How to make Simple Samosa Easy Recipe

The triangular-shaped flaky pastry filled with spicy potato, chicken or lamb filling is a popular snack not only in India but in several countries of the world. Because samosa is so so common in India (you literally get samosa and chai at every other street corner), I always considered it to be a quintessential Indian delicacy. But only later I read that it has its origin in the Middle East and it was introduced to India during the Delhi Sultanate rule.

It was later adapted as a vegetarian snack with spicy potato filling (which is what is most popular in northern India). Anyway whatever the origin was, I can confidently say that samosa recipe, especially Aloo Samosa is the most popular snack back home. It’s there at every party, office meeting, chai meet-ups, you name it and samosa will be there. I was very particular about the type of samosa that I liked and I liked it only from one shop in my hometown. Even now when I go home, I make sure to indulge in those samosas from my favourite shop.

Ingredient:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour (maida) 260 grams
• 1 teaspoon ajwain carom seeds
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 4 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon oil 45 ml + 5 ml
• water to knead the dough, around 6 tablespoons samosa Filling
• 3-4 medium potatoes 500-550 grams
• 2 tablespoons oil
• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
• teaspoon fennel seeds
• 2 teaspoons crushed coriander seeds
• 1 teaspoon finely chopped ginger
• 1 green chilli chopped
• 1/4 teaspoon hing asafoetida
• 1/2 cup +2 tablespoons green peas I used frozen green peas which I soaked in warm water for 10-15 minutes before sing
• 1 teaspoon coriander powder
• 1/2 teaspoon garam masala
• 1/2 teaspoon amchur dried mango powder
• 1/4 teaspoon red chilli powder or add more to taste
• 3/4 teaspoon salt or to taste
• oil, for deep frying

Method of Samosa

Make Samosa Dough

1. Start by making the samosa dough. To a large bowl, add flour, ajwain (carom seeds), salt and mix well.
2. Add the oil and then start mixing with your fingers. Rub the flour with the oil until the oil is well incorporated in all of the flour. Do this for 3 to 4 minutes, you don’t want to rush this step. Once incorporated, the mixture resembles crumbs.
3. Press some flour between your palm- it should form a shape (& not crumble) – means oil is enough and well incorporated.
4. Now, start adding water, little by little and mix to form a stiff dough. Don’t overwork the dough and don’t knead a soft dough. It should just come together and form a stiff dough. I used around 6 tablespoons of water here.
5. Cover the dough with a moist cloth and let it rest for 40 minutes. I usually soak a paper towel in water and then squeeze out all the water and then cover my dough with that. While the dough is resting, start working on the filling.

Make the potato filling

1. Boil potatoes until done. 8 to 9 whistles on high heat with natural pressure release if using a stove-top pressure cooker or if using Instant Pot, high pressure 12 minutes with natural pressure release on a trivet with 1 cup water in the bottom of the pot.
2. Peel the skin and then mash the potatoes. Set aside. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a pan on medium heat. Once the oil is hot, add the cumin seeds, fennel seeds and crushed coriander seeds.
3. Let the seeds sizzle for few seconds and then add the chopped ginger, green chilli and hing. Cook for 1 minute.
4. Add the boiled & mashed potatoes and green peas to the pan. Mix everything together. I use my potato masher to combine the spices and seasonings well with the potatoes and peas.
5. Add the coriander powder, garam masala, amchur, red chilli powder and salt. Mix to combine. Once it’s all well incorporated, remove the pan from heat and let the filling cool down a bit.

Shape & fry the Samosa

1. 1. Once the dough has rested, give it a quick knead. Then divide the dough into 7 equal parts of around 58-60 grams each.
   2. Start working on a piece of dough, keep the remaining dough balls covered at all times with a moist cloth else the dough will dry out.
   3. Roll one dough ball into a circle-oval kind of shape, around 6-7 inches in diameter and then cut it into two parts.
   4. Take one part and apply water on the straight edge/side. I usually mix some flour with water so that it forms a nice glue.
   5. Now bring the two ends of the straight edge together and pinch them to form a cone. See the step-by-step pictures above for a better idea. Pinch the pointed ends to make it a perfect cone shape.
   6. Fill the samosa with the potato filling, around 1 to 2 tablespoons. Don’t overfill the samosa.
   7. Now again apply water all around the circumference of the cone as you have to seal it. Pinch the opposite side (a side opposite to where you pinched to form the cone) to form a plate (see step-by-step pictures above). Then pinch the edges and seal the samosa.
   8. Your samosa is now ready. Repeat the same process with the remaining dough. Always remember to keep the filled samosa covered with a moist cloth while roll and fill the others. You will get 14 samosas.
   9. Now heat oil in a Kadai on low heat. To check if oil is ready, drop a small piece of dough into the oil. It should take few seconds to come up to the surface. That means the oil is ready.

Drop the shaped samosas into the oil

1. Fry on low heat. After around 10-12 minutes, the samosa will become firm and light brown in color. At this point, increase the heat to medium and fry until it gets nicely browned.
2. Don’t overcrowd the Kadai/wok, fry 4-5 samosas at a time. And each batch will take around 20 minutes since we fry on low heat so be patient.
3. Once you finish frying one batch, lower the heat again to low and wait until the temperature of the oil drops and then add the second batch.
4. Enjoy hot samosas with cilantro chutney or sweet tamarind chutney!

Zarwash Gulrez