The classic and one of the most popular dishes of Central Asia - samsa with meat - traditionally should be baked in a special open oven called tandoor. Without the participation of this “heating apparatus”, the dish is considered to be not real. However, curious culinary experts found out from their own experience that the main thing in samsa is proper dough and filling, and not a baking method at all.
What is samsa
If you don’t find fault with the details, then this dish is just a pie. Usually it is made of a triangular shape, but there are also square varieties and round ones that look like mouth-watering buns. However, in order to get exactly samsa with meat, and not just a pie with it, you must follow clear rules.
The simplest and easiest to do is to use exactly those spices, which include, for example, a recipe for Uzbek samsa with meat. That is, no sets of seasonings, no "Central Asian" herbs - only black (for example, red) peppers, sung by oriental poets of cumin and sesame seeds. Moreover, the latter are not part of the filling, they sprinkle the finished product before completing the preparation.
The basis of success is the dough.
However, seasonings are seasonings, but if you decide that samsa with meat will turn out from the finished dough, you will get a standard meat pie. Although the main ingredients for any dough are the same, the conceived Central Asian dish contains additional ones, and also requires observance of certain subtleties.
The beginning of making the dough, from which our samsa with meat will be prepared, is quite ordinary: in a bowl with salted water (half a teaspoon of salt in 0.5 cups of liquid), flour is poured with constant stirring, but do not forget to stop in time - the dough should not turn out too tight.
But then the process of preparing the dough deviates to the side: from 50 g of chopped fat (necessarily fat tail!) Fat is melted and added to the dough. Shkvarko does not belong there, so they will either have to be thrown out, or, as an option, used in another dish - eat with fried potatoes, for example.
The dough is very carefully kneaded, folded into a ball, covered with a napkin and put in the refrigerator, where it should stand for about an hour.
Proper filling: meat selection and preparation
The classic and most delicious samsa - with minced meat, and it is with lamb. In our conditions, you will not find it everywhere, so you have to replace the lamb with something more affordable. However, the meat should still be chopped, not grinded. Firstly, this way it will not be so “wet”, and secondly, with minced samsa stuffing with meat, it is more juicy and closer “in spirit” to the original.
In addition, the stuffing should include the same fat tail fat. However, if in the test its taste is palpable only with a subtle note and gives it piquancy, then in the filling the fat tail has a strong effect on taste. If you do not really like the smell of mutton, fat can be replaced with ghee.
Proper filling: compliance with the ratio
Precise adherence to proportions - almost a milligram - is naturally not required, so buying a pharmacy scale is not worth it. However, too much deviation from the accepted norms will kill the taste of samsa.
So how to make samsa with meat and not turn it into a pie? Unlike the ratio we are accustomed to, in this Asian dish, the meat should be less than half the onion, and the fat - or ghee - two times less than the mutton. Moreover, in the calculations it is necessary to take into account the fat that is part of the meat. It is better to take onions white, often called salad. If you decide to take it a little less than the norm - add more fat.
All components are finely chopped, salt and pepper are added (you can pepper both red and black), zira - a pinch, no more, it is very spicy, and everything is carefully mixed.
Art modeling
When the dough is infused to the desired condition, it is cut into four equal parts in length. The resulting bars are cut across, again into equal pieces. Determine their size yourself, it depends on what size is planned samsa with meat. The resulting lumps of dough are rolled into not thick, but not thin cakes, prepared filling is placed on them, and the most interesting thing begins - modeling.
Such samsa with meat (the recipe with a photo is placed in our article) at the output should turn out round, like a small bun. The basic principle is similar to covering up a khinkali: the edges are plucked like the neck of a bag. It is necessary to press the dough as tightly as possible, not even a small hole or alkali should remain, otherwise the meat juice will leak during baking. The resulting nodule is pressed into the "body" of the samsa and becomes its base, so you need to make it flat.
How to make samsa triangular
Since most of the Asian "pies" are still made in the form of triangles, we will consider how to achieve this shape.
Option one: the cakes roll the same round. After unfolding the filling, the edges of the pancake are wrapped in an envelope, so that the dough comes on top of each other.
