Recipes

Despite being baked, not fried, these are surprisingly good – and can easily be made vegan (which is what I’ve got here). Or just go ahead and make the pastry with butter, and stuff it with whatever you like. Scroll down for accompanying tamarind-tomato sauce and coconut-mint chutney.

This recipe adapted from https://www.vegrecipesofindia.com/baked-samosa-recipe/

Makes ~ 16 medium sized samosas.

Time: about 2 hours (1 hr prep, 35 mins cook). Possibly more the first time you make them…

Pastry

Ingredients

• 2 c all purpose flour
• ~1/3 c oil
• ~1 tsp salt
• water
• optional:
  • 1/2 tsp of baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp of fennel, or cumin seed

Add everything to a bowl and rub in the oil to the flour. Add enough water to form a relatively stiff dough.

I find it easiest to try and keep the mixture ‘crumby’ rather than stuck together for as long as possible – this way it is easier to disperse the water through the dough. After every addition of water check to see if it is likely to come together ok. If not, split it back up and add more water.

Rest dough for 30 mins, covered.

Cut dough into 8 even pieces. Each of these you will roll out to a circle, not too thin (or the pastry will bake when filled) and not too thick (or they’ll be too small and the pastry won’t cook through or will be too hard).

Then cut each circle in half, put some water on one half of the cut edge and join radii to form a cone, pressing to seal. Put the filling in the cone, pressing it towards the tip. Once filled, bring the edges of the bottom of the cone together and seal well by pressing them together (can crimp with a fork if you could be bothered). Keep both filled and unfilled pastry under towels to keep moist.

Brush the filled samosas with oil and bake for ~35 mins at 180-190 degC (higher temp if your oven is not particularly flash).

Filling

Ingredients

• 1 tbs oil
• 1/2 tsp cumin seed
• 1 tsp black mustard seed
• 1/2 tsp chilli (dry or fresh)
• 1 heaped tsp fresh ginger, grated or chopped fine
• 3 large well-cooked floury potatoes (e.g. boiled or microwaved), chopped
• 1/3-1/2 cup peas
• ground spices, e.g.
  • 1/2 tsp chilli flakes or powder
  • 1/2 tsp crushed green or black cardamom seeds
  • 1/2 tsp tumeric
  • 1 tsp garam masala (or mix of whatever you like)
  • 1 tsp coriander powder
  • 1 tsp cumin powder
  • 1 tsp amchur powder (dry mango powder)
• salt as required
• 2 tbs fresh cilantro, chopped
• water

Wow that seems like a lot of ingredients, but most are spices and really just use what you have, it’ll be fine.

Heat the oil in a large frypan, and throw in the cumin and mustard seeds. Let them sizzle for a few seconds, until aromatic, then add in the ginger and chilli. Let that all sizzle for a few more seconds then add the chopped potatoes. Follow this with the spice mix, and peas. Dry fry this for a little, until fragrant. Then add ~1/2 c water, stir it around a little – ideally the potatoes will break down just a little and make a nice thick goo to bind all the filling together. Add more water if you need. By this time peas should be cooked too. Take off the heat and add cilantro. Cool before filling samosas (else pastry will dry out).

Tomato-tamarind sauce*

Put ~1tbs tamarind pulp in with 1/3 c hot water, let it sit to soften. Blend this with ~2 tsp fresh ginger. A nutribullet makes short work of this. Mix with 1/3 c ketchup. Done. Too easy.

Coconut-mint chutney*

Blend a handful of unsweetened desiccated coconut with ~ 2/3 c water, and half a cup or so of fresh mint, and a splash of vinegar. If you like, this can be thickened further with toasted besan (chickpea) flour, or enhanced with toasted mustard seeds and oil, but I think I prefer the clean version.

‘* the amounts for these are approximate. Honestly, I can’t remember. Just keep tasting it.