Thursday, March 25, 2010

Baked Not Fried, The Alternative Samosa

  I love samosas. Crunchy, crispy filled with vegetable deliciousness. So when it came to the menu of foods for my birthday party last week, they were at the top of my list. What I don't like about samosas are the oily greasy part. Ok, I take that back. Like every human I love the greasy. That's half the fun. However, the greasy doesn't love me and I don't like what it has the potential of doing to my pants size.
 I also don't like half-baked short cuts to tasty. Most of the time they just don't seem to work out. That's why I decided on a full-baked short cut.  I would make samosas without the deep fat fryer. I would bake them.
There are a lot of recipes out there for baking samosas. Turns out a lot of people enjoy them, but would prefer not getting all the extra oil in their diet. A quick perusal of the internet led me to many variations of baking. Various temperatures.  I factored in all the different ways of going about it and then decided on a 400 degree oven for about 20 minutes. It worked.
We had about 18 people over to the house for my party. I settled on a menu of potato and pea samosas, momo made of  shrimp, more momo made of chicken,  a dhokla and assorted chutneys.
  I made my dough and filling a day ahead of time for easy assembly at party time. In two steps you'll be all set to tuck and roll on party day. The following recipe will make enough samosas for 6 people. needless to say I tripled it.
  Samosa Dough
  mix together:
1 cup of flour
1/4 tsp of salt
3 Tbs of vegetable oil
1/3 cup of water
   Mix all of this together. Knead it up and then set it aside covered with a warm damp cloth to rest for about 1 hour.
 If you're going to be using this the next day, cover the bowl with plastic wrap tightly and set it in the fridge. Take it out a good hour before you intend to use it so that it can come to room temperature.
  About the filling. There are a lot of different things one can stuff a samosa with. The most common being potatoes and peas. Even with that combo there are still a lot of variations depending on where the recipe comes from. Without being fancy I'll start off with a basic.
Samosa Stuffing
Boil 3 medium potatoes for about 15 to 20 minutes.
  When they're done, peel them, dice them and set them aside.
  In a large heavy pan heat :
1.) 2 Tbs of oil
   When it's hot toss in the diced potatoes and
2.) 1/2 cup of peas frozen or fresh . If using frozen, thaw them first.
3.) 2 tsp of ground coriander
4.) 1 tsp Kashmiri chili or 1/4 tsp cayenne 1/4 tsp paprika
5.) 1 tsp amchur (dried mango) powder
6.) 1 tsp of turmeric
7.) 1/2 tsp garam masala
  Mix it all up and cook it for about 5 minutes or so.
     As it worked out, I discovered that doubling the stuffing recipe was enough, even if I tripled the dough. I was paranoid about running out of samosa stuffing so I tripled the amount of that. Big mistake. Big. Mistake. I had waaaaay too much. All I needed to do was to double it and I would have been fine. You live, you learn.
So, now to assemble the samosas.
   Roll the dough out in a long cigar shape. Break off pieces of it as though making chapattis.
   Roll each piece into a ball then roll it out with the rolling pin into a round disc, same as a chapatti.
Take the disc and divide it in half. Each rolled out little ball makes two samosas.
Take a tablespoon of filling and place it in the corner of one of the halves.
Fold it over like so, into a little triangle.
Place your folded samosas on a lightly greased cookie sheet. Brush the samosas with a bit of oil.
   Slide the cookie sheet into a preheated 400 degree oven for about 20 minutes. When the samosas start to brown turn them over and brush with a bit of oil and cook  for a bit longer, 5 minutes or so, until they've lightly browned on both sides.
 Take them out and serve them hot, with chutney of your choice.

Or three. I made one hot hot hot, one sweet and one of cooling yogurt with mustard seed.
   The samosas drew a crowd both around the table
And under it, as patsy was hoping to get lucky.
     One of my birthday gifts was an olive tree from McEvoy Ranch. We made sure to get it outdoors before Patsy got any bright ideas.
    Of course among all the other stuff there had to be Princess cake.
I had a great party, I also had a good two days of cleanup, but....let the good times roll! Coming up, a killer momo recipe that can be whipped up in minutes and a look at some great dipping chutneys.

13 comments :

  1. Happy Birthday! I love the idea of baked samosas because that means I can enjoy them more often. They look great!

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  2. I like the idea of baked samosas. Yours look delicious.

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  3. Two days of cleanup! Oh well, worth it for a great party, right? These little babies look so darn good they're going in the recipe rotation for the week. mmmmm.

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  4. @lisa,
    yes, they were great, I of course had to "test" the recipe on myself earlier in the day..just to see if they worked.

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  5. Oh I rarely eat samosas because they're fried but those are perfect! Ahaha I wish I was at your party, I'm sure you had fun, from the pic everyone seems to be so busy eating!

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  6. You remind me of our curry puffs back home. Now I miss home :( Love your baked samosas. You have so much fun there. Wish I was there!

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  7. Ar cool! Will prefer baking it for sure :)

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  8. Well a belated Happy Birthday to you! I love samosas and would like some of that hot hot hot sauce on mine, please!

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  9. I love samosas too and when it's baked I can just munch it without worrying about the oil.

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  10. Samosa's are one of my most favorite things! YUM!!! I will definitely try this!

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  11. Nice, but not nearly as fluffy and light... :(

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  12. Try using left over samosa filling in an omelette

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