Samosa dough?

I fry my samosa so can't help with that. But I wanted to tell you how MUCH I loved reading your Blog. You are so entertaining and the recipes are wonderful. What a treat. I hope that your endeavors in culinary school are a feature in your Blog. I look forward to some great entertainment and learning lots of new things.

My son and daughter in law both graduated from NECI in 2002. It is indeed a struggle to make it in the culinary world. I have been wanting to go to the French Culinary Inst in NYC. I could live with my brother in the city and attend the baking school. It is 9K for the classes. I am still dreaming. Maybe someday.

 Thank you again for a most entertaining read. Caroline

I've never had flaky samosas but they would be very good.

I took an Indian cooking class at a local tech school and the very Indian teacher said that you could use flour tortillas,egg roll skins or even crescent roll biscuit dough to make the samosa dough, if you didn't want to make your own. I think I'd rather make my own.

Hi Flour Girl,

This is a recipe from Stendahls' 1985 edition of the "The Bombay Palace Cookbook", page 59, "Samosas Filled Turnovers". This recipe serves 4-6.

Pastry:

1 lb. unbleached white flour

2 tbsp. chopped corriander leaves

2 1/2 tbsp. oil

1/4 tsp. cumin seed, toasted

1/4 tsp. red chili powder

1. In a bowl mix all the ingredients except the cooking oil, first toasting the cumin seeds a few moments in a dry skillet until they begin to hop about. Add a bit of water to make a fairly stiff dough. Knead about 10 minutes, Cut off pieces of the dough and roll between your palms to make "golf balls". Let the dough balls rest for 15 minutes.

2. On a work surface, sprinkle a thin layer of flour, and roll out a ball of dough into a very thin oval, about 9 inches long. Cut the oval in half to make two semicircles.

3. Use on of the fillings suggested for pakoras, or make up a meat or vegetable filling of your choice. Put a rounded teaspoon of the filling in the center of a semicircle, lightly wet the edges of the semicircle with water and carefully fold it over to make a triangle. Press the edges lightly to make a seal.

4. In a wok or heavy skillet, add 2 inches oil and heat to 375 degrees. Drop in the samosas and press lightly with a spatula so that they become crisp all over. When golden brown, remove and drain on paper towels. Serve while hot.

In 1.) I'd let the dough rest for 15 minutes before kneading.

+Wild-Yeast

For flaky samosa dough, the trick is to first mix the oil into the flour to get a crumbly mixture, then add very little water to knead a fairly stiff dough. Do not knead too much. Let it rest for 30 minutes before rolling it out and making the classic triangles.

Samosas, like most Indian food is made regionally different as I'm sure you know, my point being that what one person perceives as the "correct" style is not really true, its a relative term.

Like you, I also love the flakey samosa pastry as this is how my Indian chef friends generally make it. I have eaten other forms of the samosa pastry and always compare these with my concept of what samosa pastry ought to be like... flakey !    However some do and some don't !   The way Ravi does it is exactly as described by Nim above, get the oil and AP flour mixed to a crumbly consistency first, then add only enough water to emulsify to sufficiently form a long roll.  Wrap up in cling film and refrigerate for several hours or overnight.  You will see tiny white dots on the surface.

The next day or whenever, slice off a 'round' of dough and roll out to an eliptical shape as thin as you like and cut the elipse in half across the middle.  Each half is then used for one samosa.... but then you didn't ask that part ...

I prefer ajwain seeds in my pastry and not cumin but thats a matter of how one is shown and what your preference is.

The mixing and the chilling are the keys though and I suspect you might be right about deep frying giving a flakier pastry when compared to baking.  Good luck.

Paul.