Punjabi Samosa

Four in the afternoon, and the halwai lifts a fresh batch out of the kadhai with a jhara. Pale gold, smooth, no bubbles. He drops one on a square of newspaper, pokes a hole in the top with his thumb, and pours in a spoon of imli chutney. You bite. The crust cracks and falls apart in flakes, and the potato inside is coarse, hot and sour with amchur. There is a reason nobody eats just one.

Two things carry this samosa. Gir Cow's A2 Ghee goes into the flour as moyan, and it is the moyan that makes the shell short and flaky instead of hard. Then the frying happens in Cold Pressed Groundnut Oil, which stays steady over the twelve to fifteen minutes a samosa really needs and does not go heavy on the palate.

The rule nobody follows: fry slow, on low heat. The oil should be barely warm when the samosas go in, so a piece of dough sinks and rises with only tiny bubbles around it. Fifteen minutes later, they come out pale gold and khasta. Hot oil gives you blisters, a bubbled skin and a soft samosa an hour later.

How to make it

1. Mix the maida, ajwain and salt. Pour in the melted ghee and rub it through with your fingertips for 2 minutes. Squeeze a fistful. It must hold its shape like wet sand. If it crumbles apart, add another spoon of ghee.
2. Add cold water one spoon at a time and bring it together into a firm, tight dough, much stiffer than roti dough. Do not knead it smooth, just gather it. Cover with a damp cloth and rest 30 minutes.
3. Crumble the boiled potatoes roughly with your hands into pieces the size of a chana. Never mash them smooth, the texture is half the samosa.
4. Heat 2 tbsp groundnut oil, add the hing, cumin, coriander and saunf and let them sizzle 20 seconds. Add ginger and green chilli, cook 30 seconds, then the peas, potatoes, chilli powder, salt, amchur and garam masala. Fry on medium for 4 to 5 minutes, pressing lightly. Add coriander leaves and cool the filling completely.
5. Divide the dough into 6 balls. Roll each into an oval about 18 cm long and 2 mm thick. Cut in half across the middle to give 12 half-moons.
6. Take one half-moon, brush the straight edge with water, and fold into a cone, overlapping the edge by about 1 cm. Press the seam hard. Fill with 2 tbsp of the potato, leaving 1 cm free at the top. Pinch the top edge shut, pressing out all the air, and make sure a flat base forms so the samosa stands up.
7. Heat the frying oil until it is only just warm, around 120C. A pea of dough should sink, then rise slowly with tiny bubbles and no sizzle. Slide in 4 or 5 samosas. Leave them alone for the first 5 minutes.
8. Fry on low for 12 to 15 minutes, turning gently every few minutes, until the shells are firm, pale gold and smooth all over with no blisters. For the last 2 minutes raise the heat slightly to colour them. Lift out and stand them on a rack, not on paper.
9. Rest 5 minutes between batches so the oil cools again. Serve with imli chutney and green chutney.

Tips

• Blisters mean the oil was too hot. A proper Punjabi samosa has a smooth, matte, pale-gold shell. Bubbles and dark patches come from high heat or a soft, watery dough.
• Make ahead: shape the samosas and freeze them raw on a tray, then bag them. Fry from frozen, straight into low oil, adding 4 to 5 minutes. Do not thaw them first.
• Cool the filling completely before shaping. Warm filling releases steam inside the dough, softens the seam, and the samosa splits open in the oil.
• If your samosas go soft after an hour, the fry was too short or too hot. They should stay crisp for 3 to 4 hours at room temperature and revive in a 180C oven for 6 minutes.
• Strain and reuse the oil. Cool it, pass it through muslin into a clean jar, keep it dark and use it for two more fries.