Minimalist Indian Cooking: Samosas

Namaste lovely people! How are you doing lately? In all honesty, the monsoon over here has triggered my cravings further and has left me in the mood for some lip-smacking savory goodness. Hence, here I am sharing another fabulous dish from my homeland.

Samosas are a very popular snack in India and one of my personal favorites. The best part about it is that it pairs perfectly with any beverage that you may like, from tea to coffee to cold drinks to even cool buttermilk.

Do you know that India has the world’s largest number of vegetarians from all over the world? Thus, typically, it is filled with spiced mashed potatoes mixed with onions, peas, etc. but you can make the filling anything that you like. For example: beef, cheese, other meats, etc.

Even though I am not a strict vegetarian, I prefer my samosas filled with spiced potatoes and that’s what I’ll be sharing with you all, today. As potatoes are easily available in every household and I am nothing if not a minimalist.

I believe in cooking with the least number of easily available ingredients but without jeopardizing the dish’s taste to give the highest satisfaction score to our craving induced minds. Hence, increasing the overall productivity and contributing to world peace.

But you can stuff your samosas with anything that your taste buds might fancy. Make sure that you satisfy your cravings, effectively, as it is very important for your mental health and also helps in keeping the frustration levels to a minimum.

DISCLAIMER: I am listing down the recipe which has worked for me. Before starting, I want to say that I am not a scientific cook (most Indians aren’t), I work with my intuition and don’t measure each and everything. So, you don’t need to strictly follow my measurements instead I encourage you to trust your gut and move freely.

Ingredients

Recipe

Pastry Dough

• Mix Salt and Refined Oil in Flour and mix well.
• With the help of some water make a dough. The dough should not be soft therefore use minimum water.
• Make small balls from the dough.
• Roll the dough balls into thin flat round rotis and cut them diametrically into semi-circle.
• Keep them aside.

Potato Stuffing

• Boil the potatoes (and peas). Let them cool down.
• Crumble the potatoes (do not mash them).
• Take a frying pan and add oil (1 ts) on medium flame.
• After heating the oil add cumin seeds.
• Next, add ginger paste and finely chopped green chilies. Saute for (~45 seconds).
• Add spices: Salt and red chili powder as per your taste. Saute (~30 seconds).
• Add peas and saute (~45 seconds) and then add crumbled potatoes.
• Mix and saute (~3 minutes). Taste a little and add salt or chili, if needed.
• Set aside and let it cool down.
• Add lemon juice and finely chopped green coriander leaves (3 ts) (optional). Mix well.

Making Samosas

• Take the flat semi-circular rotis and apply a little amount of water on the edges and fold them to make a cone.
• Fill the empty cone with potato-stuffing and seal it properly.
• Repeat the process for all the rotis. Make sure to seal them properly from all the edges. (In case you find making the cone difficult then you can make any other shape which you find easy. The point is to stuff the potato-stuffing in the pastry dough.)
• Take a deep frying pan and pour oil in it to heat on medium flame (You can also bake them or use an air-fryer if you like).
• Once the oil is hot enough, slide the samosas one by one and fry them on low to medium heat until golden (This takes time, don’t rush).
• Serve them hot with any kind of sauce/chutney that you prefer (I like mine with mint-chutney).

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There are various ways in which you can elevate this to another level but my aim is to make this as simple as possible with the least number of ingredients possible. I hope it works for you.

Until next time, cheers