SAMOSA

Ramadan Kareem!!

Ramadan started a few days back, which is the ninth month of Islamic calendar. For Muslims, Ramadan in simple words means fasting from dawn until dusk. It is a way we learn to be compassionate to the needy. Ramadan is followed by our first Islamic festival of the year, Eid-ul-Fitr. For me, it is a month of forgiveness and closeness to my Almighty. And I think it couldn't have come at a better time than now, especially considering the situation now. So back to Ramadan, I have seen my mom dive into various preparations with Ramadan around the corner. Though this year I couldn't be a part of that preparation. Since it gets difficult to cook after fasting throughout the day, my mom always had most of the meals prepped beforehand. Trust me, it can be very hectic but at the same time, it's really fun with all the family members working together, almost like a picnic. To replicate what my mom had, I decided to have my own preparations. A typical Iftar (the meal we break our fast with) in Bangladesh usually includes "ছোলা মুড়ি" (black chickpeas with puffed rice), "পিয়াজু" (pakora made of lentils), "আলুর চপ" (potato chops), "সমুচা" (samosa), "বেগুনি" (deep fried eggplant) and many more.

As for my ramadan preparations, I decided to make samosas and potato chops for the first time. For this blog, I will stick to samosas only and talk about potato chops in my future blogs. So, I did make samosas before while helping my mom, but we always used ready-made samosa sheets for the crust. This time, as I couldn't get my hands on any samosa sheets, I had to make it from scratch. Though it didn't turn out to be the samosa I had hoped for but it was very close to "সিঙ্গারা" (shingara). There is a subtle difference between the two kinds, which is mainly focused on the thickness of the crust. Samosas usually have a very thin crust in Bangladesh, whereas the shingaras have a relatively thicker crust. The most commonly used filling for shingara is potato but I made two kinds: potato and beef.

First off, I had to prepare the dough. To prepare it, in a mixing bowl I added in flour, oil, salt and mixed it really well. I then started adding water little by little and kneaded the dough till it was all combined and wasn't sticky to the hand. I covered the dough and let it rest for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, I prepared my fillings. My first filling was a simple potato filling, nothing extravagant. In a pot, I added a little bit of oil, chopped onions, chopped green chili and chopped up potatoes. For seasoning, I added in salt, turmeric powder, and red chili powder. I left it covered on medium heat till the potatoes were fully cooked and then set it aside to cool. For my second filling, in a pot smeared with oil, I added some chopped onions, chopped green chili and grounded beef. After frying the meat for about 5 minutes, I added in salt, red chili powder, mixed spices, ginger paste and minced garlic. I let it cook on high heat first, to combine and bring everything to a boil and then on low heat to cook the meat completely. Once everything was ready, I went back to my dough. After kneading a little more, I made them in balls of 3 cm diameter and rolled them in thin circles. I tried making it the thinnest possible by me. At this point, my hubby thought he should be helping me since I was getting very tired. So he helped out in the rolling process. After rolling them out, I lightly fried them on heat. I then cut each of the circles into semi circles. I also prepared a mixture of flour with water. To assemble everything, I first rolled the semicircles into cones using the flour mixture to glue the edges together. After the cones were ready, my hubby filled the cones with the fillings and I closed off the cones with the flour mixture.

Finally, I thought I should give it a try before the actual iftar. So I deep fried one of each kind and popped the rest in the freezer. Luckily everything tasted as it should, which can be pretty tough for first timers. I am looking forward to having more in the coming month.

Ingredients: (for about 20 pieces)

For crust:

3 cups flour

1 tsp salt

2 tbsp oil

For potato filling:

3 pcs chopped medium sized potatoes

0.25 cup chopped onions

2 pcs green chili

0.25 tsp salt

0.5 tsp turmeric powder

0.5 tsp red chili powder

For beef filling:

0.25 lbs ground beef

0.25 cup chopped onions

2 pcs green chili

0.25 tsp salt

0.5 tsp mixed spices

0.5 tsp red chili powder

1 tbsp ginger paste

1 tsp minced garlic