Nadiya Hussain’s From-scratch Samosas
With a fragrant potato filling stuffed into crispy fried pastry, these easy homemade samosas from Nadiya's Simple Spices are perfect for impressing at special occasions.
From the book
Nadiya’s Simple Spices
Simple, flavour-packed recipes for the whole family.
Demystifying the notion that cooking with spices is complicated.
From easy breakfasts and lunches, to side dishes and classic bakes.
Introduction
Samosas are the centre of every celebration and every gathering. I love samosas and especially these ones, which we like to call shinghara. It’s the over-filled, shorter cousin of the samosa. To make these from scratch is a privilege and a joy, so enjoy.
Ingredients
| For the filling: | |
|---|---|
| 600g | potatoes, peeled, boiled and cooled |
| 3 tbsp | vegetable oil |
| 3 cloves of | garlic, crushed |
| 2 | onions, diced |
| 1 tsp | cumin |
| 2 tsp | salt |
| Large handful of | chopped fresh dill |
| For the pastry: | |
| 240g | plain flour |
| 1 tsp | salt |
| 2 tsp | caster sugar |
| 4 tbsp | vegetable oil |
| 85-90ml | cold water (you may not need it all) |
| oil for frying |
Method
Prep: 60 minutes (+ cooling & resting). Cook: 60 minutes.
Let’s start with the filling. The potatoes need to be peeled, boiled and cooled. Pour the vegetable oil into a small frying pan and when the oil is hot, add the garlic and fry till golden.
Now add the onion, cumin and salt and cook till the onion is soft and brown.
Mash the potatoes till smooth, add the browned onion and chopped dill, mix through and leave to cool completely.
Make the pastry by putting the plain flour in a bowl with the salt, caster sugar and vegetable oil. Mix through. Slowly pour in the water, using your hands to mix all of the time.
This is a really tight dough so don’t be tempted to add more water to make it come together, just bring together without kneading.
As soon as your dough has come together, wrap and leave to rest for 1 hour on the worktop.
Divide the rested pastry into six equal pieces, 60g each. Roll each one out to an oval shape, about 13cm x 23cm and 2mm thin. Cut each in half so you have two semi circles.
Have water ready to seal the pastry in places. Take a semi- circle and dab water lightly across the straight edge. Pick up and fold the straight edge in half so the ends meet, sealing so you have a cone shape. Make a C shape with your index finger and thumb and place the cone in there with the flap of pastry hanging over your index finger. Fill with the potato mixture.
Lightly dab water across the outer rim of the pastry and bring the flap over to create a flat base, then seal the edges. Sit on the flat base on a lightly floured tray ready for frying.
Do this to all the semicircles.
Pour oil into a pan and pop on a medium heat – these need to start cooking in lukewarm oil so we get that biscuit crunch. Heat the oil to 70°C and then add your samosas. These take 30 minutes to fry, so I like to fry in batches of six.
Turn the heat up very slightly – as the oil fries you should see just a few bubbles. Turn the samosas and move every 5 minutes.
Drain on kitchen paper and eat hot. These are a labour of love but are worth every single second.
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