Samosa

Samosa is a deep-fried pastry snack stuffed with potato and peas or mixed vegetables in a triangle shape. It is very popular in all parts of India, and in Middle Eastern and Asian countries. It originated from the Middle East and was brought to India by the merchants. It’s usually served with mint, coriander, and a sweet tamarind sauce or chutney.

Preparation Time: 40 minutes Cooking Time: 40 minutes Serves: 4–5

Dough

Ingredients

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2 cups all-purpose flour (maida) • 1 tsp kalonji (black cumin) • ¼ tsp salt • 4 tbs oil • water to knead the dough, around 6 tbsp

Method

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4. Take a large bowl, add flour, kalonji/black cumin seeds, salt and mix well. Add oil to it and start mixing with your hand until the oil is well incorporated into the flour. After 3–4 minutes of mixing, add water little by little to form the dough. Cover the dough with a moist cloth and let it rest for 30–40 minutes.

Filling

Ingredients

500–550g potatoes 2 tbsp oil 1 tsp cumin seeds 1 tsp fennel seeds 2 tsp coriander seeds, crushed 1 green chilli, chopped ½ cup green peas or mixed vegetables 1 tsp coriander powder

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½ tsp garam masala • ½ tsp dried mango powder • ¼ tsp red chilli powder • ¾ tsp salt, or to taste • 1 litre cooking/sunflower oil for deep frying

Method

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6. Boil the potatoes until done and peel the skin when they are cold. Mash the potatoes in a bowl and keep them aside. Take a pan and heat on medium flame. Add 2 tablespoons of oil when the pan is hot, add the cumin seeds, crushed coriander seeds and fennel seeds. Add the green chilli after few seconds. Add the boiled potato and cooked peas to the pan and mix everything together. Add the rest of the spices (coriander powder, dry mango powder, garam masala, chilli powder, etc.), salt, and combine all together. Make small dough balls of the same size. Roll one dough ball into a circle or oval shape and then cut into two equal parts using a knife. Take one part and apply some water on the edge to form a nice glue. Make a cone by joining the edges together and now fill the cone with potato and peas filling. Keep some space to seal the cone and make a triangle shape. Add cooking/sunflower oil into the pan for deep frying. Remember to keep the oil at a low heat to make the samosa crispy. Keep the fried samosa on kitchen towel to remove excess oil.

About Rajiv

“My name is Rajiv Prasad and I work as an IT Engineer in Belfast. I was born and brought up in the northeastern part of India. After completing my post-graduate education in computer science, I worked in different cities of India for two or three years. Travelling is my hobby and I wanted to travel the world for either a new job opportunity or for holidays. I have travelled to twenty-one states of India from north to south, east to west.”

In 2008, I got the opportunity to visit Tokyo, Japan for work. I was so excited as it was my first international trip. I went back to India and again got a new opportunity to work in Singapore with a different company. I visited Hong Kong, Indonesia, and Malaysia between 2010 and 2014.

I finally got another job opportunity in Belfast in 2014 and moved here with my family. Initially, it felt lonely and boring; it was new weather for us and we didn’t have many friends here. Slowly, we started making new friends and got together with them at the weekends, cooking food and playing games. After a few months of staying here, we decided to make Belfast our new home and we settled here.

I also love to take part in cultural events and raise funds for charity. A few of the events where I have participated are Belfast Rath Yatra, Jaipur Literature Festival, Durga Puja, Diwali, and The Big Lunch. During the COVID lockdown I ran a number of online Zoom events for festivals and cultural events with my technical skills.

The best part of Belfast is its size. We save lots of travel time, whether you want to go for work or shopping. The cost of living is also very low compared to other cities. Local people are very welcoming, helpful and friendly. The hospitality in every sector is awesome. There are employees from forty nationalities working at my Belfast workplace. This shows how multicultural Belfast is.

I really enjoyed the programme with PRONI. It was nice to meet people from different cultures and countries, and to learn about what PRONI does through their hard work to archive the records for Northern Ireland.

>> Cooking playlist

My favourite songs are from the ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s, from Bollywood movies. It’s very hard to select five songs for a playlist and there are many songs by Kishore Kumar, Lata Mangeshkar, and A.R Rehman which are on my all-time favourite list.

‘Kal Ho Naa Ho’ (from the movie Kal Ho Naa Ho) ‘Sauda Khara Khara’ (from the movie Good News) ‘Aisa Sama Na Hota’ by Lata Mangeshkar ‘Jiya Jale’ by Lata Mangeshkar (from the movie Dil Se) ‘Bahon Ke Darmiyan’ by Alka Yagnik, Hariharan