Samosas

[deliad]

You can also try lentils. Cooked dry moong dal with a little masala is a good option.

[Episure]

There is a version here that has cabbage, onion and dill . Very nice.

[reesek]

<bump>

i'm making mini samosas for a party tomorrow night, and have a couple of questions...mostly about dough. i should mention first that i'm planning to bake, rather than fry them (mostly because i plan to make a lot, and i don't want the house to smell of oil during my party).

i made the filling last night - it's very spicy and good (potato, pea, chopped shallot & ginger, garlic & jalepeno and lots of spices - fennel, mustard seed, fenugreek, cumin, corriander and <smack my hand> a little too much salt).

i was planning to make the dough tonight - would it keep well overnight in the fridge? the recipe i was planning to use was from madhur jaffrey's Invitation to Indian cooking - (just flour, veg oil & salt) but i'm open to using ghee (since i won't be frying) and want to try to get the dough a bit flaky - so maybe ghee (refrigerated) is better than oil?

any advice on baking samosa dough? technique? baking time with cold filling? can i bake them tonight and keep them in the fridge - reheat tomorrow? many thanks in advance!

rk

[ravum]

These are fillings I like:

Roasted mushrooms with peas,chilli powder,amchur.

Cauliflower and peas and of course the usual potatoes

I have baked them at 350F.They are good ,but not as flaky as fried ones.Ghee would be tastier in a baked version.

They can be baked ,cooled and refrigerated,wrapped well in plastic wrap.Reheat at 400F.I use the same technique as regular samosa dough.Flat triangles are easier to bake as you can turn them halfway thru baking.I'm not sure about this but the cold filling shouldnt make a big difference to the baking time.You can always microwave the filling a bit if you have any doubt.

I tried a chocolate and banana filling for a baked version and it was quite nice.

Edited November 5, 2004 by ravum (log)

[Papaya]

Potatoes, peas, carrots, yellow lentils and spices.

[Episure]

These are fillings I like:

Roasted mushrooms with peas,chilli powder,amchur.

Cauliflower and peas and of course the usual potatoes

I have baked them at 350F.They are good ,but not as flaky as fried ones.Ghee would be tastier in a baked version.

They can be baked ,cooled and refrigerated,wrapped well in plastic wrap.Reheat at 400F.I use the same technique as regular samosa dough.Flat triangles are easier to bake as you can turn them halfway thru baking.I'm not sure about this but the cold filling shouldnt make a big difference to the baking time.You can always microwave the filling a bit if you have any doubt.

I tried a chocolate and banana filling for a baked version and it was quite nice.

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I second Ravum's opinion.

[spaghetttti]

I'm very tempted by Ravum's post. The combinations sound heavenly. Will have to try the chocolate & banana soon.

My sister-in-law is the queen of samosas in my family. She makes them with such loving care, I'm drooling at the thought of them... (oh, there's no drooling smilie thingamajig).

Her dough is not your basic, traditional one and is made with warm coconut milk and salt. Although, she uses a pasta maker to roll out the dough to achieve a consistent thinness and texture, her pastry always comes out nice and flaky. She has taught me how to crimp/pinch the edges, but I don't have the dough down pat yet.

There are only two fillings she makes:

Teeny tiny chunks of beef with potatoes, carrots, peas, glass noodles and quartered hard boiled eggs. (Not my favorite)

And a spicy fish and ground almond/coconut milk filling with very finely sliced, french cut green beans. Along with red chillies, shallots, garlic and onion, the flavorings are cumin, coriander, black pepper and pinch of nutmeg. (I love these and can eat many).

Edited November 6, 2004 by spaghetttti (log)

[BBhasin]

the dough with the coconut milk sounds really intersting. Would you care to share the recipe? Thanks. That, with the chocolate banana filling and something, perhaps beaten hung yogurt with sugar, ground pistachio and saffron, drizzled on top should make a heavenly dessert.

Does your sister bake or fry the samosas, spaghettti? Also, I am curious would these samosas be kind of south Indian, where coconut milk is so abundantly used, or are they traditional to another part of the world?

[spaghetttti]

I've sent off an email requesting the proportions for the coconut milk dough. Should hear back presently. Hope you won't mind waiting til then.

[reesek]

i'm so glad this has sparked discussion - and yetttti - please also include the spicy fish recipe!

i ended up using jaffrey's recipe but substituting ghee for oil. the amount of water (1 cup, 2 cups of flour and 3 T of ghee) was insufficient - but i put that down to measurements in cups rather than grams...i added more water. the dough was still very sticky and i had to flour the board a lot. should have brushed with ghee before baking. the crust was very thin...not terrible - not great. fried they would have been better - next time i'll brush with ghee and see - but i should add - they were gobbled!

