Kitchen Craft Episode 28: How to make samoosas

If you’ve always dreamed of making your own samoosas from scratch, Chef Clem is here with all the info – turns out, it’s not as complicated as you might think, just a bit repetitive. One might say, meditative. A real labour of love – but worth all the effort once you taste them.

SHOP THE VIDEO

Ingredients:

  • 3 cups flour, extra for dusting
  • 1t salt
  • 1 cup of water
  • The juice of ½ lemon
  • Canola oil or ghee for brushing over the dough
     

Method:

1. Add the flour and salt to a large mixing bowl. Mix the water and lemon juice together. Add the mix in batches of three to the dry ingredients, mixing with a wooden spoon. Continue adding water while mixing, until the batter resembles a straggly dough. 

2. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and begin kneading until a firm ball forms. Cover with plastic wrap and rest for 10 minutes. Knead for another 5 minutes until the dough becomes smooth and firm. Rest for another 10 minutes. 

3. Divide the dough into six equally sized balls. Roll the pieces out, dusting your rolling pin and dough with flour as needed. 

4. Shape a piece of dough into a rough rectangular shape; this will be your guide for the remaining pieces. Brush canola oil or melted ghee over your first layer, coating all of the dough, then dust with some flour. 

5. Roll out the second ball of dough, shaping it to match the first layer. Place the second layer over the first layer, stretching it as needed to fit perfectly. Brush with more ghee and dust with flour. Continue rolling out the other dough balls in the same way. 

6. Begin rolling out your six-layered dough sheet, spreading it out to fit a large baking tray. Trim the sides to form a rectangle before placing carefully on a baking tray lined with baking paper.

7. Place the dough in an oven preheated to 180 C to toast. After 2 minutes, the dough will begin to dry; at this stage look out for bubbling, it usually happens between 4-6 minutes. If you don’t have an oven with a bottom heating element, you’ll need to turn the dough over, toasting the underside in the same way.

8. Remove the baking tray from the oven and allow to cool until just warm. Cut long strips out of the pastry, between about 8cm in width, depending on how wide you’d like your samoosas and how wide your sheet is. The goal is to get even-sized strips, without any waste.

9. Carefully divide the six sheets of samoosa pastry from each strip. (The pastry can be frozen – wrap the sheets in baking paper and store in an airtight container in the freezer. It will thaw in a few minutes after being taken from the freezer.)

10. Fill the pastry with the curry of your choice – be sure to use a curry that is firm enough, so that it doesn’t leak from the samoosa pocket while frying. 

11. To fold the pastry: With the shorter part of the rectangle facing you, fold the left corner to point in the centre of the sheet to create an overlap on the right. Fold the overlap to meet the left side of the sheet. Gently pick up the sheet of pastry, holding the new corner to form a cone that can be filled. 

12. Add a spoonful of the filling to the cone, pinching down the corners to seal in the filling. Fold the point facing you to the left to create a perfect triangle, pressing down on the corners with every fold to secure them. Continue folding this way until you’ve formed a perfect samoosa. Any overlapping pastry can be sealed by dabbing the piece with water or a paste made out of flour and water. 

  • These samoosas can be frozen or fried immediately. 

If this sounds like too much effort, find your way to the Woolworths deli/party foods section.

SHOP DELI ENTERTAINING