Samosa : the king of Indian Snack

 

Samosa can safely be termed as an ubiquitous , sort of favourite Indian snack – and I am no different than my fellow Indians 🙂 We Indians can have a samosa any time during the day – morning breakfast, mid-morning/evening snack, or for that matter in lunch/dinner in extreme cases of having no other options.

For the benefit of all: Samosa is a fried pastry with savoury filling, such as spiced potatoes and peas.

You can do many variations in stuffing – use steamed vegetables for the Vegetable Samosa, or make the non-vegetarian version of Samosa (Lamb/Chicken Samosa). If you are a health conscious person, then you can bake the samosa instead of deep frying and enjoy your guilt free Baked Samosa.

My today’s post is on the Vegetarian Samosa based on a potato-peas stuffing. Generally samosa is not very difficult to make but it can be a bit tricky to get the crispy, flaky and bubble-free outer covering.

The ingredients for making Samosa are :

For Outer Covering :
1. Plain Flour (All Purpose flour/Maida) : 2 1/2 cup
2. Clarified butter (ghee) : 1/4 cup
3. Salt : to taste

For making Stuffing :
Potato : 4 (big)
Peas : 1/2 cup
Green chilli : 3 (chopped)
Ginger : 1 tsp (grated)
Red Chilli Powder : 1/2 tsp
Coriander Powder : 2 tsp
Garam masala : 1/2 tsp
Dried Mango Powder (Amchur) : 1 tsp
Salt : to taste
Coriander Leaves : 1 Tbsp (chopped)
Cumin seeds (jeera) : 1/2 tsp
Black Pepper (kali mirch) : 2
Cinnamon powder (Dalchini) : a pinch
Asafoetida (hing) : a pinch
Cashew nuts : 12 (optional)
Raisins : 25 (optional)
Oil : for deep frying

Method :

For Making Dough :

Take a big bowl, and add plain flour, salt and clarified butter. Mix well with the hands. Now knead the flour with the help of luke warm water. The dough should be hard. Cover it with a damp cloth and keep it aside for 30 minutes to set.
To Prepare Stuffing :

Boil the potatoes first. Then peel the boiled potatoes and mash them with hands. Heat 1 Tbsp of oil in a pan, temper with cumin seeds, asafoetida, black pepper, cinnamon powder, green chilli, ginger. Now add red chilli powder, coriander powder, peas and sauté for a minute.

Add potato, dried mango powder, salt and garam masala. Mix well and cook for 2-3 minutes. Turn off the flame. Let it cool down and put cashew nuts and raisins to it. The stuffing for the samosa is ready.
Now make 10 equal sized balls from the dough. Take one ball and roll it into a round chapati. It should not to be too thin or too thick.

Cut the round chapati into a semi-circle with a knife. Apply water on the straight edge of the semi-circle. Holding the semi-circle in your hand, fold the straight edge, and bringing together the watered edges, seal the watered edges into a triangular pocket. The Samosa outer layer/covering is ready.

Stuff the samosa with the filling. Now stick the edges of samosa together with the help of water. Check the shape of the samosa. Prepare all the samosas in the same manner.

Heat oil in a pan and deep fry these samosas on medium-low flame. Fry them till they turn brown on a medium flame. Once the samosas are properly fried, take them out on a plate. Your hot and crispy Samosas are ready to be served !

Serve hot samosas with coriander chutney, tamarind chutney or tomato ketchup or, just enjoy them in authentic Indian style with tea/coffee !

Insider Tips / Finer Points :

• You can make guilt free Baked Samosa also :

The process more or less is still the same. After making the samosa covering and       stuffing them, just brush them with oil and placed on greased baking tray.

Put these samosas in a preheated oven for 30-35 minutes on 180c or bake till they   become light golden.

I have made both deep fried and baked samosa but personally I love the fried one 🙂 the baked ones are good, if you really want to avoid oil; but as far as the taste matters fried ones win the race 😉

• Please be real patient while frying the samosa. Frying one batch of samosas takes 15-20 minutes. If you fry them on the high flame then lot of bubbles will form on the surface and this will not look good at all; plus the samosa will become soggy after some time.
• You may adjust the spices according to your taste buds.

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