The Get Creative Week is normally held in May in all Libraries up and down the country. In the current unprecedented time Libraries Connected has adapted it to be called Get Creative At Home without a specific week in mind. Slough Libraries has an amazing collection of videos, slideshows and photos of all the creative arts and crafts our amazing staff have produced during Lockdown. Some are featured in our new timetable below.
Here's a recipe a Slough Libraries and Culture staff member contributed to the Playlist Ramadan Activities. Hope you enjoy!
Samosa Recipe – makes 30 - 40
Here is a demystified recipe that we hope will motivate you to try making these at home. It’s also another recipe that little helpers at home like to join in with – especially at the pocket making stage!
These are best enjoyed deep fried but there is an option for baking them, if you prefer.
*The recipe can easily scaled down or scaled up if you want to just make just 20 – 30 or even as much as 90 – 110.
Ingredients - Dough:
500g of plain flour 1 level teaspoon salt 50ml flavourless oil, such as sunflower or rapeseed oil. You could use melted butter or ghee. 250 – 270ml warm water.
Ingredients - Filling
1kg of potatoes, peeled and washed. 1 large onion, peeled, washed and diced up. 15ml/ 1 tablespoon of oil. 1 level to heaped teaspoon of besar/bassar (a spice mix available in an Asian store). 1 level to heaped teaspoon to chilli flakes. 1 level to heaped teaspoon of garam masala (a spice mix available in an Asian store). 1 heaped teaspoon of salt. 1 tin of chickpeas, 400g, drained and rinsed. 200g frozen peas, defrosted.
Method
·Wash your hands and you are good to go for this hands on recipe.
·Cube the peeled potatoes and set to boil in pan of water with a little salt.
·In the meantime you can prepare the dough – put the flour in a big mixing bowl and add the salt. Use a whisk to evenly distribute the salt in the flour. Create a well in the middle of the bowl and add the oil and 200ml of the water. Bring the dough together with your hands and slowly add more water until you get a smooth dough. You may not need all the water so do not put it in all at once. Knead the dough for 3 – 5 minutes and cover with cling-film and leave to rest for 1 – 2 hours.
·Once the potatoes are tender, drain them and mash them and set aside.
·In the same pan that you boiled the potatoes in (anything that cuts back on the washing up) add the oil and chopped onion. Cook them until they are slightly transparent – see picture.
·Add the salt to the onions. Now add the besar, chilli flakes and garam masala - I would start with a level teaspoon of these spices to start with. Mix these until they are all well combined. Remove the pan from the heat.
·Add the mashed potatoes, chickpeas and green peas to the pan of onion and mix until all the ingredients are well coated with the spice mixture. Take a taste and add more spices if the mixture is too mild for your liking.
·Once your dough has rested for an hour or so, knead it again quickly and you are ready to start making the samosas.
·Form the dough into round balls (you should get about 15 -20 balls depending on how big you make them).
·Make‘glue’ from plain flour and water.
·Roll the balls out into a round chapatti/flatbread that is quite thin.
·Cook the chapatti very slightly on a tava (an Asian flat pan) or a non-stick frying pan that is on low to medium heat.
·If you are making these on your own you may want to work in batches of 5 chapattis as they are easier to work with when warm. If you have helpers, you could have a production line, with one person rolling out the chapattis and another making the pockets and filling them.
·Cut the chapatti in half so that you have 2 semi-circles. See the attached video on how to make this semi-circle into a pocket that you seal with the flour ‘glue.’
·Fill the pocket with as much mixture as you like – there should be enough mixture to fill the samosas generously. Do not fill to the edge – leave a rim around the edge to seal the samosa.
·Add glue to the rim of the samosa and seal it. Use a fork to press down on the rim to secure the samosa so that it doesn’t split when you are cooking it.
·If you are preparing these to eat on another day/will not be eating all of them, they are best frozen and defrosted when you need them.
·Lie them up on a tray dusted with flour and cover the tray with cling-film. Freeze them overnight and then transfer into a bag and keep in your freezer.
·These samosas are traditionally enjoyed deep fried for a few minutes in hot oil until golden brown … but you can also bake them for 20 mins at 180 degrees Celsius.
Enjoy!
If you have any leftover mixture, you can turn them into what Pakistanis call cutlass. Shape the potato mixture into patties and coat in a beaten egg and shallow fry in a pan. You can also coat them in breadcrumbs and fry or bake until golden brown.
Delicious with taramind chutney!
#GetCreativeAtHome with Slough Libraries and Culture!
Comments