Baked (Not Fried!) Samosas

Who loves Indian food?!?!?!

Not my husband....

So he thinks.

You see, my darling husband is under the impression that he does not like Indian spices and that Indian food, in general, does not sit well with his stomache. (He had a bad experience so you can't really blame him).

Here's my secret to getting him to try things that I know he thinks he doesn't like. It goes something like this:

Anthony:"Hey, babe, what are we having for dinner tonight?"
Kate (in a nonchalant manner): "Savory pastries."
Anthony: "What's in them?"
Kate (not allowing herself to get flustered or sound defensive): "Sweet potatoes and chicken and some other stuff that you'll like."

Note: I do not talk about the sweet ripe mango that makes a suprising compliment to the sweet potato. I do not talk about the exotic Indian spices of tumeric or cardamom. I definitely do not note that Aarti uses adobo sauce, a spicy Mexican ingredient, in this traditional Indian dish. All of this would sound way too weird to my all-American husband. Talk about it after he tries it and loves it.

That usually does the trick. If he keeps asking, I keep repeating the same thing. He'll eventually get bored and move on.

So, samosas are traditional Indian street food. They are fried, triangular pastries usually filled with vegetables, meat, or a combination of both. These samosas, however, are baked, NOT fried, making them sooo much healthier. I used this recipe from Aarti Sequeira, who I think is precious and awesome and I want to be just like her. Instead of retyping the whole recipe here for you, please just click on the above link. Here are some notes and changes that I made:

- Aarti uses a russet potato. I used a sweet potato, which is infiniately more nutritious and, in my opinion, delicious!

- She goes through this elaborate process to poach a chicken breast in all these cool Indian spices. Honestly, it didn't have any more flavor than a normal ole baked chicken breast. Please, people, save yourself the trouble. Use left over chicken or rotisserie chicken or just cook chicken the easiest way you know how.

- I didn't have great success with the mint chutney she makes to go along with the samosas. If you want to make it and it turns out well, let me know! The stuff I made was gross.



Let me give you some hints for when you're done with your filling and ready to roll out the puff pastry dough:

1. Defrost the pastry dough before you use it. Otherwise it will crackle and break and just not work. You want your dough to be pliable.

2. Use a round cereal bowl to cut circles out of the dough with a sharp knife.

3. Cut those circles of dough in half in order to make semi-circles.


4. Take your rolling pin and roll out that little half circle so that you have more surface area to work with. It does not have to be perfect! Please please please. Don't try to make this perfect. Just roll it out and all will be fine. Promise.


5. Take about a teaspoon of your filling and place it in the middle of the rolled out dough.

6. Dip your finger in water and run it along the outside edges of the dough. This will help it all stick together.

7. Now. Take the top left corner of your pastry and fold it down over the filling. Press the ends together. I used the back of a fork and sometimes my fingers. Whatever works.

8. Take the right corner and fold it down over the remaining exposed filling. Wrap your filling up like a little baby secure in its warm blanket of gooey puff pastry. Do whatever it takes, fold it whichever way you need to, to make sure that your samosa baby is all wrapped up with no loose ends. It will not be pefect. No two samosas will look the same. They will be messy and awkward, but glorious in their imperfection. Embrace it! Look at mine below. They are ridiculous. But you know what? They were yummy! And that's all that matters.


9. Continue with Aarti's recipe from here. Brush the tops of the samosas with the egg wash, bake them in an oven for 15 minues at 425 degrees, then turn the heat down to 375 degrees and bake them for 10 more minutes.

By the way, Anthony raved about these "savory pastries" for days.

Hehehehe :)