Topic: Curryhell's Samosa recipe

[curryhell]

For those that have been waiting for it, here it is.  My take on how I do it, having read many a recipe, watched many a video and eaten many samosas, bad ones as well as good  ;D  Thanks to Natterjak for proofing another of my recipes.

Samosa filling(CH)



One recipe of lamb or potato will be enough for 14 -16 average size samosas

450grm pack of minced lamb/mutton or beef (or 750grms cooked whole potatoes with skin on)
2tbs of oil
½ medium onion finely chopped
1 tsp cumin seeds
One level tsp of ginger garlic paste
3 small fresh chillies finely chopped
1 cup of frozen peas

Spice Mix
2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp mix powder
1 tsp ground cumin
1tsp methi leaves
½ tsp garam masala
1 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp salt
Mix these all together

Method
1.   Brown the minced meat and cook until the fat is cooked out.  Drain the fat off
2.   Heat oil on high.  Add cumin seed and cook for 30 seconds until it’s sizzling
3.   Add onion and continue to cook for 2 minutes
4.   Add ginger garlic and fry for a minute or so until the water is cooked out.
5.   Add the frozen peas and cook for 2 minutes until hot
6.   Reduce heat to low and add the mince back to the pan
7.   Add spices and mix thoroughly
8.   Cook for five minutes, stirring frequently to avoid any sticking on the bottom of the pan.  Add one tbs water and mix if mixture starts to stick.  Repeat as necessary being careful not to create any sauce
9.   Remove from heat and leave to cool

For potato filling, peel cooked potatoes and crush with a fork, giving them a good mixing.  Alternatively peel and chop them into ¼ inch squares.
Follow steps 2 to 7 substituting the mince with the potato.  Cook for 2 – 3 minutes folding the mixture constantly to prevent it sticking.  Add 1 tbs water if things start to stick. Remove from heat and allow to cool.
I also like to use a simplified more traditional spice mixture excluding turmeric and mix powder but including amchoor powder and crushed red chilli.  You can experiment with this until you arrive at your ideal spice combination.

Samosa pastry
This is pretty standard and is featured already in a couple of samosa recipes on the site.  The quantities make 8 discs approximately 8 inches in diameter, enough for 16 samosas.

225gm plain flour
4 dsp olive oil
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ajwain or kalonji seeds (optional)
170ml WARM water

Method
1.   Mix all the dry ingredients together.
2.   Add the olive oil and rub through the flour until you have a breadcrumb texture
3.   Make a well and add 5oz (140ml) of the warm water
4.   Mix well to form a STIFF dough adding additional water a tsp at a time until all the flour is incorporated into the dough and the mixing bowl is clean.  Although the dough will be stiff it must be pliable and not dry.
5.   Add one more tsp of water and work this through the dough until all moisture has been absorbed.
6.   Cover with cling film and leave in a warm place for at least half an hour.  A good sign is when the dough starts to develop little white pimples.
7.   At this stage the dough can be frozen or put in the fridge but before use it must be allowed to (defrost if frozen and then) rest at room temperature for 3 hours or more before use.

[Naga]

Wow Dave! That's the kind of comprehensive recipe that I like! A quick scan of the ingredients list reveals that I've got everything that's required to get going with this. Sounds like a job for the weekend for me. Thanks for all that hard work mate!

[natterjak]

Super work there CH, I WILL be trying these at the weekend! Great to see someone selflessly sharing their experience and helping others to improve their results. What this forum is all about.

1600 degrees C still seems a bit on the high side... You didn't spot my comment on that then!

[curryhell]

Super work there CH, I WILL be trying these at the weekend! Great to see someone selflessly sharing their experience and helping others to improve their results. What this forum is all about.

1600 degrees C still seems a bit on the high side... You didn't spot my comment on that then!

;D ;D  I like 'em hot Chris.  Looking forward to your feedback.  Did correct the error before posting but the superscript doesn't transpose when copied from word.  Now corrected  :

[mickdabass]

Thank you for taking the time to post the recipe CH -  Very clear and concise.
I will give these a go over the weekend. They really do look the business

Regards

Mick

[natterjak]

I have the impression there's going to be a sudden outbreak of Samosa making across the land this weekend! No offence to CH though but I will be cutting down the amount of chilli powder as I like my samosas mild

[Garp]

Now that's what I call a recipe posting. Tremendous CH.

Never tried to make samosas and am grappling with a Chinese dish at the moment, but I will definitely give these a try.

Mrs G doesn't eat lamb, would beef work?

[curryhell]

Looking forward to all the feedback and pics.  Yes Garp, minced beef will work equally as well, but for some reason the vege ones seem to be more popular, specially among the natives  :  Hopefully, you'll all be pleased with your results.

[mr.mojorisin]

one of the best pictorial posts I've ever seen on here.

I've only ever ate about 5 samosas in my life...gonna start eating more now

looks delicious..and adaptable to whatever filling you desire methinks.

CH..many thanks

[natterjak]

Oh. My. Goodness...  Possibly the hardest thing I've ever cooked. Nearly drove me batty trying to roll out that damn pastry which kept sticking to the rolling pin!  Then the nicely prepared semicircular pastry strips managed to glue themselves in the plastic bag so as I unpeeled them they stretched out into elongated crescents rather than semi circles.

I love the fact CH posted this recipe in such a nice how-to format but honestly I won't be making it again. Took nearly 3 hours of work in the end to get 10 samosas, half of which were weirdly misshaped :/ I had more than half of my filling left over as the amount I could actually fit into my badly shaped pastry cases was very limited. This was just beyond me in truth so hats off to those Indian housewives who stay home and make these each day for their families. And to CH for mastering the technique and producing such nice looking examples in his original post.

For what it's worth I've shown pics of my filling and uncooked and cooked samosas. I've only shown the best ones, there were about 5 more which I had eaten as soon as they cooked to cover up the evidence of how clumsy my pastry rolling had been. 

Ultimately I did make enough for lunch today and tomorrow and they were tasty, although next time I would halve the salt in the pastry and reduce the chilli powder to a quarter teaspoon as it was still too fierce for me even though I only put half a tsp in.