Samosas are typical Indian dumplings that are filled with both sweet and savory preparations and then fried in oil. The dough that wraps it is similar to filo pastry, so if you want to save the time it takes to make the wrap, buying filo pastry will be more than enough. Remember that filo pastry is not shortcrust pastry or puff pastry, it's the one used for baklava or the greek spanakopita.
The package is sold refrigerated and is called filo, phylo or yufka pasta, depending where do you live. The filo pastry can be fried or baked, so it can be used for many recipes
If you want to make a Western-style samosa, it is easiest to avoid the typical Indian condiments. But if you want to "indianize" it, just add curry and accompany them with tomato chutney (that's the most recommended way to taste samosas)
INGREDIENTS (4 people)
- 12 sheets of filo pastry
- 2 boneless chicken breasts
- 1 leek
- 1 green bell pepper
- Half a cup of fried tomato sauce
- Salt
- Black pepper
- Sunflower oil
- Butter
- Poppy seeds (optional)
- curry (optional)
Add a good splash of sunflower oil to a frying pan. Cut the breasts into very small pieces and sauté them until golden brown. Season with salt and remove. Next we sauté the leek and the pepper in the same oil and when they are soft we add the fried tomato and the chicken. Stir for a couple of minutes and the filling is ready. If you want it with an Indian aftertaste, add a teaspoon of curry.
Now we are going to prepare the dumpling. Carefully spread a sheet of filo on a cotton cloth. Butter it and place another sheet on top. Again you paint the sheet with butter and place another sheet on top. Next we cut the sheets - which are usually square - into rectangles. For example, we cut them into three rectangles. This is done a bit by eye. If the rectangles are very small, it will give you a lot of work to fill the samosas, so it is better to make them large (as long as they fit in the pan).
To make samosas better follow the drawing below. They are made in three steps, simply putting some stuffing in the first fold and then folding them over on themselves (I recommend doing a "practice" with a piece of paper and then moving on to the filo pastry).
Once we have made all the dumplings, if we want to give them an oriental flavor again, we can pass them through poppy or sesame seeds. The seed will stuck on the surface just pressing a bit.
Prepare a frying pan with plenty of sunflower oil and submerge them in bubbling oil until lightly browned. Then they are placed on absorbent paper and they are ready to eat. If we don't want to fry, they can be baked. We preheat to 220 degrees (428 F) and remove them when they start to brown (just few minutes, remember the filling is already cooked).
Really yummy indian food.