Original Fredericton Samosa

Years ago, they actually posted the recipe in the paper in Freddy - the wrappers were either egg roll wrappers or wonton-I can't remember which and the spice used was garam masala. ;-) Delish!

Recipe 

Based on https://littlespicejar.com/beef-samosas/

Ingredients

• 1 pound (90–95%) lean ground beef
• 1 ½ teaspoon ginger paste
• 1 ½ teaspoon garlic paste
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon Indian chili powder (or ½ teaspoon cayenne)
• ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
• ½ teaspoon garam masala
• ¼ teaspoon turmeric
• 2 small onion, finely chopped (~10 ounces chopped)
• ½ bunch cilantro, chopped
• 1 Serrano peppers, seeded and minced (sub Jalapeño pepper)
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 28-30 spring roll sheets, cut into 3 pieces (Large Size)
• 1 egg white, whisked
• Oil, for frying - vegetable oil

Revised Ingredients

• 1 pound (90–95%) lean ground beef

• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• ½ teaspoon garam masala
• ¼ teaspoon turmeric
• 1 ½ teaspoon ginger paste
• 1 ½ teaspoon garlic paste

• 1 medium onion, finely chopped (~10 ounces chopped)
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 28-30 spring roll sheets, cut into 3 pieces (Large Size)
• 1 egg white, whisked
• Oil, for frying - vegetable oil

Mild batch

• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne
• ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 0 Jalapeño pepper

Hot Batch

• 1 teaspoon cayenne
• ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 2 Jalapeño pepper

Instructions

Cook the Beef

• Add the ground beef to a sauté pan over medium-high heat.

• Cook and crumble the meat for 1 minute then, add 1 cup of water.

• Continue to break the ground beef down and cook for 5 minutes or until the meat is almost cooked.

• Drain the ground beef in a sieve in the sink, but don’t let it sit in the sieve for too long.

Add Seasoning

• Immediately add the ground beef back to the same saucepan. You want it to still have some water so the seasonings combine easily.

• Season with salt, chili powder, red pepper flakes garam masala, turmeric, ginger paste, and garlic paste.

• Cook over medium-high heat for 3-4 minutes until the seasonings are fragrant and combine with the ground beef. If the mixture is too dry, where the seasonings won't combine, add 1-2 tablespoons of water but make sure you dry the meat out completely.

• Remove and allow the beef filling to cool in a bowl

Mix

• Once the ground beef is cooled to room temp, add onions, cilantro, serrano, and lemon
  juice and toss to combine. Taste and adjust with more salt to preference.

Wrap

Paste

• • 2 tbs flour
  • 1 egg yoke
  • water

• Add 2 tablespoons of ground beef to the pocket of the spring roll sheets. Do a 2-ply with the sheets to make them extra crispy but you can
  do a single wrap if you’ve made these before successfully. Fry or freeze.

Freeze

• Place the samosas in a single layer on a large sheet pan and pop them into the
  freezer for 3-4 hours. When frozen, pop the samosas into a freezer-safe bag and freeze until
  ready to fry.

Fry

• Heat a few inches of oil in a saucepan to 365ºF. Add a few samosas at a time and fry
  them until golden brown and crispy, about 5-8 minute

Air Fryer Directions

• spray one side of the samosa and add them to a preheated air fryer at 375ºF for 15-20 minutes, flipping halfway and spraying the other side as well.

Notes

Attempt #1

• First attempt was not great.
  • Onions were too big. Should have used a food processor or something.
  • Home made pastry was really hard to work with and hard to make it thin using a rolling pin. Use spring roll wrappers next time.
  • Frying in a pan with only a little bit of oil just made for half burnt samosas. Next, time I will add enough oil to cover the samosa completely.

• I used regular chilli powder instead of Indian chili powder. Next time, use cayenne.
• Make sure onions are supper small... food processor or maybe cook them next time. 

• Didn't have Serrano peppers, so omitted.

• Used lemon juice from plastic lemon. 

Attempt #2

• used 1 small onion or half large onion.
• Subbed Jalapeño for Serrano pepper.
• Used ½ teaspoon cayenne
• 1/2 bunch of cilantro? Used a handful
• used food processor for onions, pepper and cilantro. Should have done them at the same time.
• Used lemon juice from plastic lemon. 
• Used spring roll wrappers - SpringHome - TYJ Spring Roll Pastry
• Wrapping was a pain. I submerged the wrapper in cold water for about 30s to make it a bit easier to use. Seemed dried out.

How was it?

• Turned out ok. Wrapper is a bit thin. Would be better twice as thick.
• Needed more spice/heat.

Attempt #3

• Added another jalapeño to it and 1/2 tsp cayenne.
• Used paste to stick wrappers together. Didn't wet the wrappers other than the past.
• Tried two wrappers at a time. Does make them thicker and crunchier.

How was it?

• Better. Could definitely add more heat.
• Need to get larger spring roll wrappers, then I could get more meat into them. As it was, I could only get 1 tbsp into each one.

Next Time

• More spices - 1-1.5 tsp cayenne 
• 2 jalapeños or more.
• Maybe less or no cilantro
• Bigger spring roll wrappers or homemade pastry.
• Try air fry or maybe different oil?

Samosa Dissection

Observations

• Not a lot of meat
• looks like onions, ground beef and spices.

Simple Pastry Recipe

Ingredients of Samosa Pastry

• 2 Cups refined flour (sifted)
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp oil
• Cold water (to knead)

How to Make Samosa Pastry

• Add the salt to the flour, and rub the oil into it.
• Add water and knead into a stiff dough (It is important for the dough to be stiff.) Leave to rest for 15 minutes or so.
• Shape dough into smooth balls, and roll the balls into thin rounds. Cut these into halves.
• Take one half, wet the edges, and fold the straight edge at the center and join by one half overlapping the other to form into a cone.
• Press the overlapping portion, and fill the cone with desired filling, and press the edges together to seal.
• The oil should be hot when you add the samosas to it, then lower the heat and let cook till brown.

References