For this month's "Friendship 5 series", the theme is going to be "Childhood memories ". When I thought of what to blog about, this special samosa came to my mind immediately. When I was studying in my middle school @ St.Marys school, Chengalpet, our school canteen will have these samosas,some candies during our morning break. When the bell rings, we will go and flood the small area, where these samosas were sold. It would cost us around 50 paise for small onion samosas or rupee 1 for big punjabi samosas. It will not be a daily routine, but whenever ,mom gives us pocket money ( around rupee 1) , I will not miss to buy these samosas.
These small happiness , can never be bought with anything else in the world. Those were days, where we will be happy about small things. May be the search for good food , in the early ages, would have made me a happy food blogger now:).
Coming to the recipe, these are small samosa, which can be prepared in short period. I have given the short cut to make many samosa sheets at a time. We can also use samosa sheets, which are readily available in Indian stores and use them to prepare the samosas.The filling can be altered accordingly.
Preparationg time : 10 minutes
Cooking time : 30 minutes
Yield : 10 medium samosas
Ingredients:
For the dough :
1.Maida - 1 cup + 2 tbsp (for dusting)
2.Oil - 1 tbsp
3.Salt - 1/2 tsp
4.Water - as needed
For the filling :
1.Onion - 1 big
2.Green chillies - 2
3.Chilli powder - 1 tsp
4.Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
5.Garam masala - 1/4 tsp (optional)
6.Salt - as needed
7.Oil - for frying + tempering
8.Cilantro - few
For the glue:
1.Maida - 2 tbsp
2.Water - 1 tbsp
Method:
* Thinly slice the onions lenthwise. Take a pan, add oil and saute onions,chopped green chillies. When the onion turns transparent, add chilli powder,turmeric powder and garam masala.Saute till the raw smell of the masala is removed.
* Finally add the chopped cilantro to the onion . Cool the filling. While the filling is cooling, lets prepare the outer cover. Take a bowl, add maida,salt and oil. Add water little by little and form a smooth dough. The dough should be bit stiff. Not too stiff. Cover the dough and let it rest for atleast 10 minutes.
* Flour the working surface. Divide the dough into equal sized balls. Roll the dough into an oval shaped roti. Trim the edges to form a rectangle.Now , apply oil on top of the rectangle and sprinkle little flour on top.Similarly roll all the other doughs into rectangles , applying oil and flour in between. This way, we can prepare the outer cover of the samosa in a batch, instead of working on every single samosa.
* Now heat a tawa and place the stacked rectangles. Let them cook for a minute, on both sides. Now remove the rectangles , into thin sheets. As in the picture on the right.
* Take a small cup, add maida and water to form a simple paste. Roll the rectangle sheet into a cone. Scoop a small amount of onion filling and insert it inside the samosa, like that of the picture in the right. Now apply the maida paste on the corners and fold it . The samosa should be sealed well. If not the filling will come out , while frying.
* Prepare the samosas similarly . Take a pan of oil and heat it. Fry the samosas in medium hot oil, in batches.The samosa has to be cooked in medium hot oil throughout. We can also,fry the samosas till they are half cooked and double fry them to get crispier samosas.Strain the samosas on a hand towel. Serve it with ketchup or mint chutney.
Also check my "Punjabi samosa " recipe here.
Notes:
* The dough should be kneaded well. If the dough is so loose, then the samosas will drink lot of oil.
* The spice level of the filling can be altered according to our taste.
* We can also partially fry the samosas and freeze them in a ziploc bag. When we need , we can just fry them again to serve it crispier.
* We can also add 1/2 cup of maida and 1/2 cup of wheat flour to get a healthier samosa.
* We can also add some poha to the filling. This will absorb the moisture of the onion and make the samosa crispy.
