December 13, 2019
Samosas are one of the most popular starters on our menu here at Royal Nawaab. So popular in fact that our team of chefs make thousands of meat, chicken and vegetable versions of these Asian pastries each and every day.
When you make as many samosas as we do you get to understand very clearly what makes the difference between an average filled pastry and a decadent and luxurious samosa. There’s nothing more depressing than seeing a flat, cardboard like samosa that is either stone cold or lukewarm.
We make sure that all our samosas are crispy and golden on the outside hot and juicy on the inside. But how do we make sure our samosas are delicious each and every time?
The pastry
Samosas are so popular in the UK as part of Indian and Pakistani menus because the pastry is a very similar one to that used in a lot of dishes that were created here – just like the Cornish Pasty. This is because both dishes were made for very similar purposes – to travel.
Cornish pasties had to travel to the bottom of mine shafts, keeping food fresh and hot enough for hungry workers to eat at lunchtime whilst samosas were made to fill the bellies of Muslim merchants as they travelled across Asia and the Middle East.
Pastry doesn’t need to be as rugged as it did back then. Now, we can focus on giving pastry a much deeper flavour and delicate texture in order to elevate the dish. When it comes to pastry, the most important first step is sourcing the best flour. Plain white strong flour is the key to a great samosa in order to create that crisp texture that is flaky and light whilst strong enough to contain those piping hot fillings as it is fried in hot oil. It is also important to start with good quality flour to achieve the best possible taste.
Next up is the fat used. Quality ghee, butter, vegetable oil or just water is worked into the dough at different parts of the process to create different textures. Butter creates a shorter pastry; oil creates that distinct flaky and crisp pastry and water can help give a slightly chewier texture that some prefer.
Visit Royal Nawaab restaurant today to try some of our famous samosas first hand.
