Samsa is a traditional dish of the peoples of East and Central Asia, the Mediterranean and Africa. In appearance it resembles a pie of a round, triangular or square shape with a filling inside. There are several variations on cooking. In Central Asia, in particular in Uzbekistan, samsa is prepared exclusively in tandoor. But since it is very difficult to do this at home, the housewives adapted to cook this tasty dish in an electric or gas oven. We will tell about the sequence in which samsa is prepared, starting from kneading a quick puff pastry to baking a pie, in our article. Here are several recipes for this dish with different types of toppings.
Samsa puff pastry: cooking features
Samsa is prepared exclusively from unleavened dough on water, almost the same as for dumplings. There are several recipes for kneading it with or without an egg. Traditional Uzbek samsa is made from quick puff pastry. These pies remain layered even after baking, which is clearly visible even in the photo.
Instant puff pastry for samsa is made in the following sequence:
- Knead the dough steeper than for dumplings. To do this, combine in a bowl a glass of water and salt (1/2 teaspoon). Add flour gradually, by hand kneading the dough of the desired consistency. Send the prepared dough to the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
- Chilled dough is rolled out using a rolling pin into a thin layer. You need to roll for a long time, if necessary, adding flour to the table. The finer the dough, the more layered the samsa will come out.
- A thin layer of dough is smeared with a cooking brush with vegetable or melted butter or margarine. After this, the sheet needs to be rolled up into a tight tube. Then it can be cut into several parts and sent to the refrigerator for several hours (at least two).
- After the indicated time, each such tube should be taken out of the refrigerator and cut lengthwise into 2-3 cm thick pieces. After that, each received piece should be cut down, pressed down with your palm, and then rolled thinly, paying more attention to the edges than the middle. Lamination will be noticeable immediately after rolling.
Samsa filling options
The filling for samsa is used the most diverse. Most often, this Central Asian dish is made from minced lamb with onions and fat tail fat. Meanwhile, cooking samsa with meat filling is not limited. It is equally tasty with poultry, offal, pumpkin, potatoes, salted cheese, etc. Samsa is served with vinegar and tomato sauce with garlic and herbs.
Traditional recipe for samsa with tandoor meat
Real samsa is made exclusively in tandoor. You can start lighting a fire in the tandoor immediately, as soon as the kneaded dough goes to the refrigerator. The best heat comes from the vine and stone fruits. While the firewood will burn, you can do the filling.
Traditional Uzbek samsa is made from fresh rather than frozen mutton (500 g). To do this, cut the meat together with onions (2 pcs.) And fat tail fat (50 g) very finely. Then the minced meat is kneaded by hands, adding salt and pepper to taste. If the filling turns out to be rather dry, add a little water (2 tbsp. Tablespoons). When the firewood in the tandoor is completely burnt out, and only the heat remains, they begin to form the product.
The puff pastry tube is cut into pieces, each of which is then rolled into a round cake. A teaspoon of the filling is laid out on this cake, and the edges are plucked. Now each formed product is wetted with water from this side and glued to the walls of the tandoor. After all the cakes are ready, the lid of the tandoor is closed. Samsa is baked for several minutes until golden brown. At home, an oven preheated to 250 degrees can replace tandoor.
Samsa recipe at home from a ready-made puff pastry
For quick cooking samsa at home, often used ready-made puff yeast-free dough. By the way, the pies in this case also turn out very tasty.
For samsa according to this recipe, the dough sheet is also thinly rolled and rolled up. Then it is cut into pieces, each of which is rolled into a cake. In the center of the cakes, spread the filling and form the product of the desired shape. The baking time of the pie depends on the type of filling. Samsa with lamb is cooked for about 15 minutes at 210 degrees, and then the same amount of time at 180 degrees. Samsa with other types of filling is baked faster.
Samsa with Chicken
Samsa with a bird, in particular with chicken, is equally tasty. To prepare the filling, it is recommended to use more fat parts of the carcass, for example, thighs, while the skin is removed from them, and the fat is left. But with the fillet, the filling is too dry, almost without juice.
Before you cook samsa with chicken, you need to decide on the test. You can knead it yourself according to the above recipe, buy a ready-made puff pastry or resort to the third option. In this case, a false puff pastry made from flour (250 g), cold butter, ice water (100 g each) and salt is mixed. Before forming the products, the dough should lie in the refrigerator for only half an hour. At this time, the filling is prepared from meat cut from the hips (700 g), onion (2 pcs.) And salt.
Chilled dough is divided into two parts, after which each of them is cut into 7 pieces. Each of them is rolled out with a rolling pin, then the filling is laid out in the center and the edges are glued together in the shape of a triangle. The formed products are laid out on a baking sheet with a seam down, smeared with yolk, sprinkled with sesame seeds and sent to the oven for half an hour at a temperature of 200 degrees.
Pumpkin Samsa Recipe
You can use any fresh, including puff pastry, for making samsa with pumpkin. The filling is prepared as follows: the pumpkin is rubbed on a coarse grater and fried in vegetable oil with onions, sugar, salt and pepper. The vegetables in the pan are cooked until half-cooked, while the number of spices is adjusted to taste.
Puff
samsa with pumpkin is baked for only 20 minutes until golden brown. To taste, it is equally well suited for tea and sour-milk drinks.
Cooking Delicious Samsa with Cheese
Very tasty samsa is obtained from the finest filo dough with salted cheese filling. You can use suluguni, mozzarella, feta cheese or any other cheese. If it seems too fresh to the taste, it will be enough to add a little.
Samsa preparation begins by cutting the dough into strips about 7 cm wide and 25-30 cm long. Since it is very thin, two strips of dough will be used to form one product. The filling in the form of a grated suluguni mixed with a raw egg is laid out on the edge of a strip in the shape of a triangle. Then they wrap the edge with cheese in such a way that this particular figure is formed. Wrap in this way you need until you get a flaky samsa of a triangular shape. Prepared products are laid out on a baking sheet, smeared with yolk, sprinkled with sesame seeds and sent to the oven for 30 minutes at a temperature of 190 degrees.
Samsa with potatoes
The last cooking option for samsa is with potatoes. To prepare the filling, boil the potatoes until cooked and mashed in mashed potatoes. At the same time, onions are fried in butter and added to potatoes. Salt and pepper are added to taste.
Samsa recipe at home with potatoes involves the use of any unleavened dough. But it is best to cook such a dish from puff pastry.
The secrets of cooking delicious samsa
Using a quick puff pastry it is not difficult to prepare samsa. To do this, it is enough to adhere to the recipe, taking into account the following recommendations:
- The filling should be juicy, regardless of whether it is prepared from meat, cheese or vegetables. That is why in the process of mixing it is recommended to add a little water or butter.
- It is important to ensure that the edges of the dough are well glued. Otherwise, all juice will leak from the product.
- You should not bake samsa at a temperature below 200 degrees, otherwise it will turn out to be too dry.
Cooking samsa does not take too much time, and the result is a very tasty, almost festive dish. Try to cook it with different types of toppings and choose the best option for yourself.