September 15, 2013

Mini Cream Cheese Samosa: Festive Indian Recipe #2

These Mini Cream Cheese Samosas are vegetarian, mildly sweet and a good recipe for weekend gatherings, festivals or birthdays. Well, in India, people don’t need an excuse to gorge on the popular street food called samosa, which is a conical savoury snack, generally with spicy potato stuffing. Indian chefs have come up with chocolate samosas and other kinds of sweet samosa variations now. But cream cheese samosas are something I have never seen before. So I decided to make my own batch of these mini samosas for my family, and I am glad I did so. These were delicious and seriously addictive! I suggest, you drizzle these with honey or maple syrup just before serving, as the filling is not very sweet. And for those who think it is difficult, let me tell you that this is the first time I made these and I was wondering why I didn’t make these before, as these are very easy to make, taste great and look impressive on the table too!

As Ganesh puja in Maharashtra comes to a “rainy” end this year with the Ganpati visarjan (immersion of the elephant-headed idol Ganesha into the sea) tonight, it is festival time in another part of the country, as South India is rejoicing on their harvest festival celebrations. Happy Onam to all my South-Indian readers. Here is my fusion Indian vegetarian snack recipe for you all, which is a “sweet” spin on the popular Indian savoury snack: samosa! The Mini Cream Cheese Samosas are a perfect accompaniment to any festive occasion or party. The stuffing is rather easy and no-cook recipe. It is a favourite with my kids’ friends as well, as it has soft candy pieces blended with cream cheese to give a distinctive flavor. To balance the sweetness, I have used crushed sweet-n-sour biscuits into the mixture.

Mini cream cheese samosa 2 — I love experimenting and love to use traditional recipes to make my own versions. This mini cream cheese samosa recipe is the sweet, cosmopolitan version of the traditional spicy samosa. These classic samosas with a modern twist will make you addicted to them for sure!

The trick to have different flavours of cream cheese samosas from the same stuffing, is to divide the stuffing into a few batches, before the chopped candies are added. Play with these candy flavours. Whether you crush-in the traditional Indian chikkis or the traditional French nougats, you will see how interesting the stuffing becomes, with just the addition of few of your favourite candies or sweets.

Samosas are a popular Indian street food snack, deep-fried with spicy potato stuffing. Apt for rainy days or for quick after-office snack, these are affordable and liked by all. In India, you will find it in almost every roadside food stall, even in remote Indian villages. It is now popular worldwide, thanks to filo pastry sheets and spring-roll wrappers, which makes the samosa-making even easier to global foodies. Such is the craze of Indian samosas!

Samosas vary across India

Whether the boy’s family is coming over to meet the girl’s family for matrimony, or we want to celebrate India’s victory in the cricket match, whether we are in Kashmir (north) or in Kanyakumari (south), these saddlebagged snacks accompanied with delicious tamarind and spicy green chutneys are always well-received! The spice combinations in the stuffing vary across India and so is the taste.

Bengali samosa or singara (shingara): A great burst of flavours, as there are potatoes, cauliflower, raisins and green peas in the stuffing, merged with special secret masala (spice) blends. Minced-meat singaras and sweet singaras with sweetened reduced milk or khoyakheer stuffing are also popular.

Gujrati samosa: Potato, cabbage and green pea stuffing. Cabbage in the stuffing is surely a great variation.

South-Indian samosa: Here, you will get the popular onion samosas, having red onions, curry leaves and curry powder in the stuffing. Having heard of these so much, I have to try these next year, when we visit Hyderabad.

Punjabi samosa: These are the tastiest one according to me. As I grew up in Delhi, where Punjabi cuisine is dominant, I ate these atleast once every week. The sour and spicy marriage of potatoes, green peas, chaat masala, garam masala powder, coriander seeds, dried mango powder (aamchoor), one or two paneer (cottage cheese) cubes and sometimes, fried cashewnuts, makes these samosas stand out!

Maharashtrian samosa: Made with potatoes, there are interesting variations available. Some vendors even keep baked samosas, which are popular because these have less or no oil. Variations in the stuffing include the presence of mung dal sprouts and sweet corn in the stuffing. These are sweeter and less spicier than the Punjabi samosas.

This is just an idea. I love innovation and it is good to experiment. You might try other variations in the stuffing and make your own signature salsa samosas, dulce de leche samosas, peanut butter samosas, smoked salmon samosas, ice cream samosas… Oh My! This list can go on and on!

Mini Cream Cheese Samosas

[Disclosure: This post is not sponsored by any brand.]

Ingredients for the stuffing:

Cherries in heavy syrup, chopped: 200 g (reserve 1 tbsp of the syrup and discard the rest)

Cream cheese (I used American Bagel Factory brand): 100 g

Cocoa powder: 30 g

Icing sugar: 3 tbsp

Finely chopped soft candies (I used Parle 2-in-1 rose-flavoured candy): 2 tbsp

Cherry syrup: 1 tsp

Instant oats: 4 tbsp

Sweet-n-sour biscuits, powdered (I used Parle Krackjack): 5 tbsp

Ingredients for the dough:

Refined flour: 3 cups

Oil: ½ cup

Water: Just enough to bind

Oil for deep-frying
Honey or maple syrup for drizzling

Method:

Combine all the ingredients for the stuffing, ensuring that the candies and the cherries don’t get smashed completely. Keep this refrigerated, until the samosa wrappers are ready.

The dough for the samosa should not be too soft and sticky. — The dough for the samosa

For the dough, combine the flour and the oil and crumble with your fingers. Add water, little at a time, and knead into a smooth and non-sticky dough. Cover the dough and let it rest at room temperature for about 15 min.

After 15 min, divide the dough into equally sized balls (of the size of ping pong balls). Roll each of these balls, sprinkling a little flour to prevent sticking to the surface. Cut each of these rolled circles into half. Make cones out of these half circles, as shown in the picture.

Fill each cone with little stuffing and seal the opened end by pressing with the fingers.

Make six or seven mini samosas at a time.

Heat sufficient oil in a kadai or a deep-bottomed pan to deep-fry the sweet samosas. When the oil is smoking, reduce the flame and introduce the samosas slowly and carefully into the hot oil. Deep-fry both the sides of the samosas, until these turn light brown.

BeFunky_cream cheese samosa step 9.jpg — Deep-frying the samosas.

Remove the samosas with a perforated spoon, into a big plate lined with absorbent paper.

Drizzle some honey or maple syrup on the mini cream cheese samosas just before serving. Serve at room temperature or slightly chilled.

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