When you live in a foreign country the things you miss the most are:

Yes, you heard me right FOOD. You only learn to appreciate the value of desi food once you are in a land far, far and pretty far away (in my case). You miss the food ever so often but you miss it the most around Ramadan time remembering all the street food you get to eat back home.

My mom has always been the best cook in our entire family. All our family and friends look forward to Ramadan dawats at our place just to eat my mom’s delicious food. I and my sister were the sous-chefs doing all the cutting, cleaning and prep work for her. Before Ramadan would start we would be assigned the duty of making samosas. It would be a whole day event which was scheduled seeing when all three of us were available. My mom would make up the dough and the filling and it would be me and my sister’s duty to shape them and properly freeze them.

Five years living on this teeny tiny island, all I could do to reminisce those then dreaded and now cherished moments is to make them myself. This is my mom’s recipe which I will be sharing here.

This recipe comes out great every single time. Every person (Bajans, Indians, and Pakistanis) who has eaten these samosas has fallen in love with them. The outer pastry is so soft and buttery it literally melts in your mouth. I hope all the readers of the blog will give this recipe a try and love it as much as I do. So here it goes:

1/2 cup unsalted butter (1 stick)

1 cup water

Flour as needed

1 pinch cumin or caraway seeds or both

1/4 teaspoon salt

Heat up the water in a pan, don’ boil it. Once the water is nice warm turn off the heat and add the butter to it. The butter will slowly melt into the water. When this concoction is cool enough to handle transfer it to a large mixing bowl add the salt and cumin or caraway seeds or both to it.

Now, slowly start adding flour to it start with a small amount and keeping on adding more and keep whisking with a whisk, in the beginning it will look like a cake batter and then will start to come together as a dough. (I added about 2 cups and slightly more). Don’t add the flour all together as it may end up ruining the consistency of the dough.

Add the flour as you go on mixing this will give you the softest dough. The dough will be super soft to touch but when you insert a clean finger into it will not stick to it. Keep this aside covered with a damp cloth so that it doesn’t dry out.

4 medium russets potatoes

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon red chilli powder

1/2 teaspoon crushed red chilies

1 teaspoon roasted cumin seeds (don’t use the powder version)

1 teaspoon roasted coriander seeds (don’t use the powder version)

1/4 teaspoon fennel seeds

1/2 teaspoon chaat masala

3 tablespoon finley chopped corriander leaves

2 finely chopped green chilies

In a pot add the potatoes with water to boil. While the potatoes are boiling dry roast the cumin and coriander seeds. Crush the fennel seeds and the roasted cumin and coriander seeds in a mortar and pestle. Once the potatoes are done

Once the potatoes are done drain and peel them. Transfer them to a mixing bowl and add all the spices. Mash them while they are still hot. (You can lend this job to your little helper though.) You don’t want to mash them too much. The filling should be chunky i.e. a mish mash of smaller and larger pieces.

Once you start filling the samosas you can break any unusually larger pieces with the hand.

Taste the filling at this time to adjust the spice level. Let the filling cool completely before making the samosas or it might cause them to break. Then just shape your samoosas like:

Once you are doing making all the samosas deep fry them at medium heat until golden brown. Serve hot with spicy green chutney and enjoy the taste of Pakistan at home.