[BBhasin]

spaghetti.........we are waiting.

[Dejah]

I tried a chocolate and banana filling for a baked version and it was quite nice.

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Try adding slivers of candied ginger with that chocolate and banana filling.

Dare I say "Kick it up a notch!"?

[BBhasin]

A little off the subject but all this talk of banana and chocolate samosas reminded me of Malai Samosas when I was in Varanasi ( Benaras)

Full cream, non homogenised milk would be boiled and then allowed to cool so that a thick layer of 'malai' ( cream ) would form on top. This would then be gently removed and have the consistancy of samosa ' skin'.

A stuffing would be made by pounding ' khoya' with sugar, alittle ground cardamom, saffron, almonds, pistachios and other nuts.

The samosa would be made using the malai skin and stuffed with the above filling and the folded botton held together by piercing it with a clove.

Its been a while, I do not remember if they dipped it in any sugar syrup.

Has anyone tried these or does anyone know if they make them anymore?

[spaghetttti]

Although I requested the recipe for the fish samosas, instead I've received an ingredient list via email in Indonesian with no details, process, method, amounts. So I'll try to translate and rely on memory. We'll have to play it by ear here:

For the samosa dough:

For one pound of flour you will need about 1 - 1 1/2 cups of lightly salted thick coconut milk and one beaten egg. Proceed as usual for mixing, blending and rolling the dough

For the filling:

Thinly slice garlic, shallots, red chilli peppers, tomato, green beans.

In mortar take some of the sliced garlic and shallots and grind with salt into a paste.

Grind almonds with cooked shredded fish.

In oil saute sliced garlic, shallots and red chillies.

Add garlic/shallot paste.

Toss in sliced green beans and almond/fish mixture and sliced tomato.

Add droplets of water, and ground spices: cumin, coriander, black pepper and salt.

Filling should be slightly moist.

Cool and fill samosa wrappers and deep fry.

I'm very sorry the recipe is so vague.

[beany]

You know, whenever we buy samosas from punjabi shops, they are always filled with peas and potatoes and have a very flaky dough, while if we make samosa at home, the skin (chapri) is always crispy and very thin. The ideal samosa has no bubbles in the chapri when fried, and become a bit more translucent. Do other people use this type of chapri? is taht what you also call it?

BTW I post mostly to General Food Topics, but am now wondering what took me so long to get here! Am really enjoying going back and reading all the posts so far.

[Ed Ward]

Somewhere in storage I have a cookbook by the bad-tempered Mrs. Balbir Singh that I bought for a dollar a thousand years ago. In between complaning about her family, she does have some good recipes, and her samosa recipe is one of the best. Secret ingredient: pomegranite seeds! It is, like most noted here, potato-pea, etc., but there's more to it than that. Best samosas I've ever had.

[Edward]

You know, whenever we buy samosas from punjabi shops, they are always filled with peas and potatoes and have a very flaky dough, while if we make samosa at home, the skin (chapri) is always crispy and very thin.  The ideal samosa has no bubbles in the chapri when fried, and become a bit more translucent.  Do other people use this type of chapri?  is taht what you also call it?

BTW I post mostly to General Food Topics, but am now wondering what took me so long to get here! Am really enjoying going back and reading all the posts so far.

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I like a crust that is very crispy and thin and with tiny little bubbles! I am die-hard fan of keema-filled samosas. As far as vegetable samosas go I prefer cauliflower over potato..

[rajsuman]

There is a samosawallah in Dubai who makes the best samosas ever. I use his samosas as a yardstick to measure all the others I've eaten and made since. My favourite filling is just as he makes it - it's only potatoes and spices, nothing else. Liberal use of amchur in the filling is very desirable. I'm not a fan of the patti samosa. My ideal samosa has a crust that's neither too thin nor thick - it should be crisp but not too flaky. I once even managed to get to this level of perfection and even got much praise from my guests, but alas (and I'm still kicking myself for it), I never did write down how I made them. I've never been able to recreate them .

[anzu]

Somewhere in storage I have a cookbook by the bad-tempered Mrs. Balbir Singh that I bought for a dollar a thousand years ago. In between complaning about her family, she does have some good recipes, and her samosa recipe is one of the best. Secret ingredient: pomegranite seeds! It is, like most noted here, potato-pea, etc., but there's more to it than that. Best samosas I've ever had.

