I'VE HAD SAMOSAS HEAVILY ON MY MIND OF LATE.
And while my day job is to test recipes, I'm sad to say that the idea of making samosas from scratch or making Aloo Parantha (potato-stuffed bread) had me severely procrastinating. It felt like work on top of all of my other projects.
So, how to start enjoying the process again? Like anything, by breaking it down into more manageable morsels (pun intended). I started by first making the filling - a really good samosa and parantha starts with a deeply-flavored filling. Remember, the pastry or dough is relatively bland and a shell to hold and showcase what's inside. What is inside can be prepared well in advance to pull out whenever you want to whip up a batch of your fried fritters or bread.
A perfect filling ... er stuffing, can also be used for a holiday meal, think Thanksgiving. What a delicious change of pace to add this recipe to your holiday table as a side! You can refrigerate or freeze this recipe, but remember cold potatoes need to be brought back to room temperature before using for a smoother end product.
While this recipe can be used to stuff bread and make paranthas, the traditional Punjabi Aloo Parantha is made without peas, so just eliminate them. Also, the al dente aspect of the peas, while important to the mouth feel of a samosa, is less needed in a parantha, so feel free to mash the mixture down with the back of a fork before stuffing it in the dough if you want to use the peas. I would also avoid the fennel seeds if looking to stuff a parantha - I find the taste to be a touch distracting.
It was tough for this Punjabi cook to resist, but I refrained from using diced onion after a call to my sis-in-law Alka in Delhi. She recommends keeping the onion out if you want the mixture to last longer. She says when making stuffed snacks and sabzi that need to travel longer distances, don't add onion.
It's an interesting point because I've been frustrated in the past with how quickly my potato mixture goes bad in the fridge. This might be the trick that I'd been missing. If you like the crunch of diced onion, just add it in fresh or slightly cooked before using this filling later.
I also boiled the potatoes with the skin first, rather than adding them raw and then cooking them in the pan. Check out this helpful video on how to "boil" large amounts of potatoes in the Instant Pot.
What I like about this is that boiled potatoes can be stored in the fridge and pulled out as needed. They tend to stay fresher if boiled with the skin and stored that way - just peel right before using. It's also important to mash them before adding the peas - you don't want to mash the mixture after adding the peas because then they will get mushy. You want a little texture from the peas for an ideal samosa.
In this version, I added fennel seeds after researching other recipes - something I don't normally do and was hesitant to try, but found that I really liked it. Though as noted above, I liked it less in a parantha. But, that is also likely from me eating hundreds of paranthas in my lifetime without the fennel. I also added dried fenugreek leaves, which give you a nice flavor pop.
Last, I eliminated fresh cilantro, which can have the same effect as onion and make the mixture go bad more quickly. My sense is that the moisture content in the onion and cilantro is the issue. If planning to make and use this mixture relatively quickly, by all means, add either one or both.
Recipe is by Anupy Singla, Indian As Apple Pie.
Servings:
Keywords: Punjabi, Potato, Indian Recipes
This recipe is by Anupy Singla, founder of Indian As Apple Pie. If you share or copy this recipe, we’d greatly appreciate it if you let others know where you found it!
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