Samosa Recipe

from Mollie Katzen's Moosewood Cookbook:

The Dough:

2.5 cups flour (we did all-purpose)
1/2 t salt
1 cup yogurt
extra flour, yog as needed (we added ~3T extra of yogs, since our dough was flaky after kneading)

1) Put flour and salt in a bowl, mix.
2) Add yogurt, mix in with a spoon or fingers, then use your hands to knead dough for about 5 minutes. Add flour if it's sticking to you or the bowl. In the end it'll be soft, but firm, and will hold together (you can pick it up by a corner and it won't fall apart).
3) Cover and refridgerate until you need it.

The Filling:

2 large potatoes
1 pat butter or some oil for frying
1 cup minced onion
2 medium cloves of garlic, minced
1 T freshly grated ginger
1 t mustard seeds
1 t coriander
3/4 t salt
1.5 cups uncooked green peas (we bought frozen and thawed in the fridge)
2 T lemon juice
cayenne, to taste (mmm, three dashes worked for me).

1) Peel potatoes, chop into small bits so they'll boil quickly. Boil until very soft, drain, and mash in a good sized bowl.
2) Fry onion, garlic, ginger, mustard seeds, coriander, and salt. Oops, i mean "saute". Medium heat, about 8 minutes, until onions are soft. oh yea, throw some cayenne in here if you're going to.
3) Add fried goodness to the potatoes, along with the other ingredients (peas and lemon juice), mix well (but Moosewood sez try not to smash the peas).
4) Let cool for ~ 15 minutes.

Assembly: (see here for photos)

1) Preheat oven to 425. Oil a cookie sheet

2) Along with your filling and dough, grab a fork and a small bowl of water. You're set.

3) Roll small balls of dough in your palms. Smaller than a ping pong, probably, but it depends on your duogh consistency. The goal is ~5 inch circles when rolled out with a rolling pin or empty bottle.

4) Place 1.5 T of filling in center of dough circle. Brush water along the outer edge of the dough circle, then pinch opposite inner sides together (wet to wet), to make a filled semi-circle shape. Lay on its side, use the fork to reinforce the seal.

5) Put the samosas on the baking sheet, brush oil on the side facing up (we just poured oil onto a small plate, and pressed both sides of each samosa down into it before placing on the cookie sheet). Bake for 15 minutes at 425, then flip the samosas over, turn the oven down to 375, and bake for 10 minutes more. ** Don't overbake! The samosas will get crispier as they cool, so don't worry if they look a bit soft when the 25 minutes are up. We kept them in 5-8 minutes longer and the edges especially were too hard.

6) MMMM. They won't last long! I'd even make the filling alone as a potato side dish to another meal, i thought it was great.