill with the sweet mixture.
- Heat the oil & ghee, turn into medium heat.
- Add Samosas batch-wise and deep fry both sides into golden brown.
- Soak them in syrup for some time and decorate with silver waraq & saffron strands.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Aloo (Potato) Samosa
Ingredients
For the dough:
- 225 grams flour (2 cups)
- 50 grams ghee or clarified butter
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon caraway seeds or ajwain
- 75 milliliters warm water
For the Filling:
- 2 cups boiled — peeled small potatoes, diced
- 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
- 1 1/2 cm ginger — grated fine
- 1 teaspoon Garam masala powder
- 1 teaspoon red chilli powder
- 1 teaspoon mango powder
- 2 tablespoons oil
- 2 teaspoons coriander powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons cumin powder
- 1 teaspoon chilli powder
- Salt – to taste
- 1/2 cup green peas – Boiled in water with a little salt
- 2 green chillies – chopped
- 1/2 cup coriander leaves — chopped
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- Oil – for deep-frying
Preparing the dough
- Sieve the flour, salt and cooking soda together and put it in a bowl.
- Add heated ghee or oil to this and mix well.
- Add water and prepare it into a soft dough.
Preparing the filling
- Heat the oil over medium heat.
- Add the cumin seeds.
- When they sizzle, add the coriander, red chilli, cumin, and mango powder. Add the ginger and green chillies.
- After a few seconds, add the potatoes and the peas. Add the Garam masala, lemon juice, salt and mix well. Taste and adjust seasoning.
- Cover and cook for 1-2 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool.
- Add the chopped coriander and mix well.
- Stir in the garam masala powder, green chillies.
- Remove from heat and add the lemon juice.
- Cool thoroughly and mix in the coriander leaves.
To prepare the Samosa:
- Add the ghee, caraway (ajwain) seeds and salt to the flour. Rub in well. Add enough warm water to mix a soft dough. Knead until the dough feels soft to the touch. Fill these cones with the prepared filling, leaving about 1/2 cm. border on the top of the cone.
- Now moisten the top edges and press them hard together.
- Deep fry the Samosas in hot oil over medium heat until they are golden brown and drain on absorbent paper.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Green Chutney
Ingredients:
- Fresh cilantro (coriander) leaves – ½ cup
- Mint leaves – a few sprigs
- Lemon juice – 1 teaspoon
- Plain yoghurt (Curds) – 2 cups
- Salt
To make the chutney:
- Grind the coriander and mint in a mixer with juice into a fine paste.
- After this add to the Yoghurt (curds) and blend it well.
- Add salt to taste.
- Serve with hot samosas.
Read more:http://www.nirankar.com.au
