The other day I made a meat-pie and I really liked the crust a lot. I had found the recipe for the crust online and it was very simple. As I was appreciating the crust, it suddenly struck me “boy, wouldn’t this make good samosas?!”
So, my next experiment was to try making baked samosas with this delicious crust recipe. I am not a big fan of frying food – for health reasons and also because it gets messy and well, I just don’t know what to do with the leftover oil, so it sits on my kitchen counter until I throw it away. I don’t know if these baked samosas are much healthier than their fried counterparts – I hope they are. But you sure don’t have to stand around a hot frying pan!
There is a little bit of history about these too. The first trial run for the baked samosas was during the first presidential debate of 2008 “J-Mac Vs. O”. We were both eagerly waiting to hear what the candidates had to say for themselves, so I pre-prepared the samosas and arranged them on the baking sheet, so that they were ready to be stuck in the oven and baked, while I sat and watched the debate. As for the results? Well, O won the debate hands down and, sigh, I had to make the samosas again for Dan, for the next vice-presidential debate, between Sarah six-pack and Joe the Biden!
Do try them out and let me know if they are any good.
Ingredients:
*Recipe for the pastry can be found here, many thanks to them. I have also written it out for convenience.
For the Crust/Pastry:
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup butter
1 egg, beaten
¼ cup cold water
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme, crushed
For the filling:
6 medium potatoes (boiled)
11/2 cups peas
1 inch ginger (minced)
2 serrano peppers (chopped)
1 tsp cumin seeds
2 tbsp oil
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp cumin powder
2 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp ground black pepper
½ cup chopped cilantro
salt to taste
Pastry “glue”:
½ cup flour + water (your own approximation), stirred to form a thick, sticky slurry (mixed evenly to get rid of flour clumps)
Method:
Pastry Dough:
1. Mix in the flour, baking powder and salt. Cut in tiny pieces of butter and add to the flour mix. Start kneading the dough till it gets evenly crumbly.
2. In a small bowl beat the egg, along with water and lemon-juice. Add thyme and beat some more. Add this mix to the dough, while kneading constantly, one spoon at a time. Set the dough aside.
Filling:
1. Boil 6 medium potatoes, till they are soft at the center, but still quite firm. Peel off the potato skin and mash using a fork till you get small chunks (do not mash evenly, as you would for mashed potatoes).
2. In a wok heat oil and add cumin seeds. When the cumin starts sizzling, add ginger, followed by potatoes and peas. Add turmeric, coriander, salt, cumin powder, black pepper along with the chopped serranos and cilantro. Stir the mixture and cook with the lid on for about 3-5 minutes.
Assembly:
1. Take a small ball of the prepared dough, (roughly an inch and a half in diameter) and roll into a circular disc, approximately 5-6 inches in diameter.
2. Cut the disc in half, as shown in the picture and add about 1/3 cup filling to one side of each half. Apply the pastry glue along the edges of each half, as in the picture.
3. Lift the other end of the “half disc” and fold over the filling. Pinch the ends around the filling to “seal” the samosa. Repeat the same for the other half-disc.
4. Arrange the samosas on a baking sheet.
5. Bake the samosas in the oven at 400F for 20-25 minutes, till golden brown.
So, my next experiment was to try making baked samosas with this delicious crust recipe. I am not a big fan of frying food – for health reasons and also because it gets messy and well, I just don’t know what to do with the leftover oil, so it sits on my kitchen counter until I throw it away. I don’t know if these baked samosas are much healthier than their fried counterparts – I hope they are. But you sure don’t have to stand around a hot frying pan!
There is a little bit of history about these too. The first trial run for the baked samosas was during the first presidential debate of 2008 “J-Mac Vs. O”. We were both eagerly waiting to hear what the candidates had to say for themselves, so I pre-prepared the samosas and arranged them on the baking sheet, so that they were ready to be stuck in the oven and baked, while I sat and watched the debate. As for the results? Well, O won the debate hands down and, sigh, I had to make the samosas again for Dan, for the next vice-presidential debate, between Sarah six-pack and Joe the Biden!
Do try them out and let me know if they are any good.
Ingredients:
*Recipe for the pastry can be found here, many thanks to them. I have also written it out for convenience.
For the Crust/Pastry:
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup butter
1 egg, beaten
¼ cup cold water
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme, crushed
For the filling:
6 medium potatoes (boiled)
11/2 cups peas
1 inch ginger (minced)
2 serrano peppers (chopped)
1 tsp cumin seeds
2 tbsp oil
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp cumin powder
2 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp ground black pepper
½ cup chopped cilantro
salt to taste
Pastry “glue”:
½ cup flour + water (your own approximation), stirred to form a thick, sticky slurry (mixed evenly to get rid of flour clumps)
Method:
Pastry Dough:
1. Mix in the flour, baking powder and salt. Cut in tiny pieces of butter and add to the flour mix. Start kneading the dough till it gets evenly crumbly.
2. In a small bowl beat the egg, along with water and lemon-juice. Add thyme and beat some more. Add this mix to the dough, while kneading constantly, one spoon at a time. Set the dough aside.
Filling:
1. Boil 6 medium potatoes, till they are soft at the center, but still quite firm. Peel off the potato skin and mash using a fork till you get small chunks (do not mash evenly, as you would for mashed potatoes).
2. In a wok heat oil and add cumin seeds. When the cumin starts sizzling, add ginger, followed by potatoes and peas. Add turmeric, coriander, salt, cumin powder, black pepper along with the chopped serranos and cilantro. Stir the mixture and cook with the lid on for about 3-5 minutes.
Assembly:
1. Take a small ball of the prepared dough, (roughly an inch and a half in diameter) and roll into a circular disc, approximately 5-6 inches in diameter.
2. Cut the disc in half, as shown in the picture and add about 1/3 cup filling to one side of each half. Apply the pastry glue along the edges of each half, as in the picture.
3. Lift the other end of the “half disc” and fold over the filling. Pinch the ends around the filling to “seal” the samosa. Repeat the same for the other half-disc.
4. Arrange the samosas on a baking sheet.
5. Bake the samosas in the oven at 400F for 20-25 minutes, till golden brown.
5 comments:
There goes my New Year's resolution!I will try this tomorrow.
Thanks a lot! You had to do it!
I can almost taste the crispy crust. Who took the photos?
Thanks Paras!! Let me know how they come out - desperately want a feedback. Dan took the pictures. He asked me to mention it to you that "he is complaining about the camera." The close ups from the regular digital cameras are not that great, parts of the picture get out of focus. We need to get an SLR, for a professional job. In the meantime we'll stick to this.
Happy new Year!!
This sounds yummy and healthy Shiva. I am not a big fan of frying myself (esp. if I am the one frying :)).
looks good :) arre is it possible to make the crust w/o egg?
Ligne, I am not sure about the egg part. I haven't baked enough to figure out if egg can be substituted with anything else. I thought you ate eggs in cake, etc??
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