Persian Samosas Food

SAMOSAS

Steps:

• First put the potatoes on to boil until tender, then drain and cool.
• While the potatoes are cooking, make the pastry by mixing the flour and salt in a bowl.
• Pour in the butter or ghee and rub together wtih the flour until it becomes slightly flaky.
• Pour 3/4 cup water over the flour and pull the dough together with your hands.
• You can add up to 4 tbsp more water, one spoonful at a time, until everything comes together in a bowl.
• From here you can knead the dough by hand for about 10 minutes or throw it in a mixer with a dough attachment, going until the dough is smooth and elastic.
• When the dough is done, place it in a bowl, rub with oil and cover until you are ready to fill the samosas.
• Next, start making the filling by cutting your cooked potatoes into cubes.
• Heat the oil in a frying pan and throw in the mustard seeds.
• Cook until they start to crackle and burst and when that happens immediately add your chopped onion and ginger.
• Cook for a few minutes until the onion softens and then add the fennel, cumin, turmeric, potatoes, peas, salt and water.
• Stir well and then reduce the heat to low and let cook for about 5 minutes.
• Sprinkle over the garam masala and hot pepper and stir again.
• Taste for seasoning and then take off the heat.
• Now it is time to start filling your samosas.
• Grab a piece of dough by pinching off a piece and rolling it thinly and into a circle.
• You can make the samosas any size you like.
• With a knife, cut the circle in half, moisten the straight edge with a finger dipped in water and then shape it into a cone, pressing the straight edges together to form a seal.
• You should now have a little ice cream cone shaped piece of dough which you can spoon filling into.
• Fill and then moisten the top edges and press closed.
• Set on a plate and cover with foil or plastic wrap until you are ready to cook (up to 2-3 hours later).
• To deep fry the samosas, pour 3 cups of vegetable oil into a 12 inch wok and heat until a piece of dough thrown into the oil bubbles.
• If you have a deep fryer, you want a temperature around 375°F.
• Brown on both sides and drain on paper towel.
• Finally, you can enjoy a samosa!

PERSIAN SAMOSAS

Steps:

• Peel the potatoes, cube them, and boil them until they start to get tender, about 20 minutes.
• Dice the onions, saute them in a pan with a little bit of olive oil, about 6 minutes, or until they start to brown. season with turmeric and pepper while they are sauteing. add the garlic and saute for about 45 more seconds. set aside.
• brown the turkey. Add the frozen peas and cook for an additional couple minutes.
• de-stem the cilantro and parsley as best you can (honestly, i'm pretty lazy about this). dice.
• When the potatoes are tender, drain the water and mash with a tbsp of olive oil or butter. Season with salt, pepper, dried mint, and cayenne.
• Cut the flour tortillas in half vertically. put a dollop of the potato, onions, turkey, and herbs right in the middle. fold over vertically. fold and smush the sides (it might help to wet your fingers), making a triangular pocket.
• In a large, relatively deep pan, heat about half an inch of canola oil on medium high heat for about five minutes, or until it starts to crackle. Put your first batch of samosas in, and turn the heat down to medium low. Fry on both sides for about 3-5 minutes, until they are nice and brown.
• Alternatively, you can be a bit more healthy and bake them at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes, turning once. Just lightly brush olive oil on both sides.

SAMOSA RECIPE

Steps:

• Start by making the samosa dough. To a large bowl, add flour, ajwain (carom seeds), salt and mix well.
• 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.
• Press some flour between your palm- it should form a shape (& not crumble) - means oil is enough and well incorporated.
• 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.
• 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.
• Boil potatoes until done. 8 to 9 whistles on high heat with natural pressure release if using 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.
• Peel the skin and them 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.Let the seeds sizzle for few seconds and then add the chopped ginger, green chili and hing. Cook for 1 minute.
• 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.
• Add the coriander powder, garam masala, amchur, red chili powder and salt. Mix to combine. Once it's all well incorporated, remove pan from heat and let the filling cool down a bit.
• Once the dough has rested, give it a quick knead. Then divide the dough into 7 equal parts of around 58-60 grams each.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.
• Roll one dough ball into a circle-oval kind of shape, around 6-7 inches in diameter and then cut it into two parts.
• 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.Now bring the two ends of the straight edge together and pinch them to form a cone. See step-by-step pictures above for a better idea. Pinch the pointed ends to make it a perfect cone shape.
• Fill the samosa with the potato filling, around 1 to 2 tablespoons. Don't overfill the samosa.
• Now again apply water all around the circumference of the cone as you have to seal it. Pinch the opposite side (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.
• Your samosa is now ready. Repeat the same process with 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.
• 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.
• 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.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.
• 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.Enjoy hot samosas with cilantro chutney or sweet tamarind chutney!