Option two: the dough is not cut into pieces, but rolled out in one large cake, sort of like a cake. The resulting layer of the desired thickness is cut into triangles. When the filling is placed on them, the corners are bent, and the edges are stuck together.
And in that, and in another case, the "seams" are blotted out approximately as on dumplings, and very, very diligently so as not to lose a drop of precious meat juice.
Basic principles of baking
Baked samsa with meat in the oven. Moreover, it must be preheated very much. If you have selected a baking sheet or large pan for baking, grease the bottom with vegetable oil. If samsa will be baked in ceramics (suddenly you have a suitable vessel, and you want to get an almost tandoor samsa), then the bottom of each product should be slightly sprinkled with water.
From above, the future goodies should be greased with oil (vegetable, and not necessarily olive), sprinkled with sesame seeds and also lightly sprinkled. Samsa will have to be sprayed a couple more times during the baking process, otherwise the dough may come out dry.
And the last secret: when your envelope balls are browned, the cabinet door opens slightly, but the oven itself does not turn off. In this position, samsa should stand in the stove for another ten minutes.
Puff pastry
They say that the recipe for Uzbek samsa with meat implies the use of puff pastry. Of course, the storefront, ready-made, is not suitable for our purposes. However, puff samsa with meat will not require anything too complicated. You can just slightly transform the usual dumplings dough - and you get an excellent result.
The procedure will be as follows: flour is poured into a bowl, salted and gradually boiled water is poured (in no case is cold water). It should make an elastic dough; Kneading ends when it stops sticking to the hands. Butter or high-quality margarine is slowly melted over a small fire (or in the microwave), the dough is rolled in such a thin layer that it is about to tear, and greased with margarine oil. Then the pancake is folded, rolled out again and again lubricated. This procedure must be done five to six times. The resulting "puff" is put into the refrigerator, and for a fairly long time - for two hours.
Features of further work with puff pastry
After settling, the dough is taken out of the refrigerator, rolled into thin cake and again smeared with ghee. However, now it does not need to be folded - it collapses like a roll. The resulting "sausage" is cut across into pieces, and these pieces are rolled into cakes. Please note that the pieces of the roll must be placed on the side, and not on the cut. Otherwise, instead of cakes, you get some kind of lace.
The thickness of the cake, as in the case of the traditional test, should not be too small. The filling, in principle, is the same if you want to get a result close to the natural Uzbek. Baking is also no different from the described. True, some culinary experts advise: when it is puff samsa with meat that is cooked, do not grease the baking sheet (the dough is already buttery), but lay it with food parchment.
Modern variety of fillings
As already mentioned, initially there was only one type of samsa - with lamb. However, over time, a fairly wide selection of fillings appeared. First of all, these are, of course, other types of meat. In our places, samsa with beef is often done: lamb still needs to be found, and cow meat - here it is, right at your side. No less often, chicken is used for filling. Interestingly, no one cooks samsa with pork. Either the meat is greasy for this dish, or it is echoes of the Islamic heritage of samsa.
In addition to meat, this dish is also found in vegetable design. They start the “pies” with pumpkin, peas, potatoes, and mushrooms. There are also recipes with egg filling complete with something.
From time immemorial, the samsa's “parents” - Uzbeks - made it a dessert too. To do this, fruit jams were placed inside, and on top, in addition to the invariable sesame, the delicacy was sprinkled with sugar.
There are mixed fillings. One of the most popular options is samsa with potatoes and meat. You can take any dough for her - even ordinary, even puff. Some experimenters suggest adding semolina to a regular dough for such samsa - they say that this way the dough turns out to be more magnificent, but tight. However, even if you choose the usual, keep in mind that it will take longer to knead it, so that it turns out more dense. Nevertheless, the filling is supposed to be more raw and heterogeneous, so that it can break through the sides of the pie.
Again, the question is the ratio of components. Most culinary experts agree that even mixed samsa, with potatoes and meat, should include onions. However, its quantity already probably depends on personal tastes. Nevertheless, in such a volume as in traditional samsa, you no longer use it.
In a word, you need to get the hang of it, practice the classic recipes, feel the taste of real samsa - and there you can already invent your own recipes. Successful experiments and bon appetit!