Boy, enjoying a warm samosa.
When I saw this recipe in the new special edition Fine Cooking “Appetizers” magazine, I knew that I would have to try it. We LOVE Indian food, and especially samosas. We are attending a party soon where we are expected to bring an appetizer and this may very well be what we bring. These were WAY labor-intensive: I prepared the garam masala one day, cooked the potatoes the next and then prepared the dough and make the samosas the next. Whew! But…..they were REALLY good. My worst fear is that I didn’t seal the samosas well enough and that they would fall apart and the filling would come out when I fried them, but they didn’t! Yay!
I learned a few things making them, though:
Garam Masala, toasting in a skillet.
The peppercorns that I use are a mixture of different colors of pepper, so that’s what the red things are.
I didn’t use the garam masala recipe that was in the recipe, but used this one, instead. They were similar enough that I don’t think it changed the flavor of the final product.
Browning the parboiled potatoes.
I used Yukon Gold potatoes, because that’s what we like and that’s what we had on hand.
I also couldn’t bring myself to use shortening: it’s just not something that I keep in the house, so I used butter, both to brown the potatoes and to make the dough.
Completed filling.
The first thing that I learned:
I think this recipe called for just a BIT too much coriander. There’s already quite a lot of coriander in the garam masala, so I don’t think I’ll add the extra seeds to the filling next time.
Rolling out the dough.
Forming the dough into a “cone”.
Stuffing filling into a dough “cone”.
The second thing that I learned –
I was afraid to stuff the samosas too full, for fear that the dough would rip, but they are really better when they are stuffed full of the potato-pea filling, and don’t have any empty “air space” in them. It turns out that the dough is much less fragile than I feared, so stuffing them pretty full is OK.
Formed and filled samosas – can you tell which ones I did last, after some practice?
Samosas, frying. 350 degrees for 5 minutes was PERFECT.
The third thing that I learned:
It was hard to turn the samosas over; they had a tendency to want to stay the way that you first put them in and would flip back over when I tried to turn them.
The finished plate of samosas (minus the two that Hubby and I ate before we took the photo).
The last thing that I learned –
I had a lot of filling left over. I haven’t decided if I’ll make a second batch of dough tomorrow and use it up or if I’ll use the filling in some sort of sandwich or fritatta, instead (maybe with some leftover turkey – ha, ha!)
I would HIGHLY recommend this recipe for anyone that loves samosas but hasn’t tried making them before. I would also highly recommend buying the “Appetizers” magazine – it has a lot more great recipes in it to get ready for upcoming holiday gatherings.
Wow…you are good.