Samosa

The samosa family is large and varied and spread across five continents. The limitless possibilities that the samosa offers — the opportunities to play with tastes and textures; size and seasonings, fragrances and fillings — has inspired cooks down the age. 

Samosa is considered as one of the popular snack not only in India but throughout the entire Indian sub-continent. It makes a great appetizer. Traditionally samosas are triangular or conical in shape. It consists of a shell,  made of all purpose flour, and a spicy filling usually made of potatoes and green peas and deep fried. There are wide varieties of filling for the samosas. In Bengal the samosas are filled with sweetened reduced milk. But whatever the fillings are- samosas are treasured snack and goes well with a cup of hot herbal tea.

My mom is an expert in making samosas. I learnt it from her. I made my samsoas with the routine potato filling.

Ingredients
Maida/ all purpose flour- 1 cup
Semolina/ sooji rava- 2 tbsp
oil- 2 tsp
salt to taste
warm water to knead the dough

Filling
Potatoes- 4
Green peas- 1 cup
green chillis- 4
Coriander powder- 2 1/2 tsp
Garam masala- 2 tsp
Amchur powder/ Dry mango powder-  1 1/2 tsp
 Jeera/ Cumin seeds- 1 tsp
Oil- 2 tbsp
Cilantro (coriander leaves)- 2 tbsp

Oil to deep fry the samosas

Preparation

Mix the all purpose flour, water salt and oil and kneed it into a dough and allow it to stand for 15 minutes. 

Boil the potatoes and peel the skin and cut them in to small pieces.

Heat a pan and add 2 tbsp of oil. Add cumin seeds. When it breaks add the green chillies, corriander powder, amchur powder, garam masala and fry them for a minute and then add the green peas and saute it. When the green peas becomes tender add the potatoes and salt and saute it for 2 minutes. Remove it from the heat and garnish with cilantro leaves. Now the filling is ready. Allow it to cool for sometime. 

Heat the oil in a frying pan on a medium flame. Knead the dough nicely for 2 minutes and divide them into 8 equal balls. Roll each ball using a rolling ping of about 6 inch diameter and cut it into two equal halves. You would get 2 semicircles. Spread few drops of water on to the sides of the semicircle and fold it into a cone shape. Now stuff the cone with required amount of filling and close the cone by pressing the ends. Repeat the same steps for the remaining dough. Check the heat of oil by dropping a tiny bit of the dough in the oil. When the dropped bit comes up on to the  surface of the oil slowly then consider that as the correct heat for frying the samosas. Now fry the samosas slowly on a medium flame until golden brown. Serve with tomato sauce or dates- tamarind chutney or coriander chutney.

Note: Samosas should be fried on a low medium flam. When it is fried on a high flame the inner layer of the patties doesn't cook well.