Samosa Skins

[BarbaraY]

Wendy anzu, I agree. I bought Julie Sahni's book after I found the recipe in the Fine Cuisine magazine. If I hadn't I would probably have tried the other first. This one does make a lovely crust.MMmmmm! Samosas with Tamarind and Coriander chutneys.

Edited September 4, 2005 by BarbaraY (log)

[piazzola]

Thanks BarbaraY I remember seeing this recipe around though I am not sure what baking powder or sometimes baking soda does for the final product

Other than that samosa's dough looks remarkably similar to Argentinean fried empanadas or pasteles though in this instance suet or shortening is used to cut into the flour.

I also read that samosa dough should be made stiff

Then looks like I have to experiment adding baking soda to the dough which I have never made.

[BarbaraY]

The small amount of baking soda with the yogurt will keep the pastry light. It looks lovely when it's finished and even my mom who eats like a bird ate three of them one day.

[liv4fud]

what would you do to keep your fried-chicken crispy if you are serving it later??

use the same technique for samosas and they would stay crispy

recipe wise there are many ways of making the dough, the ones up should be fine.

technique wise, the cutting of fat v/s mixing, try this, melt the fat,and add it to the flour and then follow what wendy said.

careful not to burn yourself!

instead of creating pockets (as in cutting) the mixed fat would allow the crust to absorb less water and hence stay crispy longer.

[annachan]

Just finished my friend's babyshower and had great success with some untraditional samosas. Since we're serving for about 30 for brunch, we didn't want to have to deal with frying. But the mother-to-be really likes samosas. Here's the solution:

Make the samosa filling of your choice (can be done in advance)

When the filling is at room temp, put a heaping teaspoon into a wonton wrapper, wet the edge with some water and pinch close (like a small purse)

Bake at a 375 oven for 12 minutes

The wonton wrappers stayed crispy from when we took them from the oven till the last guest left (6 hours +).

[tejon]

I use puff pastry dough for my samosas when I'm making large amounts for parties. I roll it relatively thin, add filling, then bake until golden. The rolled out dough doesn't really puff but retains a crisp, slightly flaky texture that is very similar to fried samosa dough. I've had even ex-pats ask for the recipe, so the end result comes out very well

[annachan]

I use puff pastry dough for my samosas when I'm making large amounts for parties.

←

That reminds me of the curry puffs they sell in Hong Kong and some Chinese pastry shops over here. Though the puffs usually contain curry chicken or beef mixture instead of potato.

yummy.....

[mrbigjas]

i keep seeing this thread show up in the active threads search, and i keep reading it as 'fried samosa party' and i think, man, what a great idea!

[tejon]

Now that would be my kind of party.

[piazzola]

I used bread flour and it did not work out possibly too much gluten in it

I have to get more starchy flour instead next time

[BarbaraY]

I just use all-purpose flour. What does that translate to in Australia, plain flour?

[piazzola]

I just use all-purpose flour. What does that translate to in Australia, plain flour?

←

It may seem strange to you but plain flour here is what you call cake flour 9-10% there

an APF 10-11.5% protein level here would equate to bakers flour here LOL!

Then is bread flour and protein enriched 12 -13.5%

[tarteausucre]

I'm not sure where I got this recipe but it's the best one I've tried so far. It's quite a bit of work since you have to basically pan fry the skins before you assemble them, and then deep fry the assembled samosas. I usually use flour and water to seal the samosas. The skin is crispy and nice and thin. It's not like the doughy samosa skin that sometimes results from some recipes.

Ingredients:

4 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp salt

4 tbsp olive oil

2 - 3 cups cold water

1/2 cup extra flour for rolling out1

/2 cup extra olive oil to spread on pastries

Directions:

1. Mix salt and 4 tablespoons of olive oil in the flour and bind with cold water. Knead to make a soft dough

2. Take 1 1/2 inch round balls of dough and roll out with a velan or rolling pin. Make 20 - 25 two inch flat rounds

3. Spread oil completely over the surface area of the 2 inch round pastries. Sprinkle each lightly with flour

4. Join two, 2 inch round flats together with the oiled sides facing each other. Press the 2 together gently with your hand. This is now ready to roll again

5. Flour both sides of the double 2 inch flats and roll out to about a 6 - 8 inch round

6. Heat a tawa or flat frying pan on medium heat. Place on hot pan and cook lightly on 1 side then turn over and cook lightly on the other side for approximately 20 seconds

7. Remove and place on a clean tea towel.

Separate the 2 from each other at the point where they were joined before rolling.

