Recipe - Samoosas - The Pastry

PUR (PASTRY
750 ml Cake flour
1 pn Borrie (turmeric)
2 One half ml Salt
250 ml Cold water
5 ml White vinegar
75 ml Cooking oil for spreading

Preheat oven to 200 'C. Sift flour,borrie and salt into a mixing bowl.
Combine water and vinegar and mix with flour to a fairly stiff mixture,The
consistency of bread dough. Divide into 12 balls. Working with four balls
of dough at a time, roll each into a round the size of a large saucer (15
cm in diameter). Using your fingers, spread a little oil on each
round,covering it well so that it does not stick during cooking. Sprinkle
lightly with flour and place one round on top of the other, oily sides
together. You will now have two rounds, each made up of a double layer of
dough. oil and flour the tops in the same way as before. Sandwich these
together to form a single pile of four rounds. Each layer of which has been
oiled and dusted with flour. Repeat with remaining balls of dough.

Gently roll out piles of rounds on a lightly floured board to a 25 cm
diameter circle or oval. Turn the pastry from time to time. Place the
rolled out pastry on an ungreased baking sheet and bake for 23 minutes or
until the pastry has puffed up slightly. Remove from oven and cut into
strips 6 cm wide and 2530 cm long. Then separate into thin layers before
the pastry cools down. Cover with a damp cloth to prevent the pastry from
drying out.

Now hopefully I don't confuse you on this next part! My diagram is supposed
to represent the strip of pastry 6 cm wide 2530 cm long. Fold #1 corner
over # 2, Then fold the # 2 triangle over # 3 this will have created a
pocket where the filling goes into.

________________________________
/\ /\ 3 /\ 1
/ \ / \ / \ _/________\/________\/___2____\_

Fill the pocket with one of the samoosas filling recipes. You then continue
folding the triangles to seal off the opening. Seal off the small remaining
edge with a paste of flour and water, Then lightly pinch two bottom edges
together to puff it up before you fry it.

Once the filling and folding has taken place, You deepfry the samoosas in
hot oil over medium heat, turning once or twice to ensure that they are
evenly cooked. When golden brown, remove with a slotted spoon and drain on
paper towel.

Makes 48 samoosas.

From the Cape Malay Cookbook. By Faldela Williams

Courtesy of Jim Jamieson

From Gemini's MASSIVE MealMaster collection at www.synapse.com/~gemini