Samsa is a pie that can have not only any shape, but also a very different filling. You can cook such pastries at home in a pan or in the oven. But at home, in the countries of the East, the most popular is considered to be the tandoor samsa. What is the difference and how to cook such products? This should be dealt with in more detail.
Uzbek samsa
For some republics of the former Union, samsa is a national dish. By tradition, it is customary to cook it in a special oven (tandoor), which has the shape of a ball or jug. For baking, as a rule, simple or puff pastry is used, and as a filling - sheep meat.
So, the famous Uzbek samsa tandoor is prepared from the following components:
240 grams of flour, 0.45 kilograms of lamb, one and a half onions, 40 grams of fat tail fat, water (35 grams for the filling and 100 grams for the dough), salt, vegetable oil and ground black pepper.
Samsa tandoor is made very simply:
- First, the filling is prepared. To do this, lamb with onions should be finely chopped with a sharp knife. Then add salt, a little water, pepper and mix well.
- To prepare the dough, flour, salt and water are taken. The resulting mass must be divided into parts and rolled out in the form of identical cakes.
- Put a little stuffing in the middle of each piece. After this, the edges of the tortillas need to be wrapped in the form of a triangle and gently pinched from above.
- Sprinkle the back of the semi-finished product with water and stick on the hot inner wall of the oven.
Product readiness is determined by the characteristic golden crust. After baking, it is also customary to additionally grease them with fat.
Modern option
Nowadays, dough for samsa is made in many ways. It all depends on what kind of product the hostess ultimately wants to receive. For example, tandoor samsa is very simply prepared on kefir. As a result, the pies are very tender, lush and tasty. This will require the following ingredients.
For filling:
0.4 kilograms of fatty meat (it is better to take lamb), pepper, 3 onions and salt.
For the test:
250 grams of butter (or margarine), 600 grams of flour, 5 grams of salt and a glass of kefir.
For lubrication, you can use vegetable oil.
The work is carried out in four stages:
- First you need to make a dough. To do this, chop the butter with a knife, and then rub it thoroughly with flour. After that add the remaining ingredients and finish the batch. Ready dough for a short time (1 hour) should be put in the refrigerator.
- To prepare the meat, you just need to grind and mix all the available components. Moreover, the meat can be passed through a meat grinder, but it is better to chop it with a knife.
- From the dough, roll out cakes with a diameter of about 10 centimeters, fill them with filling, and then, gently pinching the edges, give the workpiece a square or triangle shape.
- Semi-finished products need to be folded onto a special grid, and then, sprinkled with water, stick to the inner wall of the tandoor.
They take out products from the oven with a special hook or bucket with a long handle.
Puff Samsa
Samsa, depending on the type of dough, can be not only fresh, but also puff. Such products differ even in appearance. How is the real tandoor puff samsa prepared? The recipe involves the use of the following components.
For the test:
4 cups flour 100 grams butter, 1 egg, 5 grams of salt and a glass of warm water.
For filling:
lamb meat with fat, pepper, onions, salt, herbs (dill or parsley) and spices.
The cooking process in this case looks a little different:
- To prepare the dough, all ingredients except flour must be mixed thoroughly. The process continues until the salt is completely dissolved. After this, you need to gradually introduce the flour.
- Divide the finished dough into parts, roll it into a thin layer, and then roll it up and leave it for half an hour, covering it with a napkin.
- This time can be spent on preparing the filling. The components prepared for it should simply be chopped with a knife and mixed.
- Cut the dough into pieces, each of which is kneaded into a cake.
- Fill the blanks with filling, connect the edges and send the products to the oven.
It is better not to lubricate the surface of the semi-finished products in order to clearly distinguish the layers of dough.
Unique fixture
Many modern housewives do not know that for baking real samsa you need a special oven (tandoor). It is a brazier or some kind of barbecue. This structure is in the form of a jug or ball. It is a ceramic hemisphere, at the bottom of which there is a grill with a blower located under it. They melt such a stove with coal, firewood or brushwood. To maintain the temperature, the structure is covered with clay or heat-resistant brick from the outside.
The fuel and products are placed through the same hole. After prolonged heating, a burning coating is carefully removed from the walls. Then they must be sprayed with water, and after that you can start the baking process. After work, burnt ash is removed in the same way. Previously, in the East, according to tradition, the tandoor was in the courtyard of each house. Now such stoves can be found only in small villages, and modern housewives have found a worthy alternative to them in the form of an oven or microwave. But the national bakery gets a real taste only after cooking in traditional old tandoor.