Samosas made fully from scratch. The dough is easier than you think, and tastes so good freshly fried. These are stuffed with a herby lamb keema and served with a sweet spicy dip.
Notes
Makes 9 large samosas.
This makes more filling than you’ll need but as this is a keema base its great with rice as a meal, or you can make more samosas!
Be sure to fully seal the samosas or they’ll explode whilst frying.
The filling is perfect for making in advance as the flavours improve as it sits.
Frying these low and slow ensures they fully cook through. You can get these nice and golden in the final 2 mins.
Ingredients:
Lamb Keema Filling:
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 tbsp vegetable oil / ghee
2 bay leaves
4 crushed cardamom pods
1 cinnamon stick
4 garlic cloves
A 2-inch knob of ginger
500g lamb mince
4 on the vine tomatoes, diced
2 green chillies, halved
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp coriander
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp chilli
Half tsp cinnamon
2 tsp salt
250ml water
200g frozen petit pois
12g fresh mint, finely chopped
12g fresh coriander, finely chopped
1 tsp garam masala
Samosa Dough:
300g plain flour
2 tsps nigella seeds
Half tsp salt
5 tbsp vegetable oil
Around 7 tbsp of Water
Pakora Sauce:
4 tbsp ketchup
2 tbsp water
1 tbsp cider vinegar
1 tbsp caster sugar
1 tbsp mint sauce
1 tsp onion powder
0.5-0.75 tsp chilli powder
1/4 tsp salt
Red food colouring (optional)
Directions:
FOR THE FILLING
In a large saucepan, heat the oil/ghee over a medium heat. Add the whole spices and toast for a couple of minutes until fragrant.
Add the onion and gently fry for 10 or so minutes. Until softened and sweet.
Blend the garlic and ginger with a little water until you have a thick paste, alternatively you can finely chop. Add the paste to the pan and fry for 1 minute.
Add the lamb to the pot and break up with a spoon. Cook for around 5 minutes or until browned.
Next add the spices to the pan, excluding the garam masala. Season with the salt and stir. Cook for 5 minutes on a low heat.
Transfer the chopped tomatoes to the pan and cook for a further 5 minutes. As these cook squish with your spoon.
Pour the water into the pan and bring to a boil. Turn the heat down to a simmer. Simmer gently for 20 to 25 minutes. You’ll want to reduce the liquid completely.
Turn the heat off and add the peas, fresh herbs and garam masala. Taste for seasoning and leave to cool completely.
Remove the whole spices before filling the samosas.
FOR THE PAKORA SAUCE
Combine all the ingredients for the sauce in a small bowl.
You can add a few drops of red food colouring for a brighter colour.
Set aside until serving.
FOR THE SAMOSA DOUGH
In a medium mixing bowl, add the flour nigella seeds and salt. Whisk to combine.
Pour in the vegetable oil and use your fingers to rub the fat into the flour. Rub the fat and flour together until all the flour is fully saturated with the oil.
Add the water one tbsp at a time and bring together into a dough.
Turn the dough out and knead until fully combined. Don’t do this for long or the pastry will be tough.
Cover with a tea towel and leave to rest for 20 minutes.
Portion the dough into 9 equal pieces. I like to weigh the dough and divide by 9 to make sure they’re all equal.
Don’t use any additional flour to roll the samosa dough. The oil in the dough will prevent the samosas from sticking to the surface.
Take a dough ball and roll into a long thin rectangle. I use a bench scraper to manipulate the dough into a rectangle shape.
Add a generous portion of filling to half of the bottom of the rectangle, leaving a triangle shape. Fold the triangle shape over the filling, encasing it. Keep folding the samosa over itself until you run out of dough. Press the seams of the samosa shut to ensure the filling doesn’t leak whilst frying. Please watch me do this on Instagram if this is confusing!
Repeat until all the samosas are finished.
Pour vegetable oil into a large heavy bottomed pan and warm through over a medium heat. You can test the oil by frying a small piece of bread.
Turn the heat down low and fry the samosas in batches of around 4 at a time. Fry for 10 minutes. If they aren’t golden by the end of 10 minutes, turn the heat up and give another 2 minutes. If they aren’t totally submerged in the oil fry for 5 minutes on each side.
Drain on kitchen roll and serve hot with the pakora sauce.
Enjoy!