How To Cook Indian project - Dish 22

Growing up, we often had samosas at gatherings and parties, but they were always bought from a shop. We never made them and brought them, like we would bring other dishes for a potluck. I thin I had internalized this idea that samosas were something that you just did not make at home. That it was too hard, or too complicated.

With that, I was pretty surprised to see that there were some samosas in this cookbook. But I needed to build up the courage to try the recipe. I kept just thinking that I would mess it up some how. Well, I decided to stop putting it off, and go ahead and try it. Worst case scenario, they wouldn’t look good, but I was sure I could at least get them to taste decently.

Punjabi Samosas (cone-shaped deep-fried snack with a spicy-stuffing - pages 154-5)

Well, to start out, the regular adjustment apply - I used fewer green chilies than were listed. I also didn’t have green peas on hand, so I left those out. I’m beginning to think that “small” potatoes in the US are not the same as small potatoes in India, because I felt like I ended up with way more stuffing than needed.

I also misread the amount of ghee needed, and accidently used tablespoons instead of teaspoons of ghee. Luckily I was able to add more of the flour and other ingredients to scale to match my mistake. Since I already had so much extra filling, it turned out to be close to perfect, I only had one unused dough half.

Frying them took a few minutes more than I expected, but they turned out delicious. I will happily make these again!

Disclaimer and links: As I can’t just post the recipe from the book (I guess I don’t want to get in trouble over copyright) I am including links to similar recipes. That said, I didn’t make the linked recipes, so I can’t vouch for them. I’m only including them in case you want to make something similar, but don’t want to buy the book.

• A Kapoor Punjabi Samosas recipe online