Name: Samosa (Punjabi Potato and Pea Pastry)
Prep time: 1 h
Cook time: 35 min
Total time: 1 h 35 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Indian
Ingredients: 250 g plain flour; 60 g ghee; 1 tsp salt; 0.5 tsp ajwain; 85 ml cold water; 500 g floury potatoes; 100 g peas; 2 tbsp neutral oil; 1 tsp cumin seeds; 1 tbsp ginger; 2 pcs green chillies; 1 tsp ground coriander; 1 tsp garam masala; 1 tsp amchur; 1 tsp salt; 1 handful coriander leaves; 1 L neutral oil; 4 tbsp mint chutney; 4 tbsp tamarind chutney

Ingredients

4servings

Dough
plain flour · maida in India; bread flour turns it tough250 g
ghee · or oil; 4 tbsp. This amount is the whole of the flakiness60 g
salt1 tsp
ajwain · carom seeds; leave it out rather than substituting cumin, which sends the flavour elsewhere0.5 tsp
cold water · added a little at a time, only until the dough just holds85 ml
Filling
floury potatoes · boiled in their skins and cooled completely500 g
peas · frozen is fine; briefly blanched100 g
neutral oil2 tbsp
cumin seeds1 tsp
ginger · finely minced1 tbsp
green chillies · finely chopped2 pcs
ground coriander1 tsp
garam masala · goes in at the end1 tsp
amchur · dried mango powder; or 1 tbsp lemon juice1 tsp
salt1 tsp
coriander leaves · roughly chopped1 handful
To fry
neutral oil · deep enough to submerge them; be generous, since the oil has to stay cool1 L
To serve
mint chutney · coriander, mint, green chilli and lemon blitzed together4 tbsp
tamarind chutney · sweet-sour; skip it if you have none4 tbsp

Steps

Boil the potatoes in their skins for 25 minutes, peel, and cool them completely. Lukewarm is not enough: a filling with any warmth left steams the pastry from the inside as it fries and softens it.
⏲ 45 min
Rub the ghee into the flour, salt and ajwain with your hands for 5 minutes, until a squeezed fistful holds its shape when you open your hand. India calls this stage moyan, and it is what makes the pastry flaky. Skimp on the fat here and nothing later recovers it.
⏲ 5 min
Add the cold water a little at a time to make a very stiff dough — far firmer than chapati dough. Bring it together but do not knead it: developed gluten gives you a tough shell with no layers. Cover with a damp cloth and rest 30 minutes.
⏲ 30 min
Fry the cumin seeds in the oil for 30 seconds until fragrant, then the ginger and green chilli for a minute.
⏲ 2 min
Add the ground coriander and fry only 20 seconds. Ground spices catch fast, and once caught the bitterness stays in the whole filling.
⏲ 1 min
Crush the cooled potatoes coarsely by hand into the pan and fry 3 minutes with the peas. Mashed, they turn to paste and the texture is gone — lumps are the point.
⏲ 4 min
Stir in the salt, amchur, garam masala and coriander leaves, then take it off the heat. Acid and garam masala go in last so their aroma survives. Cool the filling completely.
⏲ 30 min
Divide the dough into 6, roll each into a thin oval about 18cm across, and cut each in half. One half-circle makes one samosa.
⏲ 10 min
Wet the straight edge and overlap it into a cone, pressing the seam firmly closed with your fingers. A seam that opens in the oil spills the filling and ruins the whole pan.
⏲ 10 min
Fill the cone, make one fold in the middle of the opening as a pleat, then press it shut. Flatten the base slightly so it stands. Keep the remaining dough under a damp cloth while you work.
⏲ 15 min
Heat the oil to only 120-130C — a samosa lowered in should barely bubble. Fry 15-20 minutes over very low heat at that temperature, the surface staying pale ivory as it slowly sets.
⏲ 20 min
Only now raise the heat to 170C and colour them for 2-3 minutes. They are done when fine cracks show on the surface and they sound hard when tapped. Cool on a rack — set on paper, the underside goes soggy.
⏲ 5 min

Tips & Variations

Variations

Keema samosa. 400g of minced lamb or beef fried with onion instead of the potato.

Meat carries more water, so fry it until the pan is dry or the pastry cannot hold up.

Paneer and pea. Swap half the potato for crumbled paneer — a good use for what is

left over from palak paneer.

Shingara, the Bengali version, is smaller and thinner-skinned, with cauliflower and

peanuts in the filling. Cut each dough round into eight instead of two.

Samosa chaat. Crush a fried samosa on the plate and pile

chana masala, chutneys, yoghurt and onion over it. It is the standard way to rescue day-old samosas.

Oven or air fryer (200C, 25 minutes) does give you layers, but not the glassy

shatter of frying — it becomes a lighter, more bread-like thing.

Empanada is the same idea somewhere else, and rests on the same

principle: fat rubbed into the flour is what makes the layers.

Tips

Starting in barely-warm oil is the whole technique. Hot oil sets the surface at

once, which blisters it and leaves the inside soft. Twenty minutes at a low temperature drives the water out slowly instead, drying the layers, and that dryness is the shatter (deep frying).

Do not cut the fat-rubbing short. Flour coated in fat cannot link into gluten when

the water arrives, so it separates into thin sheets instead. It is the same reason the dough is not kneaded (dough and gluten).

Keep the dough stiff. Extra water turns to steam in the fryer, puffs the shell, and

leaves it wrinkled and sagging as it cools. It should be hard work to roll.

Cool the filling; crush the potato by hand. Both are physical: warmth becomes steam,

and a masher bursts the starch into glue.

Amchur is not a garnish. Potato, flour and fat all pull in the same heavy direction,

and with no acid anywhere you tire of these by the second one. Lemon juice will do (balancing flavour).

Whole cumin first, garam masala last. Whole spices need oil to release into, while

garam masala loses its aroma to prolonged heat (blooming spices).

Freeze them shaped and they keep a month: fry from frozen at the same low

temperature, allowing about 5 minutes more. Fried samosas, by contrast, die in the fridge — bring them back in a 200C oven for 8 minutes.

The basics behind this dish

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