Mung Dal Paneer Samosa/Lentil and Paneer Stuffed Pastries

Featured on Huffington Post

amosa or Singhada (as we call them where I come from) always makes me nostalgic. I remember buying and treating on hot samosa from school and college canteen (which to me still is the best I have eaten till date) almost every other day. For the time when I was enjoying these crispy goodies - atleast for sometime - it would help me forget the dread of science and math classes! When at home, I remember when guests would visit during evening tea, serving samosa with tea was almost a given. My brother (a well known samosa fanatic) would keep waiting and dropping hints on what a great idea it would be to get some hot samosas. Papa, pretending to catch the hint, would hand him a ten rupee note. He would run over to the halwai shop at the corner of the street and get a dozen fresh out of the fryer for everyone ~ ahh! Can you believe samosas were 75 paise each back then!

The 'KING' of Indian street food - hot yummy samosas are the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Indian appetizers. They have even gone global. Samosa is probably the most popular snack you can find in nearly every part of incredibly diverse India, in some form or the other. It’s a stuffed pastry which is mostly deep fried in oil and is characterized by its unique triangular in shape. In its classic form they are stuffed with a spicy potato based filling (that I have here) but the stuffing can be anything ranging from minced meat to sweetened coconut. Today I am sharing a recipe that uses a spicy lentil based filling and for my very own personal touch, some paneer.
There is a small 'hole-in-the-wall' store in my home town. They have lines a mile long outside their store of people lined up to buy their goodies. What do they sell, you ask? Just one basic item, 'Mixture' (of course they have different varieties of it). Mixture is basically your trail mix done indian style. You will not find a soul in my town who is doesn't absolutely love his stuff. Even people from neighboring towns and cities come to line up. Personally, I am crazy about that mixture too and a few other products he has now... my  most favorite being the khasta kachori and of course the Dal Samosa. A flaky deep fried small samosa filled with spicy, slightly sour and sweet lentil mixture is just to die for. I can basically just live off of them. Whenever I visit India I make sure to pack my stock to bring back..lol.

I always thought they were something only experienced cooks like mom and the local halwai can make. At first when I really started making them, I couldn't get the shape right, sometimes it would burst up in the oil and other times it would not be crispy enough. A few phone calls to mom later and with the push of the perfectionist in me, eventually I was there - the place where I could proudly claim I knew how to make Samosas. It is a little time consuming, but the whole process is rather simple if you follow it closely. A little practice knowing the little tricks.

Ingredients: 

For the crust

All purpose flour ....................... 1 cup

Sooji/semolina ........................ 1 1/2 tbsp

Salt ...................................... 1/2 tsp or to taste

Oil ....................................... 3 tbsp

Carom seeds (ajwain) ................ 1/4 tsp

Water ................................... 1/4 cup
1. In a medium sized bowl, mix the flour, sooji, oil carom seeds and salt together. Make sure the oil is well incorporated in the flour. Make a smooth, firm yet pliable dough (add more water if needed) knead the dough for about 3 - 4 minutes. Cover with a damp cloth or plastic wrap and set aside for 30 minutes.

Filling-

Moong dal(yellow lentils) .............1/2 cup soaked for 2 hours

Paneer ...................................1 cups tiny cubes

Ginger .................................. 1 inch grated

Green chilli ............................ 1 chopped

Raisins .................................. 1 tbsp

Oil ....................................... 2 tbsp

Asafoetida .............................. a pinch

Coriander seeds ....................... whole crushed 1 tsp

Cumin powder ......................... 1/2 tsp

Red chilli powder ..................... 1 tsp

Fennel seed (saunf) powder ......... 1/4 tsp

Sugar .................................... 1/2 tsp

Salt ...................................... to taste

Lemon juice ............................ 1 tbsp

Oil ........................................ for deep frying

Method:

1. Soak the dal in two cups of water for an hour. Drain and coarsely grind using a little water. Don't make a thin paste.

2. Heat ghee in a kadai and add the ground dal, ginger, green chilli, asafoetida, coriander seeds, cumin powder, red chilli powder, fennel powder and raisins. Cook till all the moisture has dried up. Add sugar, salt and lemon juice.

3. Mix well and take off the heat, let the mixture cool. Divide into sixteen portions. Divide the flour dough into sixteen equal balls.

Making the samosas -

1. Take some water (at room temperature) in a small bowl.

2. Divide the dough into a little bigger than golf sized balls.

3. Roll each ball into thin oval shape and cut into two halves across the shorter width of the oval.

4. Moisten the straight edge of the half oval with finger dipped in water, then fold it into the shape of a cone.

5. Stuff about 1 tbsp of the lentil mixture in that cone. Press the filling down gently with your fingers. Moisten the top edge and seal by pressing the edges together.

6. Heat oil for frying in a deep pan or kadahi. Check the oil by dropping a bit of dough into the oil, if it floats up immediately it is too hot, it should sit at the bottom for a second or two and then come up.

7. Deep fry the samosas 3 - 4 at a time. Once the samosas start floating on the top turn them over slowly. Fry them until the samosas turn golden brown on all sides.

8. Serve hot with tamarind or mint chutney or plain ol' ketchup. ENJOY!!

The recipe makes about 14 to 16 samosas. 

Notes:
1. If you are watching calories you can bake them too. Preheat oven to 350ºF and brush the samosas with little oil and bake them for 15-20 minutes, turning once, till desired color.
2. If you are wondering where I got the very desi looking paper bag (thonga) - hubs looked it up on YouTube and hand -made it for me :)

Pin It