GMT: Mattar wala samosa

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I love samosas. Baked, fried. With potato filling or a non-vegetarian filling. From the market or made at home. I love them all. Any time. Any place. Any company.

Ever since I mastered the art of using spring roll wrappers, I thought of other ways to use them.

We have a packet of Deep chana dal cocktail samosas that I love. I prefer making stuff from scratch, but now and then I cheat here and there and Deep’s samosas are ones that I cheat with quite often. From the looks of it, Deep brand uses spring roll wrappers as the covering for their cocktail samosas. I was intrigued to try making my own cocktail samosa from spring roll wrappers too.

The idea of cocktail samosas is great. They are bite sized. Perfect as appetizers and you have an excuse to meet more than one.

I made these for my pregnant friend who was craving samosas. Instead of using the traditional aloo (potato) filling, I thought I would healthy the samosas a bit and made a predominantly pea filling.

Pea is called MATTAR (pronounced mutt-ur) in hindi. So that’s why these samosas can either be called mattare wala samosa or Samosas stuffed with pea filling.

These were great fresh out of the oil, but do tend to get a little soggy if left out for a long time. To crisp them up a bit bake in a preheated 450F oven for 5-10 minutes till warm and crispy.

You may also fill them up and keep frozen till read to fry and serve. Let them thaw a bit so that the ice crystals evaporate before throwing them into the oil. I haven’t tried it that way yet, but that’s what I do with the ready made Deep cocktail channa dal samosas, so I am assuming it should work. Do let me know if you try it this way and it works for you not. Else, when I’ll try it I will update this space.

Since I have struggled a lot with spring roll wrappers, I have put together a picture tutorial for making cocktail samosas.

To use frozen spring roll wrappers, thaw them according to the package directions. I use TY frozen spring roll wrappers and thaw them for 25 minutes. Then I place them under a wet cloth and proceed to use and fill them as follows.

Picture tutorial for making cocktail samosas with spring roll wrappers:

Before I leave you with the recipe, there is some news I would like to share.

One of my friends, who is a blogger (with a good sense of humor), e-interviewed me a few days back about being a food blogger. She had pretty interesting questions to ask from why I started blogging, to questions regarding the time it takes from cooking to composing to editing the pictures and finally blogging about each recipe. The article gives an insight to my blogging adventures and misadventures. So, if you are interested to know a little more about my blogging world, head over to Reemspeak.com. Even if you don’t want to know about me, you should check out Reem’s blog– it has funny anecdotes about her life with her husband and some other witty posts that I am sure you will enjoy reading.

Mattar wale samosa
Recipe Type: snack, appetizer, vegetarian
Prep time: 10 mins
Cook time: 20 mins
Total time: 30 mins
Serves: 25-30
Ingredients
For the filling
  • 1 potato, peeled and cubed into small pieces
  • 1/4 cup cilantro/coriander, finely chopped
  • 2 cups frozen green peas.
  • 1 heaping tsp roasted cumin powder
  • 7 green chillies (or to taste)
  • 1 tsp anardana powder (pomegranate seed powder- you can leave it out of not available)
  • 1 tbsp finely chopped ginger
  • 1 tsp coriander powder
  • 1/2 tsp garam masala
  • 1 tsp lemon juice, or to taste
  • 2 tbsp mint leaves, chopped
  • salt, to taste

For the paste to glue ends together:

  • ¼ cup all purpose flour
  • 3 tbsp water

For the covering pastry:

  • Ready to use spring roll wrappers (I used about 10 square sheets and cut them into 3 inch rectangles)

Instructions
  1. In a saucepan filled with salted boiling water, add the green peas and potatoes in. Let the water come to a boil again and continue boiling for 3 minutes. The peas and potatoes should be tender. Drain the water out well. Mix the peas and potatoes with rest of the ingredients. Let the filling cool completely before using it to make samosas.
  2. While the filling is cooling, thaw the spring roll wrappers and keep them covered with a wet dish towel.
  3. Mix the ingredients for glue and keep aside.
  4. Cut the spring roll wrappers into 3 inch wide rectangles. Cover it with a damp cloth while working with it so it doesn’t dry out. (Since store bought spring roll wrappers are square, cutting the squares into thirds results in 3 inch wide rectangles.)
  5. Using the pictures above as guide, fill the samosas with 1-2 tbsp of the filling. Then brush the flour and water glue on the end of the pastry and fold over the top of the filled triangle to seal.
  6. Heat oil in a wok and drop the triangles in it. You can fry 4-5 at a time, depending on the size of your wok.
  7. They are done when light golden brown. Serve with ketchup or mint chutney.