Samosa is a classic and popular Indian snack traditionally stuffed with spiced potato peas filling.
The triangular shaped flaky pastry filled with spicy potato is a popular snack not only in India but in several countries of the world. Now a days you can get different stuffing in the samosa’s like paneer, chicken, lamb, and even mixed vegetables to name a few.
I do feel nothing can beat the traditional stuffing of potatoes and peas (aloo and matar) in the flaky pastry. Samosas are so common in North India that you can literally buy samosa and chai at every other street corner with some chutney. I remember going shopping with my bhabie (sister-in-law) and we would always eat something while shopping. It was usually chat or samosa. There was a popular sweets shop called Krishna sweets where I lived. Their samosas were to die for! Crispy, flaky and melt in the mouth pastry with spicy ‘aloo matar’ (potatoes and peas) ki filling served with mint coriander chutney and Tamarind chutney.
When I came to the UK 18 years ago, I was quite surprised to find the samosas made with filo pastry here as I had never seen those in India. I am quite a traditionalist when it comes to samosas and I do not think anything can beat the flaky crispy pastry that you get at every street corner in India. In the recent years it has been heart-warming to see the flaky crispy pastry in samosa as we get in India in more and more restaurants.
I must admit that the samosa recipe might look complicated when you read it. Let me assure you that it looks more complicated on paper but quite easy to make if you plan your time. I always boil the potatoes one day in advance or night before in microwave and that makes everything easy the next day. This is one of the treats that you should make for special occasions or over a weekend when you want to have some fun in the kitchen.
There are four key stages to making samosas:
- Making the filling
- Making the pastry
- Filling the samosa
- Frying
Samosa is a comfort street food for many Indians. If you love samosa then other recipes worth trying are Easy Paneer Pakora, Onion Bhajia, Khasta Moong Dal Kachori, Dubki Wale Aloo, Jalebi and Gulab Jamun to name a few.
