NAIJA SAMOSA

Samosa is a great Nigerian snack,  often eaten in parties more than at home. You can make your samosa special by frying or baking so, skip the vegetable oil for deep frying, if you prefer baking.

Ingredients

*Cabbage

*Carrot

*Spring Onions

*Green pepper

*Celery leaf

*Seasoning cubes

*Chicken shred or minced meat

*Sugar

*Curry

*Salt

*Groundnut oil

Preparation

*Slice the cabbage

*Dice the green pepper

*Dice the spring onions and celery leaf

*Dice the carrot

Cook the meat with a little water,  add your seasoning like little salt , seasoning cubes, curry, little sugar and oil.

Add your diced carrot, pepper and celery leaf together with it then stir and cook for 2-3 minutes

Add the minced meat/chicken. Stir-fry the meat until the colour changes from pink to a pale colour

Add the seasoning cubes, chilli pepper and salt to taste. Then add the cooked vegetables.

Mix thoroughly, set aside and leave to cool.

Cut the spring onions into thin circles and set aside

Wash and peel the irish potatoes and carrots.

Cut into very tiny bits and cook in salted water for 5 minutes. If using fresh peas, add it to the carrots and potatoes and cook for 5 more minutes until all the vegetables are soft. Strain and set aside.

Heat up the oil in a pot, add the spring onions garlic, curry, black pepper (if you’re using it) and stir-fry for few seconds

To make the Samosa dough:

Pour the flour into a bowl, add salt , vegetable oil and warm water. Mix well till the dough gets stetchy.

Then cover with aluminium foil and leave to rest for about 15 minutes.

Cut out a bit, roll out with a rolling pin. Make sure it should be about 3-4 mm in thickness.

Use a circular cutter, cut the rolled dough, and remove the excess dough at the corners, and then cut the circular shape into  2 half circles of equal sizes

Rub water on the straight edges of one of the dough and shape it into a cone shape. Now take a spoonful of the Samosa filling and scoop it into the cone shaped dough.

Roll the dough evenly and roll it thin– try to roll the dough thin and evenly. If the dough is rolled thick, it will take a long time for the dough to get cooked. Also we all like thin crispy edges of the samosa.

Frying – Samosa has to be fried in moderately hot oil. It should not sizzle or bubble up immediately when a piece of dough is dropped to the oil. You should see very tiny bubble after 30-40 seconds. This is the right temperature.

Don’t over fill it. Rub some water at the edges and seal tightly.

Repeat this process for the remaining dough.

Heat up some oil until hot and fry the Samosas in it.

If you’ll rather bake the samosa, brush with oil or egg wash, set your oven to 160-180º C  and bake for 10-15 minutes.

Serve hot with the drink of your choice!

Courtesy:  Ms Adebomi Oluwabukola Adenike. She is an entrepreneur, CEO of Nilky Executive, Ibadan, Oyo State, who loves the food business. Her philosophy towards life is: “Intelligence without ambition is like a bird without wings.”