Thursday, August 7, 2008

Aloo ke Samose | Potato Samosas with Phyllo

Samosas = party!! Every special occasion deserves a treat and the samosa somehow makes an appearance at birthdays, office parties, picnics, marriages, well everywhere!! I still remember a great Mithai (Indian Sweet) shop near my grandparents home in Delhi which made the most divine Shingharas or Bengali version of samosas. They were so popular that one had to make a special order to make sure you got your hands on them!!

As samosas are a deep-fried treat, I generally don't make them at home except around festivals or when I am expecting a large number of guests. But the other day, I had this sudden samosa craving around tea time. As our local Indian grocery does not carry samosas, and quite frankly the frozen stuff looks questionable at best, I decided to experiment making a baked samosa!! The result: beautiful!!

Ingredients:
2 large potatoes, cubed
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp red chill powder
1/2 tsp coriander powder
1/4 tsp garam masala
1/4 tsp turmeric
2 tbsp cilantro, chopped fine
Salt, to taste
1 roll phyllo dough, defrosted
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp ghee


Method:
  1. First make the filling. Pour the ghee into a non-stick pan. When it is hot, add the cumin, reduce the heat to medium, and add the potato, turmeric, red chilli powder, and salt to taste. Cover and cook for 10 minutes or until potatoes are almost done. Now sprinkle with the coriander powder, garam masala, the chopped cilantro. Check for seasoning, cook for another five minutes, turn off the heat, and let it cool.
  2. Remove the defrosted phyllo dough from its covering, roll out, slice the layered sheets into 3 columns.Cover with a damp kitchen towel to retain moisture and prevent the phyllo from drying out.
  3. Place the olive oil in a small bowl. Take one sheet of phyllo from the first column and lay it flat. Dip a pastry brush in the oil, let excess oil drip off, then pat the phyllo sheet lightly all over. Place another sheet of phyllo from the first column over the first one and repeat. Repeat this process a third time. This will ensure that the layers of the dough remain separated and flaky when cooked.
  4. Place approximately one teaspoonful of the filling on the bottom edge of the prepared dough. Now fold the phyllo dough in triangles like a flag. Seal the pastry with a little oil and then brush some extra oil on the outer layer. This will give the pastry a crispness and a golden brown color when baking.
  5. Repeat with the phyllo dough until you run out of filling. Preheat the oven to 375F.
  6. Place the filled samosas on a baking sheet. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until the tops are golden brown.
  7. Serve hot or cold with your favourite chutney to add a sweet-spicy twist to the samosa!
I hope this recipe tempts a certain young lady from England at Happy Love Strawberry who is not only turning 18 this month but also hosting her first blog event. The great thing about this recipe is that you can make it fun by asking your friends to join in the preparation. Happy Birthday and hope you have a good one!!

I am also sending this recipe out to Dhanggit of Dhanggits Kitchen who is looking for the Perfect Party Dish for her daughter's very first birthday!! Best wishes to the lovely lady and hope everyone at your enjoys these Samosas!!

All text and photographs in this blog, unless otherwise noted, are Copyright of © Annarasa 2007-2013. All Rights Reserved. Kindly do not reproduce without permission.

2 comments:

  1. I bet that the use of phyllo made this samosa's even crispier!! What a wonderful recipe you concocted for my little darling!! Thanks for this entry!

    ReplyDelete

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