SAMOSA PASTRY

SAMOSA PASTRY

This pastry for filling samosas is readily available in many stores. Nevertheless, I always prefer to use my own pastry whenever possible. I find that it turns out much better than the commercialised variety available. This pastry can be made ahead of time, sealed airtight and frozen. The whole process is quite time consuming and requires patience.  However, there are some who will still want to give it a try. SO, the first ingredient in this recipe is PATIENCE :)

INGREDIENTS

3 Cups of Plain Flour

3 Tbsp Cornflour

1 tsp Salt

2 Tbsp Oil
Juice of 1 Lime (Optional)

Some water for kneading

Some extra flour for dusting

METHOD

Sift together the flours and salt in a bowl. Make a well in the centre and add the oil. Rub the oil in the flour to distribute well. Add a little water at a time while continuing to gather and knead the flour into a soft and pliable dough. The dough should leave the sides of the bowl clean. Gather the dough into a ball, cover and keep aside for about 10 minutes

Next, take portions of this dough and form small balls, around the size of a golf ball.  Make 2 or 3 batches of 5 or 4 balls each. 

Lightly dust your worktop and roll out each of these balls into circles of about 5" across. Smear some oil all over this rolled out circle of dough. Roll out only the number of balls in a batch at a time. Keep the dough balls well covered with a damp cloth or tea towel

Sprinkle flour over oiled circle of dough. It is important to make sure you sprinkle flour very sparingly as shown in this pic

Place the second rolled out dough on the first one. Repeat the process of oiling, dusting with flour and piling until you get a stack of 5 or 4 - depending on the number you have in your batch

Repeat the process of oiling, dusting with flour and piling until you get a stack of 5 or 4 - depending on the number you have in your batch. Prepare the next stack likewise. DO NOT OIL THE TOPMOST CIRCLE OF DOUGH. Keep the stacks aside, well covered to prevent drying out

Take the first stack and place on lightly flour dusted worktop. With a rolling pin, roll out the first stack. After a few strokes, make sure to flip the circle of dough over. If you do not do so, you will not obtain even sized pastry. Flip over after every few strokes on each side until you get a large circle of about 8 to 9 inches across. 

Do not exert too much pressure. Use quick, deft movements to roll out dough.

Carefully lift the rolled out dough and place on a moderately low heated griddle.

Flip over after about 30 seconds. 

After another 30 seconds, flip over again.

The purpose here is to not colour or brown the pastry. We only want it partially cooked

After flipping it over a few times, the pastry will start to puff up. 

Once puffed up, with the help of a spatula, gently press down on the risen pastry  This will help in loosening the layers. Transfer the pastry onto a flat surface

As soon as it has cooled enough to be handled, gently prise off one layer at a 

time. Place each sheet of pastry on a tea towel and keep well covered with a moist cloth

Each layer will come out paper thin. The peeling off of each sheet has to be done gently yet deftly to avoid tearing

As seen here, each sheet is paper thin, quite transparent and very pliable. After you have completed preparing all of the pastry, stack them up in order to have them in alignment

With a sharp knife, cut off about an inch (measuring from the centre point) from the left and right side of the layers of pastry

Next, cut off a wide strip of about 2.5 or 3 inches in width. Repeat for the next part to get a pile of equally sized strips

You may use the strips of pastry as they are OR further cut off the ends of the strips placing the knife diagonally to obtain one length shorter than the other.

NOTE: This pastry can also be used for spring rolls and also for the inner layer of Mkate Keema (Envelope Chapati with a spicy mince and egg filling). The part of the pastry that was cut away need not be discarded. Further cut into thinner strips, they can be fried as they are and enjoyed as a crispy, crunchy savoury snack. For the directions to the filling, folding and frying process please click here