PUNJABI SAMOSA



 





 

Growing up I remember whenever we had guests at home the first thing we would serve them was chai and delicious punjabi samosas with sweet and sour imli chutney bought from the sweet shop just below our house in pune. God! they were delicious, I think that was a reason we loved having guests at home so that we get to eat this all time favourite snack. Most of the times you can never stop at one, I mean common, atleast 3 if not more. Whenever we would go to visit our relatives and if they didnt serve samosas that was a big turn off. No visiting them next time.. they didnt even serve us samosas!!!! that is a sin! how can you not serve samosas when someone comes to visit you :). Having crispy flaky plump samosas with a generous helping of imly chutney would bring so much joy in our lives and it still does. Unfortunately here in south florida I rarely came across a good samosa, sometimes they are hard, sometimes salty, at times the masala is way to spicy. Even if we manage to find a decent samosa they never serve it with the yummy imli chutney. After a series of bad experiences I finally gave up eating samosas at  Indian restaurants. I decided to make them at home. Here is a punjabi samosa recipe that is a little closer to what you get in India.

 

Ingredients:- for the shell

2 1/2-cups all purpose flour

1 tsp-Ajwain

1 tsp-Salt

4 tblsp-ghee

 

Ingredients - for the filling

5 potatoes - boiled and mashed

2 tblsp- ghee

1inch piece of ginger-finely chopped

1 tsp-cumin seeds

1 1/2 tsp-amchur powder (mango powder)

1 tsp-red chilli powder

2-green chillies finely chopped

1 tsp-coriander powder

1 tsp-punjabi garam masala

1 tsp-anardana (pomegranate seeds)

1 tblsp-coriander seeds

2 tblsp-raisins

3 tblsp-cashew nuts (broken in half)

1 cup fresh peas-blanched (cooked in hot water for a min)

Salt to taste.

Oil for frying

1. Mix flour, ajwain, salt and ghee and rub it with your hands to form a consistency of bread crumbs.
2. Add little water and make a stiff dough, cover it with a damp cloth and let it rest.
3. Meanwhile add ghee in a pan, add cumin seeds, ginger and let it cook for 1 min. Add the mashed potatoes.
4. Now add amchur, red chilli powder, garam masala, coriander powder and salt.
5. Dry roast coriander and pomegranate seeds, crush them and add to the masala. 
6. Add peas, raisins and cashew nuts. Mix well. Allow the masala to cool down.
7. Take a small round portion of the dough and roll it in a round shape using a rolling pin.
8. Cut into two halves. Each of the cut portion should look like a half moon.
9. Take one portion and join the two corners of the straight line to form a cone, hold it upside down and fill it with a tbsp of the masala.
10. Apply water around the corner and seal the edges tightly.
11. Repeat the same process with the other half.
12. Deep fry in oil.  
13. Serve hot with ketchup or imli chutney.
14. Dont worry about the shapes of the samosas. They dont have to be perfect.

 Dates and imli chutney.

Ingredients:-
2 cups- pitted dates deseeded
1/4 cup- tamarind (imli), deseeded
1 cup-grated jaggery (gur)
1 tsp- chilli powder
 salt to taste
1 tblsp-Fennel seeds
4 cups-water

1. Wash dates and tamarind and place them in a pan. Add salt, jaggery, chilli powder and salt.
2. Add water and simmer on a moderate heat for 30 mins.
3. Cool and strain the mixture through a sieve.
4. Heat about 1 tsp oil, add the fennel seeds and cook until light brown. Add the fennel seeds to the chutney.
5. Cool in the fridge and then serve.

Tips/notes:-
Try and roll the dough as thin as possible but not so thin that it breaks. This makes the shell crispy.
Do not fry in very hot oil. Start with a very low flame, let the outer coating get a slight light brown color and then increase the flame in the last 5 mins so that the samosas gets fully cooked.