8. Place covered in the tea towel so that the rotis do not dry out

9. Once the skins are all made and piled on top of each other, cut them into 3 inch wide strips with the edges cut at an angle. This gives the pastry a trapezoid shape

*Keep the ends and deep fry them until crispy golden brown. Sprinkle with salt and serve or sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon powder and serve. Makes a great snack!

[BarbaraY]

I just use all-purpose flour. What does that translate to in Australia, plain flour?

←

It may seem strange to you but plain flour here is what you call cake flour 9-10% there

an APF 10-11.5% protein level here would equate to bakers flour here LOL!

Then is bread flour and protein enriched 12 -13.5%

←

Thanks for sorting that out for me. I didn't realize that was the terminology used. I had heard of bread flour and plain flour but not bakers flour.

My British friend refers to self-raising flour, whereas we call it self-rising.

[Khadija]

A friend and I made samosas for the first time, yesterday. The fillings were great. We tried both the Julie Sahni pastry recipes listed in this thread, so we could try a side-by-side comparison. We didn't have the full instructions, but followed the advice given here. Basically, we made the dough much like pastry dough, except we cut the fat into the flour much more thoroughly, and we kneaded the dough slightly longer. We kept all the ingredients very cold. We made both doughs in the food processor. We tried both shallow frying and baking.

We both preferred the dough with the yogurt. However, I found both doughs a bit too light and flaky (the yogurt dough was less light and flaky). The texture of the fried ones was better, but I found the fried ones a bit too rich (the richness of the pastry seemed to overtake the fillings a bit, and the fillings were very well seasoned).

I'm wondering what kind of adjustments we should make in our next attempt (we have tons of filling leftover). We agree that we should try deep frying as opposed to shallow frying. The shallow frying did not give us even browning, and although the dough was crisp, I think it absorbed a lot of the oil. The baked ones were not evenly browned, either. Should we not keep the ingredients so cold? Should we knead the dough longer? I froze some uncooked ones. Do people have good results frying frozen samosas?

Edited July 8, 2007 by Khadija (log)

[Mariam]

A friend and I made samosas for the first time, yesterday.  The fillings were great.  We tried both the Julie Sahni pastry recipes listed in this thread, so we could try a side-by-side comparison.  We didn't have the full instructions, but followed the advice given here.  Basically, we made the dough much like pastry dough, except we cut the fat into the flour much more thoroughly, and we kneaded the dough slightly longer. We kept all the ingredients very cold. We made both doughs in the food processor.  We tried both shallow frying and baking.

We both preferred the dough with the yogurt.  However, I found both doughs a bit too light and flaky (the yogurt dough was less light and flaky).  The texture of the fried ones was better, but I found the fried ones a bit too rich (the richness of the pastry seemed to overtake the fillings a bit, and the fillings were very well seasoned).

I'm wondering what kind of adjustments we should make in our next attempt (we have tons of filling leftover).  We agree that we should try deep frying as opposed to shallow frying.  The shallow frying did not give us even browning, and although the dough was crisp, I think it absorbed a lot of the oil.  The baked ones were not evenly browned, either.  Should we not keep the ingredients so cold?  Should we knead the dough longer?  I froze some uncooked ones.  Do people have good results frying frozen samosas?

←

Frozen samosas keep very well and fry evenly - always deep fry samoosas they will absorb less oil.

There are many variations of samosas many of which have been covered here, perserve and you should come out with some great results.

With regards to the filling being cold, I always make sure it's thoroughly cooled down before I fill samosas even leaving the filling in the fridge overnight.

If you are freezing samosas open freeze them on a tray, once they start to harden you can transfer them to a tupperware or into freezer bags.

[hummingbirdkiss]

I know I mentioned this in another place but ..the best, easiest to handle pastry I have found... especially if you want to make alot and freeze them is to make a flour tortillas (I add buttermilk to my recipe) and then use that!

also if you want to buy good thicker style flour tortillas and just cut them in half and fold them like a samosa

then seal them with cornstarch and water slurry and fry ..they work so perfectly well come out flakey,..very crispy ..the crispiness holds up to sitting for quite a while actually, they a nice golden brown and are so "authentic" a friend of mine's mother serves them in her restaurant made with tortillas ...that is how I learned to use them I was invited into the kitchen and talking to her mom asked about the samosa pastry... and she started laughing showed me her stash of locally produced thick Mexican tortillas!

I am not kidding if you want a nice samosa use a flour tortilla if you want to make it your self find any good recipe for four ones and add buttermilk to the recipe! (leave out the lard and sub butter or vegetable shortening)

Edited July 27, 2007 by hummingbirdkiss (log)