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For the pastry:
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The trick to kneading perfect dough is to always add water in small portions.
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Dough for samosa pastry should be a little tougher than youd expect.
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As a test, when you press your finger into it, you should have to apply a little pressure.
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Mix the all purpose flour, salt, ajwain seeds and semolina together.
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Add oil into the flour mixture and mix it all very well together.
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To mix the oil well into the flour, take flour in small portions in your hand and rub it between your palms.
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To make sure that the oil is mixed well, hold the flour in your fist, press tightly and open your fist.
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When its ready, the flour should still hold itself together.
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Now add water in small portions and try to make a dough out of it.
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I easily used 2/3 cup of water and then a little extra to wet my hands for kneading.
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Once the dough comes together, work it for another 5 minutes.
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Then wrap with a plastic wrap and let it rest for 30 minutes.
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For the filling:
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Boil potatoes until they are fork tender (For me it takes about 15-20 minutes but it will depend on the size of the potatoes).
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Then they are done, remove them from the water and allow them to cool and then mash them.
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Set aside.
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Heat oil in a pan on medium high heat.
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Add cumin seeds.
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Once they start to pop add chili and onion.
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Cook until onion becomes translucent.
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Then add peas and turmeric.
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Once the peas are cooked, add coriander powder, salt and the mashed potatoes.
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Mix everything together and set it aside for the mixture to cool before using them for filling.
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Making Samosas:
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The trick all samosa shop vendors use to make crisp samosas is that they use warm oil to fry their samosas.
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They drop them in oil which is a little over room temperature and slowly increase the temperature of the oil.
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This cooks the outer pastry slowly, making them crisp.
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Frying them in hot oil makes the pastry soft and you dont want that.
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Start by rolling a lemon size ball of dough into a circle using a rolling pin.
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The flat circle should be around 11-12 cm in diameter.
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Cut the big circle into two semicircles.
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Take about two spoons of potato mixture, make a ball out of it and place it in the center of the semicircle.
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Now dip your finger in water and rub it across the straight edge of the semicircle to make it wet so that it can stick.
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Pick the dough up from one side and fold it over the potato ball covering it half way.
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Then pick up the other side and place it over to the previous one, covering the potato to make a triangle shape.
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The two flaps should stick to each other right at the center of the samosa.
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The third side of the triangle should be still open.
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Use a little water, make it wet and stick the two flaps together with your finger.
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Repeat the process with the rest of the dough and filling.
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Use a wok or deep fryer to fry the samosas in the hot oil till they turn golden brown in color.
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Serve with your choice of sauce or chutney.
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Shop vendors in India sell them with green cilantro and tomato chutney along with some yogurt and tamarind chutney.