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Yes, her samosa filling is also my favorite. These are the ingredients:

1 ounce ghee

1 ounce ginger

8 ounces potatoes

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon garam masala (curry powder)

1 tablespoon chopped coriander leaves

1 teaspoon crushed coriander seeds

2 ounces onions

2 green chilies

6 ounces shelled peas

3/4 teaspoon red pepper

1 teaspoon pomegranate seeds

1 dessertspoonful powdered, dried mango

OR

1 dessertspoonful fresh lemon juice

Your book must be a different edition, Ed. No comments at all about her family in mine!

[Ed Ward]

Hmmm, my memory is of her complaining about having to write the book for money, her no-good, layabout sons, and her indifferent husband.

It's been a while since I had it in my hands, though. And thanks for reprinting that. I may try to make some one of these days!

[muichoi]

That's a truly great book-I can't find mine, but I don't remember complaints about the family either.

[Khadija]

I recently replied to a thread in the pastry forum about samosas, but with no luck. I thought I might get a better response here, since samosas are savory.

Recently, a friend and I made homeade samosas for the first time. We tried two fillings, one potato-based and one beef-based. Both fillings were excellent.

Our main difficulty was the crust. In the pastry forum, there is a thread that gives loose instructions based on two different Julie Sahni recipes. One contains yogurt and baking soda, the other does not. We did a side-by-side comparison of both recipes, and we both preferred the yogurt/baking-soda version. We tried both shallow frying and baking.

Both crusts were tasty, but not exactly what we were looking for. The baked ones did not brown evenly, and while they were crisp (the dough contains quite a bit of fat), they did not have the wonderful texture of a fried crust. The shallow fried ones did not brown evenly either, and tasted almost too rich, delicate, and flaky (like pie-crust).

I think there may be a couple of issues:

1. We may have handled the dough too delicately. We incorporated the fat (cold, cold veg shortening), using the food processor, much more thoroughly than one would for pie-crust, but perhaps we should have used melted fat? And perhaps we should have kneaded longer and tried to make a slightly drier dough?

2. We should deep fry to prevent the dough from soaking up excess oil, and to ensure even browning.

We have lots of filling leftover and want to use it up. Any advice would be much appreciated!

[liv4fud]

One of the restaurants that I use to stage at does use melted veggie shortening (think it was crisco) in building the dough and does deep fry them in almost smoky oil - don't think they used any water...

My memory is a little bleak but I know the dough took a consdierable amount of fat. I was more worried about the fat in the crust than the one it was fried in.

Once fried - it wasn't as flaky but quite crispy. But needless to say it was not light at all...

Do let me know if you try it and how it comes out.

[Pontormo]

I was just thinking about what to do with all the potatoes in the house and toyed with the idea of making these again. I've used two different recipes successfully in the past, both from vegetarian cookbooks, one by Madhur Jaffrey who I would recommend. I can't recall any problems.

Both call for regular AP flour, salt and BUTTER (preferable to veg shortening). You're supposed to prepare the dough as you would pastry for a pie, i.e. work with dabs of fat, EXCEPT in Jaffrey's recipe, she calls for softened butter vs. ice cold. (I just tried searching online for the recipe, but found only a different version the author published elsewhere which calls for oil instead of butter. This suggests "liquid state" might be fine.) There is not a great deal of fat, only a few T per cup of flour w trace amount of salt and about the same amount of warm water as butter, added in increments as you're turning the mixture into a kneadable dough. When ready, shape into a ball and refrigerate for at least an hour or overnight. Knead again. Shape into separate balls for each samosa, each under plastic wrap while working so they remain moist. This isn't the recipe, but in a quick search, it seems fairly similar and includes the yogurt you prefer: Astray.

I would also heed the advice you've gotten so far about deep-frying. Baking samosas doesn't strike me as a good idea.

[hummingbirdkiss]

I use flour tortillas to make samosas

I know it is cheating and not what you want to hear and I can make the more complex ones ...but I just love these and let me tell you they are very easy ...hightlight the filling beautifully and often used by my Indian friends

so what the heck..just fold them exactly like you would a samosa or make a cone with a fold over lid fill and seal with cornstarch and water slurry

deep fry until crispy and golden ..

I buy (or make my own) thick flour tortillas and size them according to if I want appetizers or a big hearty one for lunch!

Edited July 10, 2007 by hummingbirdkiss (log)