Baked Samosas

Another great recipe from With Love from Mom's Kitchen.  Spicy potatoes and peas stuffed into hand sized pastry then baked until golden.  A great snack or appetizer.

Samosas are a great savory snack.  I have only had them fried from Indian restaurants before with the potato and pea filling, and loved them.  Apparently they can also be stuffed with lentils too, or if you want a meat filling, lamb, chicken or beef.  This recipe is healthier and simpler (for those of us who find it difficult to deep fat fry at home) in that the samosas are baked rather than fried.  Since I do not have an Indian restaurant nearby, these are great.  They hit the spot and really curb the craving and they are pretty simple.

Ingredients:

Filling

4 medium boiled potatoes
2-3 Tbsp peas
1 tsp green chillies, minced
1 tsp amchoor powder (again I subbed some lime juice)
1 tsp garam masala
1/2 tsp red chilli powder
1 Tbsp cilantro, minced
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp cumin seeds

Roughly mash the potatoes, they should be broken into smaller pieces but you don't want them to be like mashed potatoes (they should still be kind of dry).  In a frying pan heat about 1 Tbsp of oil and add the cumin seeds until they sputter.  Then add the frozen peas and potatoes and all the spices, stir until mixed and peas are thawed.  Put aside or can refrigerate over night or until ready to stuff the pastry.

Pastry

2 cups flour
2 egg whites, lightly beaten
1/2 stick of butter
about 1/4-1/2 cup milk

Using a food processor (this makes it so easy) cut the butter into the flour until it resembles bred crumbs (for this I used the chopping blade).  Then (switch to the plastic dough blade) add the egg whiles and enough milk to bring the dough together.  Knead the dough until it is smooth and soft, but firm.  It is very important to have a firm dough, you do not want it sticky.  It is kind of like an over worked pie dough.

Cut the dough into about 6 pieces and roll into balls (should be about golf ball size...maybe a bit smaller).  Roll out one dough ball at a time to circle about 6-8 inched in diameter (I rolled them on waxed paper, but the dough is firm enough you need no extra flour to keep it from sticking).  Keep the dough you are not working with under plastic wrap so it doesn't dry out.  Cut the circle of dough in half and seal against the straight side into a cone shape (I used the egg yolk to help seal the seams).  Stuff the cone with the potato mixture and seal closed (the dough is surprisingly sturdy and you can really press a bunch of the potatoes into it).  Lay out on an aluminum foil covered baking sheet and bake at 375F for about 30 minutes or until golden brown.
For better step by step instructions and pictures see With Love from Mom's Kitchen.

Makes 12 samosas.  Can serve with chutney of choice or alone.  These are great the next day too.  I just tossed the leftovers into a ziploc bag and left them at room temperature for 2 days, the pastry softened,but they still were great.

Enjoy.