When I lived in south Florida after college, I met Archana, a wonderful friend who introduced me to Indian cuisine. Prior to that, I rarely ate spicy or international foods, other than my father, Glenn’s, Indonesian Peanut Butter Sauce or chicken curry. I remember throughout my childhood, Glenn always telling me to “try it, you might like it”. I rarely did…until I met Archana. Glenn was sooooo right! I fell in love with lots of international flavors, the heat, and the exotic ingredients.
It all began with Archana’s spicy chicken wings and Indian samosas. She made her own pastry for her Indian samosas. I hadn’t been brave enough to try Indian samosas until I came across this post from Ali at Gimme Some Oven (a great blog).
After reading Ali’s post I was feeling nostalgic for Archana, her friendship and her cooking. Instead of a homemade dough, phyllo dough was suggested…that made the dish more approachable to me and I got brave enough to give Indian samosas a try.
As I began to cook the potatoes, I gathered the remaining ingredients to prepare the filling composed of potatoes, onion, and peas with spices and herbs.
I sautéed the onions and ginger in canola oil over medium heat. After a few minutes I stirred in the spices and peas and cooked for another few minutes. Then added the mashed potatoes and cilantro and continued to cook for a few minutes, adding some water to thin it out, as needed.
Now it was time for the daunting part…working with the phyllo dough and assembling the Indian samosas. I hadn’t worked a lot with phyllo dough so Ali’s tips about covering with plastic wrap and placing a damp towel on top of the stack of sheets as you work was most helpful in keeping it from drying out.
Now the buttering, filling, and folding…oh my! The kids were impressed and each gave it a go. They decided it was best for me to do them as this stuff is fragile! I persevered, however, as I took a sheet of phyllo dough, brushed with butter, folded in one-third, brushed with more butter, and repeated. I used my handy cookie dough scoop to place a consistent amount of filling for each samosa.
Then I called upon my school days skills of folding paper footballs or notes to pass to friends folded in the same manner so they wouldn’t be easily opened as I passed to my friends in class, ha ha! Once folded, I used the pastry brush and melted butter to seal the samosa.
As I assembled the Indian samosas, I placed them on a parchment covered baking sheet and covered with a damp kitchen towel so the didn’t dry out as I continued to work. creating all my Indian samosas, I popped them into the oven to bake, turning once midway through. It was a little too much phyllo dough, I will consider shortening the strip next time or cutting a third off of the sheet and using just two-thirds of a phyllo sheet for each Indian samosa.
These Indian samosas were fairly simple to make, flavorful as is, and, (in my opinion) even better with a cilantro chutney and/or raita.
Indian Samosas
Ingredients
For the mashed potatoes:
- 1 1/2 lbs yukon gold potatoes peeled and cut into bite sized pieces *
- water
For the filling:
- mashed potatoes
- 3 Tbsp vegetable oil
- 1/2 onion diced
- 1 tsp ginger paste
- 1 Tbsp ground coriander
- 1 tsp garam masala
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp salt
- 3/4 tsp ground mustard
- 1/4 tsp chili powder
- 1/4 cup frozen peas
- 1/4 cup water
- 1/4 cup fresh cilantro chopped, plus more for garnish, if desired
For the phyllo dough:
- 1 package frozen phyllo dough thawed
- 6 Tbsp butter melted
Instructions
For the mashed potatoes: *
- Peel and cut the potatoes.
- Place potatoes in pot, cover with water so water is an inch above potatoes, and season with salt.
- Once a fork can go in to potatoes easily, drain potatoes and mash.
- Set aside.
For the filling:
- Heat oil in large saute pan over medium-high heat.
- Saute diced onions and ginger paste for approximately 3 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Add the ground coriander, garam masala, ground cumin, salt, ground mustard, and chili powder and stir.
- Add the frozen peas, stir to combine, and cook an additional 2-3 minutes.
- Add the mashed potatoes and chopped cilantro, continue to cook for another 2-3 minutes.
- Add water, as needed up to 1/4 cup, so that the filling mixture is moist.
- Taste and adjust seasonings, as needed.
- Remove from heat and allow to cool enough to handle.
For the phyllo dough triangles:
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Unroll the thawed phyllo dough, cover with plastic wrap and a damp lightweight towel to keep it from drying out.
- Peel off one sheet of phyllo dough and keep the remaining dough covered.
- Lay the pastry sheet on a flat, clean surface, and brush gently with melted butter.
- Fold phyllo sheet in one-third of the pastry lengthwise towards the middle.
- Brush again with the butter.
- Fold the last one-third to make a long triple-layered strip.
- Place one rounded teaspoon of the filling mixture at one end of the strip.
- Take the right corner and fold diagonally to the left, enclosing the filling and forming a triangle.
- Fold again along the upper crease of the triangle, and keep folding in this manner making triangle upon triangle until you reach the end of the strip.
- Brush a little butter on the dough to seal the samosa and so the outside is lightly coated in butter.
- Place the samosa onto a parchment lined baking sheet and cover with another damp towel while you assemble the rest of the samosas.
- Bake in the center of the oven for 20-25 minutes, or until golden and crisp, turning the samosas over halfway through the baking time.
- Serve warm, garnished with extra chopped cilantro, chutney, and/or raita, as desired.
Leave a Reply