Ingredients
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon cumin seeds
- kosher salt
- 2 tablespoons oil
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 1½ cup water, plus more as needed
- 4-5 medium russet potatoes, scrubbed
- 1 teaspoon garam masala
- 1 teaspoon toasted cumin seed powder
- 1½ teaspoons sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 2-3 green Thai chiles
- 1/2 cup frozen peas, defrosted
- 1/2 cup chopped cilantro
- salt, to taste
- 1/2 cup tamarind concentrate
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon coriander powder
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon chaat masala
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne powder
- 1/4 teaspoon black salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon fennel powder
- 3 cups chopped cilantro
- 1/2 cup mint leaves
- 3/4 cup roasted split chickpeas (dalia) or any nuts
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/2-inch knob fresh ginger, peeled
- 1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1-2 bird's eye chiles
- 1/4 cup water, ice cold
- salt, to taste
- oil, for frying
Chef notes
This popular Indian street-food snack is easy to make and great hot or at room temperature. It's a Patel family tradition to make samosas together. We form an assembly line to make samosas: My sister and I roll, my dad stuffs and seals, mom does the frying, and my brothers eat. It's a beloved recipe in our house and millions around the world.
Swap option: Wonton wrappers for outer layer. Filling can be potatoes, lentils or meat.
Special equipment: Candy thermometer.
Preparation
For the samosa dough:
1.In a large bowl, add flour, cumin seeds and salt, and mix well.
2.Add the oil and then start mixing with your fingers.
3.Rub the flour with the oil until the oil is well-incorporated into all of the flour. Do this for 3 to 4 minutes, until oil is completely mixed with flour
4.Once incorporated, the mixture should resemble crumbs. Add the lemon juice and water slowly, then start mixing.
5.Don't overwork the dough and don't knead a soft dough; it should just come together and form a stiff dough.
6.Cover the dough with a moist cloth and let it rest for 40 minutes.
For the samosa filling:
Add unpeeled potatoes to a pot of cold water and bring to a boil. Let cook until tender. Alternatively, you can cook them in a pressure cooker on high pressure for 12 minutes with natural pressure release on a trivet with 1 cup water in the bottom of the pot.
While potatoes are warm, peel off the skin and gently mash the potatoes. Add all the spices, lemon juice, chiles, peas and cilantro. Mix and season with salt to taste. Set aside to cool.
For the tamarind-date chutney:
Whisk in all ingredients in a glass bowl with 1/4 cup hot water and set aside.
For the cilantro-mint chutney:
Combine all the ingredients in a blender and blend on high speed until smooth. Season with salt then transfer to a serving bowl.
To assemble:
1.Once the dough has rested, give it a quick knead, then divide the dough into 5 equal parts of about 2 ounces each.
2.While you start working on a piece of dough, keep the remaining dough balls covered at all times with a moist cloth or else the dough will dry out.
3.Roll one dough ball into a circle-oval kind of shape, around 6 to 7 inches in diameter, and then cut it into 2 parts.
4.Take one part and apply water on the straight edge. Use water to seal the seams.
5.Bring the two ends of the straight edge together and pinch them to form a cone. Pinch the pointed ends to make it a perfect cone shape.
6.Fill the samosa with the potato filling, around 1 to 2 tablespoons, leaving room at the top to seal.
7.Add water to 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. Then pinch the edges and seal the samosa.
8.Repeat the same process with remaining dough. Keep under a moist kitchen towel.
9.Heat oil in a heavy bottomed pot to 325 F.
10.Working in batches, drop samosas and fry on low heat until the samosas are firm and light brown in color.
11.Reduce the heat to lower the temperature and then add the second batch.
12.Enjoy hot samosas with cilantro chutney and sweet tamarind chutney.
