I needed to place an on-line order for some baking supplies with The King Arthur Flour Company last week. On the front page of their site was a delicious looking recipe for Indian samosas. For anybody that doesn’t know what a samosa is, it’s the Indian version of  the Spanish empanada. For whatever reason, they seemed like the perfect thing to make later that day. Their original recipe was just for a potato and pea samosa, but I wanted to make mine into a family meal so I added ground beef along with finely diced carrot and red bell pepper as well. They were really terrific and my kids loved them too. I also used canola oil to fry the vegetables in rather than the butter the original recipe called for. While samosas are typically fried, this recipe called for them to be baked in the oven, which is what I would have done anyway. The frying has never seemed necessary to me and just makes the crust heavy. This quick crust was flaky and tender and perfect in the oven. I also used a dumpling maker to make mine, but you can just as easily make them by hand and seal the crust closed with a fork.

Samosas with Quick Flaky Pastry

Original recipe from King Arthur Flour Company, adapted by Crafty Farm Girl, August, 2011

Hands-on time:  25 mins. to 35 mins., Baking time:  15 mins. to 20 mins., Total time:  60 mins. to 1 hrs 25 mins., Yield:  20 to 24 small samosas

Sriracha, aka Rooster Sauce can be purchased in larger grocery stores, or in Asian markets. It packs quite a punch so use it sparingly at first.

To make egg wash, whisk one egg with 1 teaspoon of water and a pinch of salt. Eggs in a carton, such as Egg Beaters, makes an excellent egg wash.

This recipe can be easily doubled to make more, and they freeze great. I made a double recipe and have the extras in the freezer for company or another meal.

Quick Flaky Pastry

2 1/2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup unsalted butter, chilled
1/4 to 1/2 cup ice water

Filling

2 tablespoons vegetable or canola oil
1 cup diced onion
¼ cup finely diced carrot
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoons minced or grated ginger
¼ cup finely diced red bell pepper
1 teaspoon curry powder
1/2 teaspoon cumin, to taste
1 teaspoon turmeric
¾ pound 90% lean ground beef
2 cups peeled, cooked potatoes, drained and cubed
1 cup frozen peas
1/2 teaspoon Sriracha hot sauce, to taste (optional)
salt, pepper to taste
egg wash for brushing pastries

Directions

1) Combine the flour and salt in bowl of a food processor. Ising on/off pulses, cut in half of the chilled butter with a pastry blender until the butter/flour mixture resembles granola.

2) Dice the remaining butter and add to the butter/flour mixture in the bowl. Briefly pulse a few times until the new butter until it is the size of dried cranberries.

3) Pour contents of food processor into large metal bowl. You can flatten the larger butter pieces slightly with your fingers, creating leaves of butter coated in flour. Pour half of water over dough. Mix with a fork. Slowly add remaining water a bit at a time until it holds together when you squeeze a fist full of dough.

3) Pour out onto clean work surface and knead until dough comes together, about 30 seconds.

4) Divide the dough in half and press gently into 2 discs. You should still be able to see bits of butter in the dough. Wrap each disc in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes. You can keep the dough in the fridge up to overnight if desired.

5) While the dough is chilling, prepare the filling. Heat the oil in a medium-sized saute pan. Add the onion & carrot, cooking for two to 3 minutes until the onions turn translucent. Add the garlic and ginger and cook 1 minute more. Take care not to burn the garlic.


6) Add the red bell pepper, curry powder, turmeric and cumin and saute for an additional minute. Add the chopped meat to the pan and cook, breaking up in pan and turning to cook evenly.


7) Add the diced potatoes and peas to beef and stir to combine and break up potatoes.

Eight) Taste the filling for seasoning, adjust with salt and pepper and Sriracha hot sauce if desired.

9) Allow the filling to cool to just barely warm. When you are ready to roll your dough, preheat the oven to 400°F and line two half sheet pans with parchment paper.

10) Working with one disc at a time, roll the chilled dough to 1/8″ thick. With a pastry brush, brush excess flour off surface of dough, and folding dough in half to expose the underside, brush flour off bottom of dough and then fold the other side over to expose the other half of underside of dough and brush excess flour off. Cut circles of dough with a sharp edged round 3″ cutter.


11) Brush the edge of each round lightly with water. If using, place dough into dumpling maker and place 2 tablespoons of filling onto each round. Close dumpling maker and press to seal edges. You may need to push filling down a bit with your finger as you start to close the dumpling maker. Carefully remove samosa and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet. If you are making the samosas by hand, and fold the dough into half moons. Use a touch of water to help seal the rounds if needed.


11) Brush each samosa with egg wash to coat. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes until deep golden brown. Serve hot just as they are, or with yogurt or sour cream for dipping sauce.



*the filling recipe is very generous. If you have leftover filling, it can be frozen for up to one month, or served in pita bread or tortillas for a quick lunch.

Published November 1, 2010 in Cook’s Illustrated. Adapted by Crafty Farm Girl 2011.

Serves 4 to 6

This recipe is designed to work with potatoes 1½ to 2 inches in diameter; do not use potatoes any larger, but you can use slightly smaller ones. It is important to thoroughly cook the potatoes so that they will smash easily. Remove the potatoes from the baking sheet as soon as they are done browning—they will toughen if left too long. A potato masher can also be used to “smash” the potatoes.

INGREDIENTS

INSTRUCTIONS

Adjust oven racks to top and bottom positions and heat oven to 500 degrees. Arrange potatoes on rimmed baking sheet, pour ¾ cup water into baking sheet, and wrap tightly with aluminum foil.



Cook on bottom rack until paring knife or skewer slips in and out of potatoes easily (poke through foil to test), 25 to 30 minutes. Remove foil and cool 10 minutes. If any water remains on baking sheet, blot dry with paper towel.

Now here’s where I varied from the recipe.

First I found that the original 6 tablespoons of olive oil was not sufficient, so I’m calling for 8 tablespoons here – you may find you need even more. I think my potatoes were smaller than the ones they used in their recipe. They also rolled the potatoes in the olive oil before smashing them, but I did not see that this was necessary. The way that they “smashed” the potatoes in their recipe was to “space potatoes evenly on baking sheet and place second baking sheet on top; press down firmly on baking sheet, flattening potatoes until 1/3 to 1/2 inch thick”.

I thought that I would have much more control over the “smashing” if I used the flat side of my meat tenderizer. You can use a potato masher or a mallet covered with saran wrap if you don’t have one. I also found that once I smashed the potatoes I needed two parchment-lined baking sheets to fit them all.

I mixed the olive oil and chopped thyme leaves together and drizzled them over the potatoes, then seasoned generously with salt and pepper.

Change oven rack positions to lower middle and upper middle racks. Roast potatoes for 15 minutes, then rotate pans front to back and switch their positions. Continue to roast until well browned, 20 to 30 minutes longer. Serve immediately. I do think you’re going to need to pay attention to them in the oven, regardless of the timer. A lot of the timing is going to depend on how large the potatoes are and how thick or thin you smashed them.



My kids loved these things and were fighting over them. My husband liked to have roast chicken on Sunday nights. The kids get sick of it so I don’t do it all the time, but this added an exciting new twist to the normal Sunday roast chicken dinner that had everyone happy. You could easily serve these as an appetizer at a party too, although I might throw a little chopped cooked bacon on top of them to just add a little something more.