Samosas

Yesterday I made samosas, fried pastries stuffed with anything from meat to potatoes and other vegetables. They're quite a bit of work to make, but worth the effort. My sister helped me out, which made it much more fun.

Samosas originated in India, I think, but you can buy them in the market in Uganda.

I used a mix of recipes, the filling from Taste of Uganda and the dough from an Indian cookbook.

For meat filling:
- 250g meat, minced (or about 1 cup of ground beef)
- 4 onions
- 2 cloves garlic
- a piece of fresh ginger
- 1 carrot
- 1 teaspoon curry powder
- coriander leaves (I forgot about the coriander)
- 1 small green (or red) pepper
- 1 chopped green chilies (optional)
- 2 tablespoons oil
- 2 teaspoons salt

I like the way the recipe is written.

Brown the meat, cooking it with a little salt. Then...

Chop the onions and crush the garlic.
Chop the coriander and crush the ginger.
Grate the carrot, chop the green pepper.

(Cooking is so violent, yet poetic. ;-) )

Lightly fry the onions in the oil, then add the meat, salt, and curry. Cook for a few minutes, then add the coriander, ginger, and chilies.

Remove the meat from the fire and add the grated carrot and green pepper.

For the pastry:
- 2/3 cup flour (I recommend using a full cup, though)
- salt
- 3 tablespoons butter, cut into small pieces
- 4 tablespoons water

Mix the flour and salt, then use your fingers to "rub" in the butter till it all has a crumby texture. Add the water, and mix with a fork until it has a doughy consistency. Then knead the dough for about five minutes, adding more flour if it's sticky. Let it sit for about five minutes, then pull a piece of dough off (about 1/8 of it) and roll it out into a circle. Cut in it half and shape the half into a cone, using water to make the edges stick together. Spoon the filling into the cone, then fold over the top and seal it in the same way, so you have a triangle shape. (If you follow the recipe, that is. My sister read it halfway through and made cute little samosas after that, instead of empanada-shaped ones.)

To fry them:
Fill a deep saucepan about 2-3 inches with oil and heat it till there are some bubbles and a piece of dough dropped in rises and browns in about 30 seconds. Add a couple samosas at a time and fry them for about 60-90 seconds on each side. They should be faintly golden brown.

They're very good hot, cold, plain, or with dipping sauce (like yogurt mixed with a little bit of tomato).