Samosa is a popular snack in countries such as India, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh. Samosaa are now available and liked in many countries. It is a tetrahedron shaped pastry stuffed with a masala containing potato, onion, peas, paneer, spices and coriander leaves. Meat can also be added in the masala. The samosa is eaten with mint, coriander chutney. It is a good snack and is quite filling.
|Snack Recipes|
Samosas served in Indian restaurants and snack shops are usually fried in oil that has been used again and again, some may even use vanaspati (a trans-fat) so they are very bad for health. Given below is the baked samosa recipie which does not involve any frying.
Recipe type: fat free or with reduced fat
Preparation time: 1 hour
Ingredients:
- 4 Potatoes medium size
- 1 Onion finely chopped
- 1/4 cup green peas
- 1 small piece ginger root, grated
- 2 tsp fresh lime juice
- 2 green chili (or to taste)
- 1/4 cup coriander (cilantro) leaves, finely chopped
- 1.5 cup plain flour bleached (maida)
- 1 garlic grated (optional)
- 10-15 dried pomegranate (anardana) seeds (optional)
- 8-10 raisins/cashew nuts (optional)
- Canola oil for frying (optional)
Spices:
- 1/2 tsp garam masala (or to taste)
- 1 tsp red chili powder
- Salt to taste
- 2 tsp Coriander seeds
Preparation
Filling Masala for Samosa: Roast or boil potatoes until tender. Mash the potatoes and add chopped onion, ginger root, garlic, green chili, peas, coriander, lime juice, red chili powder, garam masala, salt, cumin seeds, anardana, and raisins/cashew nuts. Mix well.
How to Fold a Samosa : Samosa Filling
Take flour in a bowl, add 1/4 tsp salt (or to taste), and water to make stiff dough. Make small smooth balls and roll each ball to about 4" circle. Roll it more on one side to 10" to give it an elliptical shape. Cut it into half to get two pieces of 4"x 5" size (approx.). This will produce true samosa shape.
Dampen half the edge of 4" side of the piece. Hold both the corners of this side in your both the hands using thumb and a finger and bring damped portion beneath the undamped portion. Press and seal to give it a hollow cone shape.
Fill the samosa masala into the cone and seal the remaining two sides (bring the longer side closer to the other side) by dampening with water, enclosing the masala completely. This side will form the base of the samosa. Your finished samosa should stand on this base. Fill all other pieces to form similar tetrahedron shape samosa.
In the final step these samosas can either be baked or deep fried.
Picture of Filled Samosa
Type I
Baked Samosa
Preheat an owen to a temperature of 400 degree F. Place samosa in the owen and reduce the temperature to 300 degree F. In about 45 minutes crisp samosas would be ready (keep an eye on the samosa so that they are uniformely baked to a light brown colour).
Serve samosa warm with tomato sauce or coriander chutney.
Samosa Recipe Type II
Fried Samosa:
Heat oil in a deep skillet. Drop 2 or 3 samosas in it a fry at medium heat. With a spoon change the sides and fry until samosa turn light brown color (about 5-7 minutes)
Take out samosas on a kitchen towel so that excess oil gets absorbed.
Serve samosa hot with coriander-mint chutney or tomato ketchup.
Picture of Finished Samosa
Note:
The deep fried samosa is only for those who do not mind eating fat for a change.
There is no need of frying the masala. You will save a lot of fat without sacrificing the taste. A single samosa contains more than 350 calories, of which 160 calories (i.e. more than 40% of total calories) come from fat because of deep frying. The actual number of calories in a samosa, however, depends on its size, its stuffing and the oil in which nt has been fried. If you bake the samosa, you will be saving much of the calories. For nutrition of Indian foods go to Calories in Indian Foods.
Samosa is very good for picnics or during long-drives in cars.
Small size samosa is a very good entree item for parties.
Self-life of samosas or how to preserve leftover or uncooked samosa
Any leftover samosa can be kept in fridge for a few days, 3-4 days in fridge for baked samosa and 4-5 days for fried samosa. Heat them in an oven before serving.
Preserve unbaked or unfried samosa or uncooked samosa (i.e. filled samosa) in freezer. Seal or wrap in a polythene bag and keep them in deep fridge i.e where you make ice. They keep well for several months. Take out the required number of samosas and fry or bake whenever you like.
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