Punjabi samosa

Serves: 4

If they like it, it serves 4 otherwise

Preparation time: 45 minutes

Cooking time: 45 minutes

Totaltime: 1 hour 30 minutes

punjabi samosa - a classic & popular indian snack stuffed with spiced potato peas filling. The recipe is adapted from www.vegrecipesofindia.com

Ingredients

for the samosa pastry:
2 cups maida or all purpose flour
4 tbsp ghee or oil
5-6 tbsp water (i added 5 tbsp + 1 tsp water)
1 tsp carom seeds (ajwain)
salt as required ( i added ¾ tsp salt)
oil for deep frying

For the samosa stuffing 1:
3 medium sized potatoes/aloo
¾ to 1 cup green peas/matar, fresh or frozen
1 green chili + ½ inch ginger crushed to a coarse paste in a mortar and pestle
½ tsp cumin seeds (jeera)
¼ tsp red chili powder (lal mirch powder)
a pinch of asafoetida (hing)
½ tbsp oil
salt as required

whole spices to be ground:
¼ inch cinnamon (dal chini)
2 black peppercorns (kali mirch)
1 clove (laung)
1 green cardamom (hari elaichi or choti elaichi)
½ tsp cumin (jeera)
½ tsp fennel seeds (saunf)
1 tsp coriander seeds
2 tsp dry pomegranate seeds/anardana or 1 tsp dry mango powder/amchur * check notes for mango powder

For the samosa stuffing 2:
3 medium size potatoes
¾ to 1 cup peas/matar, fresh or frozen
1 green chili and ½ inch ginger made in a paste or chopped finely
¾ tsp garam masala powder
¼ or ½ tsp red chili powder
1 tsp dry mango powder (amchur)
1 tsp fennel powder (saunf powder)
1 tsp coriander powder (dhania powder)
¾ tsp cumin seeds (jeera)
2 tbsp chopped coriander leaves (dhania patta)
2 to 2.5 tsp oil
salt as required

Preparation

preparing the samosa pastry:
1. Take the flour, carom seeds, salt in a bowl. mix well and add ghee or oil.
2. with your fingertips rub the ghee/oil in the flour to get a breadcrumb like consistency.
3. the whole mixture should clamp together when joined.
4. add 1 or 2 tbsp water.
5. begin to knead adding water as required.
6. knead to a firm dough. cover the dough with a moistened napkin and keep aside for 30-40 mins.
preparing stuffing 1:
1. steam or boil the potatoes and peas till are cooked completely.
2. peel the boiled potatoes and chop them into small cubes
3. dry roast all the whole spices mentioned in the above list till fragrant.
4. once cooled, grind them in a dry grinder or coffee grinder to a fine powder.
5. heat oil in a pan.
6. add the cumin seeds and crackle them.
7. add the ginger-green chili paste.
8. saute till the raw aroma of ginger goes away.
9. add the peas, red chili powder, the freshly ground spice powder and asafoetida.
10. stir and saute on a low flame for 1-2 minutes
11. add the potato cubes and saute for 2-3 minutes with frequent stirring.
12. keep the filling aside to cool.
preparing stuffing 2:
1. boil or steam the potatoes & peas till they are cooked completely.
2. peel the potatoes and chop them into cubes.
3. heat oil in a pan.
4. crackle the cumin first, then add the ginger-green chili paste and saute till the raw aroma of ginger goes away.
5. lower the flame and add all the dry spice powders one by one.
6. stir and then add potato cubes & peas along with salt.
7. saute for 2-3 minutes.
8. switch off and add the chopped coriander leaves from top and stir well.
9. keep aside.
shaping, stuffing and frying the samosa:
1. after keeping the dough for 30-40 mins. knead the dough lightly again.
2. divided the dough 6 equal pieces.
3. take each piece and roll in your palms first to make a smooth ball.
4. then roll it with a rolling pin keeping the thickness neither thin nor thick.
5. cut with a knife or a pastry cutter through the center of the samosa pastry.
6. with a brush or with your finger tips, on the straight edge of the sliced pastry, apply some water.
7. join the two ends bringing the watered edge on top of the plain edge.
8. press the edges so that they get sealed well.
9. stuff the prepared samosa cone with the prepared potato-peas stuffing.
10. apply some water with your fingertips or brush on the round samosa cone circumference.
11. pinch a part on the edge (check the video & pics). this helps the samosas to stand.
12. press both the edges. be sure there are no cracks.
13. prepare all the samosas this way and keep covered with a moist kitchen napkin.
14. now heat oil for deep frying in a kadai or pan. once the oil becomes hot (test by adding a small piece of dough – it should come up quickly once added to the hot oil) gently slide the prepares stuffed samosas & quickly reduce the flame to low.
15. you can also fry the samosas twice as i have mentioned above in the post.
16. turn over in between and fry the samosas till golden. drain samosas on paper towels to remove excess oil.
17. fry the samosas in batches.
18. for frying the second batch, again increase the temperature of the oil.
19. add the samosas and then lower the flame, thereby decreasing the temperature of oil.
20. this way fry all the samosas in batches.
baking the samosas:
1. pre heat the oven to 180 degree C.
2. brush oil lightly on the prepared samosas.
3. place them in a baking tray and bake for 30-35 mins or till light golden at 180 degrees C.
serving suggestions:
1. serve samosas hot or warm with coriander chutney, saunth (tamarind chutney), tamarind-dates chutney or tomato sauce.
2. they can also be served with a yogurt dip or a plain raita. another way is to serve the samosas with punjabi chole (a spiced chickpea curry).
3. a chaat can also me made from the samosa. we usually have samosa with masala chai or ginger chai.
4. even bread or pav (indian bread rolls) can be served with the samosas.
5. whatever you serve samosas with, remember to have hot masala chai along.