samosa with aloo curry

Aloo Pudina Koora

Ingredients:

• Potatoes – 4 (300gms0
• Green Chilies – 3
• Dried Mint Leaves – 1 1/2Tbsps (1gm)
• Cumin Seeds – 1/2tsp
• Coriander Powder – 1tsp
• Red Chili Powder – 1/4tsp
• Turmeric Powder – 1/4tsp
• Salt – To Taste (3/4tsp)
• Dried Mango Powder (Amchur) – 1/2tsp
• Oil – 3Tbsps

Preparations:

Take potatoes into a bowl & add water. Wash the potatoes thoroughly. Into a pressure pan add 125ml water and place a colander into it. Add washed potatoes to the colander and cover the pressure pan. Cook the potatoes in pressure pan on steam. After first whistle cook potatoes on low flame for 7 minutes. Remove the cooked potatoes and cool them for a while. Peel the boiled potatoes and cut them into small pieces.

Wash the green chilies and chop them finely.

Heat a pan and add the dried mint leaves. Fry stirring for few seconds till the mint leaves become crisp. Take these dried mint leaves into a plate and crush them with fingers.

Method:

Heat a pan and add oil to it. When oil is hot add the cumin seeds followed by chopped green chilies. Fry the ingredients stirring till green chilies are crisp. Then add turmeric powder, coriander powder, red chili powder and dried mango powder. Mix well and add boiled potato pieces. Mix well to coat the spices and then add salt and crushed mint leaves. Mix all well and fry the curry for two minutes. Once done, transfer the curry to a bowl and allow it to cool.

Meanwhile let us prepare dough for covering of Samosas.

Covering Of Samosas:

Ingredients:

• Maida – 80gms (1/2Cup)
• Nigella Seeds (Kalonji) – 1/8tsp
• Salt – 1/8tsp
• Oil – 10ml or 10gms
• Water 25ml (Approximately)

Preparations:

Take maida into a mixing bowl and add salt and nigella seeds (kalonji). Mix well and add oil to the flour. Incorporate the oil well into the flour and make a dough adding water little by little. Make a stiff dough and smoothen it by kneading well. Cover the dough and allow it to rest for 20 minutes.

Making Samosas:

After 20 minutes, observe tiny spots of salt on the dough. Knead the dough well and divide it into three equal portions. Smoothen out each ball by rolling between palms. Take a ball and start rolling. Lift the dough disc in between so that it doesn’t stick to the rolling board. Roll to the size of a palm and then stretch it by rolling into an oval shape. While rolling, maintain the thickness by lifting the disc at intervals. Now fold the puri to half and cut it at the mark to get two equal sized semi circular puris. Take these discs into a plate and cover with another plate to retain moisture. Make another foor semi circular disc with the remaining two dough balls. Stack all the semi circular puris in the plate and cover till use to retain moisture.

Now start making samosas. Turn the stack of semi circular puris upside down to get the first rolled puri on to the top. Keep the puris, curry and a bowl of water ready to make samosas.

Heat a pan and add sufficient oil to deep fry the samosas. Heat oil on low flame and start folding samosas.

Take a semi circular puri and wet the edges with wet finger. Bring together the flat side edges together and overlap them to get a cone shaped disc as shown in the movie. Press lightly to seal the edges. Hold the prepared cone between fingers. Add a tiny portion of the curry to the prepared cone and press it with finger to reach the tip of the cone. Then add sufficient quantity of filling. Press the filling with finger and add sufficient quantity. Wet the edged if required. Observe the portion where the edges were sealed to make a cone---opposite to this portion make a pleat by folding the puri as shown. Now fix the entire back portion with front portion and seal the edges by pressing. Seal properly by pressing so that the filling should not come out while frying the samosas. As the edges are wet it would stick easily. This fold allows the samosa to stand when made to. Without making the pleat, stick the edges of the cone together and observe that the samosa would not stand. Hence to make standing samosas make a pleat otherwise one would get sleeping samosas!!!

Prepare as many samosas as the oil in the pan can take---remaining fry in another batch---but do not overload the pan. Here I made three samosas for the first batch. Cover the remaining puris to retain the moisture.

Spread a paper napkin in a plate and keep it ready---after frying the samosas place them on paper napkin to soak excess oil.

The oil is just hot—neither too hot nor cold. Drop the prepared samosas carefully and fry them on LOW FLAME ONLY. When fried on low flame the samosas get crispier from inside. After few seconds, turn the samosas carefully with a ladle and fry the other side. Fry turning the samosas on low flame till they are slightly crispier and starts changing color. Then increase the flame to medium and fry turning in between. Fry the samosas till they get nice golden brown color. With the help of a slotted ladle carefully remove the samosas from oil and place them on paper napkin to soak excess oil. Now switch off the stove and start making the remaining three samosas. During the process of folding the samosas, the oil gets cooled to sufficient temperature to fry the next batch. After folding the remaining three samosas, switch on the flame and carefully drop the samosas in oil and fry as mentioned above.

The fried samosas taste good as they are as they have a flavorful filling in them. They can even be served with Chat Chutney, SweetSour Chutney or even ketchup. Serve the crispy and tasty to your family members and get all praises.