First, a word on this dish
Your first bite tells you whether the samosa is a good one, and what you are judging is the shell. It ought to snap and break into flakes, not bend or turn leathery. Three habits get you there: a dough kept stiff and a little dry, a fry that is patient and not hot, and a fold sealed so well that no potato slips out and scorches. By comparison the filling is easy. It is potato and peas with whole and ground spices, and it has to taste good by itself because the pastry contributes almost nothing. The shape here is the cone you will see at North Indian stalls, stuffed generously, closed with paste and fried in batches at moderate heat. If a batch comes out pale, bubbly or greasy, look at the dough and the thermometer first.
The story behind the dish
The pastry itself did not begin in India. Stuffed pockets and triangles, fried or baked, have a long history in Central Asia and the Middle East, and most food historians trace the samosa to those regions, from where it reached the subcontinent through trade and royal kitchens in medieval times, before the Mughal era. Persian and Arabic sources describe an early meat-filled pastry under a name like sanbusak. In India the dish changed a great deal: fillings followed regional and religious eating habits, and the potato-and-pea filling most people picture today became dominant in the north only after Portuguese traders introduced the potato in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The familiar vegetarian samosa is therefore a fairly recent variant of a far older pastry. Versions still vary from the flatter, differently shaped Bengali shingara to southern styles with other spicing, so it is wrong to pin the samosa to one region; it is something India adopted and then diversified from within.
The method, in order
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Prep
Make a stiff, dry-side dough
Rub the fat into the flour, ajwain and salt until a handful holds its shape when you squeeze it. This step creates the flaky layers in the fried shell. Add cold water slowly and knead into a tight, smooth dough, firmer than chapati dough, with no stretch when you pull it. Cover with a damp cloth and let it rest for 30 minutes.
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Cook
Cook the filling
Start by heating the oil and letting cumin and fennel seeds crackle until the kitchen smells of them. Stir in the ginger and green chillies for a few seconds, put in the peas and give them 2 to 3 minutes. Next come the coriander powder, garam masala, amchur, chilli powder and salt, followed by the mashed potato; mash it only halfway so you keep some bite. Let the spices cling to everything for another 2 to 3 minutes, then add fresh coriander. Spread the mixture out to cool completely before you fill any pastry, since warmth weakens the dough while you shape it.
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Prep
Roll and halve the pastry
Cut the rested dough into 6 even balls. Roll each into an oval about 15cm long and 2 to 3mm thick, then cut across the middle for two half-moons per ball, making 12 in total.
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Prep
Form the cone and fill it
Pick up a semicircle, brush the straight edge with the flour paste, and fold it into a cone, pinching the seam hard. A weak seam is the commonest reason samosas split open in the oil. Spoon in plenty of cooled potato mixture and pack it down, stopping short of the very top.
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Prep
Close the top
Fold the open rim into pleats and press it closed with a dab more flour paste. Flatten the bottom a little so the samosa stands up on its own. Squeeze it gently to check the seal: it should hold its shape and not give way.
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Cook
Fry slowly over moderate heat
Keep the oil at 150 to 160°C (300 to 325°F), which feels too cool for deep-frying and is meant to. Add a few samosas at a time and fry them gently, turning once in a while, for 15 to 18 minutes, until they are deeply golden and firm to the touch. A slow fry gives the raw dough time to cook through and flake, before the surface can darken. Frying faster at a higher temperature gives you pale, blistered or doughy shells.
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Cook
Drain and let them settle
Lift the samosas out with a slotted spoon onto a wire rack and not paper towels, so steam cannot soften the bottoms. Let them stand a few minutes before serving; once they have firmed up a little outside the oil, they bite more cleanly.
Ingredient stand-ins
Use ghee for part or all of the fat in the dough if you want a richer, more traditional taste than oil gives. Cauliflower, carrot or paneer can share the filling with the potato, or replace some of it, though the classic keeps to potato and peas. Fennel seeds can be dropped if you have none; they give a faint aniseed note that is customary but optional. Frozen peas are every bit as good as fresh ones and go in straight from the bag.
Making it milder or fiercer
Chilli enters through the green chillies and the red chilli powder in the filling, and you can change both before you cook. For milder samosas, drop the green chillies, use less chilli powder or none, and rely on garam masala and amchur for flavour. For more heat, add more of both plus a pinch of crushed dried red chilli. Taste the filling while it is warm, as flavours seem quieter once it cools, and balance salt and chilli together.
The slip most cooks make
Dough made too soft, or with too much water, blisters, bubbles and turns tough instead of flaky, so keep it stiff and add only the water needed to hold it together. Shaping samosas with warm filling means the filling steams inside the shell and softens it even before it reaches the oil, so allow it to cool fully. Hot oil browns the outside long before the middle cooks, leaving a pale, raw-tasting centre beneath a dark crust. Use moderate heat and be patient. And a poorly closed seam or top pleat is the number one reason a samosa bursts and spills filling, which also darkens the oil for the rest of the batch. Press every seam hard and be generous with the paste.
Storing what is left
Fridge or counter: Fry first, keep later: finished samosas last 3 days in a covered container in the fridge. For the freezer, shape them but do not fry, set them on a tray until firm, then bag them for as long as 2 months. Fry straight from frozen, at a touch lower heat and a few minutes longer. Thawing makes the shell soggy before it enters the oil. If you make the filling ahead of time, keep it chilled for up to 3 days.
Bringing it back to life: To crisp fried samosas again, put them in a 190°C (375°F) oven or air fryer for 8 to 10 minutes, until the shell is crunchy and the filling has heated through. A microwave leaves the pastry soft and a little leathery. Frozen cooked ones need a few more minutes, so check that the centre is hot.
Handle with care
Once the potatoes are boiled and the filling is cooked, let both cool without delay and put them in the refrigerator within about two hours unless you are using them at once. A thermometer helps you hold the frying oil at 150 to 160°C, because oil pushed past its limit begins to smoke and break down, and that oil is finished. You may strain and keep oil that stayed within a sensible range and still smells clean. Throw it out when it has turned very dark, smells sharp or has served several frying sessions, and never freshen worn oil by pouring new oil into it.
Sources worth opening
- Lizzie Collingham, "Curry: A Tale of Cooks and Conquerors" (Oxford University Press) — on the Central Asian and Persian ancestry of the samosa and its spread into South Asia.
- K.T. Achaya, "Indian Food: A Historical Companion" (Oxford University Press) — on the samosa's early textual references and its adaptation after the potato's introduction to India.