Crispy Indian samosa are not that difficult to make yourself, but they taste extremely delicious. In India and Pakistan, leftovers are often used to fill these mouth-watering dumplings, e.g. vegetable curries. You can get creative and use well-seasoned leftovers from Indian dishes, vegetarian or vegan depending on your taste. Variations with fish or minced meat are also possible. However, make sure that the filling is not too moist so that the samosa do not fall apart. Here we show the classic version with onions, potatoes and peas.
We use waxy or mainly waxy potatoes. You simply can’t get good fresh peas in winter, but frozen peas taste almost as good.
While the potatoes are boiling in salted water for approx. 20 – 25 minutes, we prepare the dough. You only need a few ingredients for this: Standard wheat flour, a little salt, water and ghee. Ghee is Indian clarified butter. You can also use neutral vegetable oil instead, but ghee has a special flavour. An authentic dough also needs some whole cumin seeds.
The ghee must be gently heated in a pan to make it liquid. If you are using oil, this step is not necessary. Take care not to let the ghee get hot before making the batter.
Mix the flour with two to three pinches of salt and then the liquid ghee.
You must first work in the ghee with your fingertips so that small crumbs form. Once this has been done, slowly add a little water while continuing to knead until a homogeneous ball of dough has formed.
While this dough is resting, prepare the filling. Peel the boiled potatoes and cut them into small pieces. Halve onions and then cut them into not too fine cubes. Finely chop or grate garlic and ginger. We have explained the best way to peel ginger in this recipe.
If you also want to add a fresh, green chilli in typical Indian fashion, cut off the tip and carefully test its heat level with the tip of your tongue. Depending on your desired level of spiciness, use either more or less of the chilli with its seeds (much hotter) or without them.
Now heat some ghee in a pan on a medium-high heat. Roast cumin seeds until fragrant and then add ginger, garlic and – if you like – finely chopped chilli.
After a minute, add the onions to the pan and fry until translucent. Then season with turmeric and garam masala.
Next, add the potatoes and peas to the pan. Now season to taste. If you have not already used fresh chilli, you can add Kashmiri chilli for more heat. Acidity is very important for samosa filling. We use freshly squeezed lemon for this.
A teaspoonful of caraway seeds is an exciting addition. The spice is reminiscent of black sesame and delicious. There is a rumour circulating in the Islamic world that ‘caraway cures all diseases except death’. Unfortunately, objective studies cannot prove this. Never mind: it’s still delicious. Fresh coriander is added at the end.
The dough has rested enough and can now be filled. To make 12 samosa of the same size, it is best to make two rolls of dough, each of which you divide into 3 pieces. You now have six balls of approximately the same size without having to weigh them.
Roll out the 6 balls with a rolling pin. Do not use too much flour, otherwise the dough will be too dry. If you don’t have a rolling pin, you can also use an empty wine bottle.
Cut each roughly round piece of dough in half.
Now it’s time to fill. Shape the semi-circles into a kind of ice cream cone, the tip of which is the centre of the straight cut edge. If it doesn’t stick well enough, brush the dough with a little water.
You can fit an amazing amount of the filling into each cone.
Now use the excess dough as a lid and seal the samosa with it.
IIf you now turn the samosa upside down onto this lid, you will see the classic triangular shape. You can now also shape the samosa a little further, if need should be.
We like to deep-fry in a wok and use vegetable frying fat, which is available in solid form. We like it when the fat solidifies again once it has cooled down, as this makes it easier to store and reuse. Neutral vegetable oil can of course also be used, but it is more difficult to keep. By the way, large quantities of oil or fat should not be disposed of in the household waste and certainly not down the drain.
Heat the fat until it is nice and hot, but do not allow it to smoke. It is hot enough when small bubbles form on a dipped wooden spoon. Carefully add one samosa at a time and keep turning them over. Each piece cools down the oil, so don’t process too many at the same time or they won’t get crispy.
The samosa are ready when they are golden brown. Remove them with tongs or a slotted spoon and place them on kitchen paper to soak up any excess fat. This is an important step, as the flavour of fried food is also determined after frying.
Samosa needs a dip. Indian chutneys go very well, but you can also use any Asian sweet chilli sauce.
Enjoy.
And may the taste be with you.
Ingredients (for 12 samosa – serves 6 as a starter):
For the dough:
250 g flour
4 tsp ghee or the same amount of neutral vegetable oil
1 tsp salt
½ tsp cumin seeds
Approx. 150 ml water
For the filling:
600 g waxy potatoes
Approx. 50 g peas (frozen)
2 onions
2 tbsp ghee or the same amount of neutral vegetable oil
2 tsp ginger
3 cloves garlic
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp garam masala
1 tsp black cumin seeds (optional)
Green chilli pepper or Kashmiri chilli (optional)
Juice of half a lemon
1 bunch of fresh coriander
