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Keema Samosa
Serves 6 Prep 45 min Cook 25 min Total 1 hr 10 min Type Side Origin Indian

Keema Samosa

The meat samosa: triangular pastries filled with spiced lamb mince and peas cooked dry, deep-fried until shatteringly golden. Served with chutneys.

Serves 6 Prep 45 minutes Cook 25 minutes Units Rate

Overview

Lamb mince fries with onion, garlic, ginger and a spice mix of garam masala, cumin, coriander and chilli. Frozen peas thaw into the dry filling at the end; lemon juice and chopped coriander finish it. Left to cool. Spring-roll pastry strips fold around a generous tablespoon of filling into triangular packets (flag-fold) and seal with flour paste. Deep-fried 175°C until deep gold.

Ingredients

Filling

  • 500 g lamb mince (or beef)
  • 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
  • 1 onion (large, very finely chopped)
  • 4 garlic cloves (crushed)
  • 1 thumb fresh ginger (grated)
  • 2 green chillies (finely chopped)
  • 1 ½ teaspoons Garam Masala
  • 1 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1 teaspoon ground coriander
  • 1 teaspoon Kashmiri chilli powder
  • ½ teaspoon ground turmeric
  • 150 g frozen peas
  • 3 tablespoons fresh coriander (chopped)
  • 2 tablespoons fresh mint (chopped)
  • ½ lemon (juice)
  • 1 teaspoon salt (to taste)
  • ½ teaspoon ground black pepper

Wrapping

  • 16 spring-roll pastry sheets (cut into 8 x 25 cm strips)
  • 2 tablespoons plain flour (with 3 tablespoons water)
  • 1 litre vegetable oil for deep frying

To serve

Method

Stage 1 - Filling

  1. Heat the oil in a wide heavy pan over medium-high.
  2. Brown the lamb hard, breaking up clumps; pour off excess fat.
  3. Add the onion; cook 6-7 minutes until soft.
  4. Stir in garlic, ginger and green chilli; cook 1 minute.
  5. Add all the dry spices; toast 30 seconds.
  6. Splash in 100 ml water; simmer 5 minutes until almost dry.
  7. Stir in peas, lemon juice, salt, pepper, fresh coriander and mint.
  8. Spread on a tray; cool completely.

Stage 2 - Fold

  1. Take a pastry strip. Place a generous tablespoon of cool filling on the bottom-right corner.
  2. Fold the corner up to the left edge to form a triangle.
  3. Continue folding the triangle up the strip - flag-fold method.
  4. At the tail, brush with flour paste; tuck and seal.

Stage 3 - Fry

  1. Heat the oil to 175°C in a deep pan.
  2. Fry in batches of 4-5, 3-4 minutes total, turning, until deep gold and crisp.
  3. Drain on kitchen paper.

Stage 4 - Serve

  1. Eat warm with tamarind or mint chutney and a lemon wedge.

Notes

  • Cool the filling: Crucial. Warm filling melts the pastry and breaks the seal. Cool fully - 30 minutes on a tray works.
  • Spring-roll vs samosa pastry: Real samosa pastry is hand-rolled (flour, salt, oil, water) and is heavier and chewier. Spring-roll sheets give a quicker, crispier shell - widely accepted home shortcut.
  • Make ahead and freeze: Fold; freeze on a tray; bag. Fry from frozen, adding 2 minutes to the cook time.

Storage

  • Refrigerate cooked samosa 2 days; re-crisp at 200°C 6 minutes.
  • Freeze unfried 3 months.

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Samosa

Samosa

A stiff oil-rich plain-flour dough (maida) rolls thin and crisps in the fryer with the characteristic blistered surface. The filling is dry: boiled potato, peas, ginger, green chilli, cumin, coriander seed, garam masala and amchur (dried mango powder) for sourness. The pastry is rolled into ovals, halved into semicircles, formed into cones, stuffed, sealed and fried in two stages: low-temperature first to set the pastry without browning, then a hot finish to blister and crisp.

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