This recipe is in loving memory of my grandmother, whose recipes are my guide to know she is always by my side.
I was very nervous about cooking this dish and have therefore been putting it off inadvertently. This was my grandmothers signature dish, you know, like when you battle on Beat Bobby Flay, you go up against the master with your signature dish. This dish was the dish my grandma was known for. She used them to barter for services, like hairdressing and dentistry, gave them as gifts for people’s birthdays and sold them at fetes to raise money for charity.
My grandma must have made tens thousands of samosas. My husband will say I exaggerate when trying to make a point and I have told him a million times, that that is not true. Okay, maybe he has a point…. I do not exaggerate about this however. I would see hundreds ready to sell for charity on a Saturday morning and we had them every Sunday for as long as I remember, so you do the maths Mr. B! 🙂
Most restaurants I have been to in the USA use a heavy pastry for samosas, like a puff pastry, making them more like a Cornish pasty or Empanada. When I went into the Indian supermarket and asked them for samosa chapati, they gave me won ton wrappers, which I tried and they still come out thicker and more puffed up then my grandma’s, making them heavier, like a spring roll.
My grandma of course made everything from scratch and there is a lot of time and skill involved in doing this. The samosa chapati she makes is much lighter done this way then anything store bought and in fact is the same recipe for phyllo pastry. It is tasty on its own and so if you want to practice you could make it and use it as a wrap for other food.
The dough is just plain flour and water and the filling is potatoes, peas and onions, so pretty simple and cheap. The method looks long, but it is just because I have broken it down into as many stages as possible to make it easy to follow.
Ingredients
Samosa chapati
- 2 cups flour, extra for dusting, kneading and glue
- 1 tsp. salt
- ¾ cup water, add extra if the dough is too dry
Samosa filling
- 200g oven chips (grandma time saving tip) or 2 cups mashed potatoes
- ½ cup cooked peas
- ½ tsp. turmeric
- 1 tsp. chilli powder
- 1 tsp. coriander powder
- ½ tsp. cumin powder
- ½ tsp. fennel seeds
- 1 tsp. grated ginger
- 1 tsp. garam masala
- 3 tbsp. cilantro, chopped
- Salt
- 2 tsp. oil
Method
For the chapati
- Place flour and salt in a bowl, make a well, then pour in the water
- Mix until a soft dough is formed, adding more water if needed
- On a floured surface, knead the dough until soft and no longer sticky
- Lightly oil the dough and let it rest for about 10 minutes
- Once the dough is rested, divide it into quarters
- Roll out each quarter into a log and cut to form 3 equal balls
- Repeat the above procedure to yield a total of 12 small balls
- Keep the small balls covered to keep them from drying out
- Take one of the small balls
- Using a rolling pin, roll out the ball into a small disc
- Repeat the process to form 3 small discs
- Take one of the three small rolled out discs and brush and some vegetable oil
- Dust the oiled disc with some flour
- Take another rolled out disc and place on top of the oiled and floured one
- Repeat the procedure, brush some oil on the second disc
- Dust with some flour
- Place the third disc on the two that have already been staked up
- Dust the three layers with some flour and prepare to roll them out
- Using a rolling pin, firmly toll out the stacked-up discs
- Keep flipping over to ensure the discs roll out while still maintaining a circular shape
- Heat a heavy bottomed pan, I used the one for making chapatis. No oil is needed
- On a heated pan, place the rolled-out dough
- The idea is the dough to partially cook, flip after air pockets starts to form on one side, then remove from the pan
- Now the fun part, gently lift the top layer and gently pull away from the other two
- Pull away gently to keep the sheets from tearing
- Repeat for the second layer
- Once all the sheets have been precooked, stack them together
- Using a knife, cut the sheets in half
- Samosa pockets ready for use
- Before using the sheets, prepare the edible glue using flour and water
- Take one of the sheets
- Bring the end furthest from you to for a triangle
- Using a brush or your finger, apply some of the edible glue of the piece that is left
- Fold over to seal the pocket
- This will form a cone with your preferred filling
- Use your thumb to close up the cone
- Apply more of the edible glue on the hanging flap
- Then fold over to seal the samosa
- Eat as is (all component parts are cooked already), bake with a little oil or fry
Filling
- Heat oil in a pan. Add cumin seeds, fennel seeds, cumin and coriander powder
- When the seeds start to brown add ginger and stir for 10 seconds
- Add the onions and cook until translucent
- Add the peas, followed by turmeric, chili powder and salt. Add the potatoes, mix and sauté
- Add the garam masala
- Remove from the heat and mix in the cilantro
- Let cool and use in samosas
