#1000Kitchens Recipe Drop: Bohri Kheema Samosasp

Zainab Tambawalla is an artist and animator, known most widely for the urban sketches of Mumbai’s disappearing heritage facades. Her works show the city’s sandwich makers, paani puri vendors, markets, shoe-shines, bringing tenderness to the ordinary, elevating them into extraordinary markers of city life, pausing to breathe stillness into a city that never has the luxury of pause.

In this edition of #1000Kitchens, she prepares kheema samosas, a favourite at Iftaaris during Ramzan, and on the Eid table. These samosas are slowly becoming less ubiquitous at weddings and festive celebrations; people are looking for exciting new options, and it doesn’t help that the kheema samosa is incredibly labour intensive. “You can tell a homemade kheema samosa a mile away. The crunch from the whole-wheat casing of a homemade samosas is unmistakable.” Kheema samosas, while a fairly prosaic dish, are steeped in technical skill and knowledge that fewer households are proficient in, because fewer people make it at home. Even the making of ‘parr,’ a technique specifically designed to roll out dough sheets thinner than a single ball roll-out will allow, watching for a puff up, and then delicate, deftly tossing while it is still hot, to allow the layers to come apart in a puff of steam.

“Being in the kitchen as a daily practice teaches you the science of cooking. Nothing has taught me more than this daily practice.” Zainab cooks everyday for herself and the family. “The problem with having eaten well in your childhood is that nothing less will do,” she laughs.

This is a #1000Kitchens feature. You can read the full story here.

ZAINAB TAMBAWALLA’S RECIPE FOR KHEEMA SAMOSAS

Ingredients

For the kheema filling:

250 g hand cut kheema
3 tsp ginger garlic paste
Pink salt, a generous pinch
3 tsp red chilli powder
3 green chilli, deseeded and chopped fine
1 tsp haldi
2 tsp dhana-jeera
5 finely chopped onions
A handful of tender coriander leaves, chopped
A handful of mint leaves, chopped

For samosa dough:
200 g whole wheat
Salt, to taste
Water, as needed
Oil, to knead

Method

To the kheema, add in the ginger garlic paste, salt, dry masalas and cook on medium flame until completely dry and the kheema starts to stick to the bottom of the pan slightly.
Now add in the chopped onions and allow to cook on a slow flame until the onions soften. The onions should soften completely and not have a bite or a crunch to them at all.
Turn off the flame, add the chopped coriander, mint and green chillies and mix well.
Keep covered and let the moisture help deglaze the pan.
Cool completely and then roll the samosas  

For the samosa:
Knead the ingredients to form a smooth dough.
Allow to rest for 20 minutes.
Portion the dough into small 3-inch diameter balls, spread oil and dust with flour, and roll into thick rounds, placed in stacks of 2.
Grease the 3 inch roundels with oil and then dust with flour. This will allow the layers to separate easily without a tear in the next step.
Place each stack on a platform, and roll out into a single large, thin flat bread.
Place this thin roti onto a hot tawa or griddle, and allow to cook.
As soon as it starts to blister, and puff up with steam, remove from the tawa and toss delicately into the air with both hands. Warning: do this step with caution as the roti will be very hot. The roti will separate into two flatbreads, one side cooked and the inner side slightly undercooked.
Stack the rotis to make a pile with cooked side facing down, and slice them lengthwise along the diameter to form three strips per round.
Use each strip to hold the kheema filling (refer the video), with cooked side holding the kheema, and uncooked side on the outside.
Made folds as per video directions, and fry in hot oil.
Best paired with ketchup and eaten hot.

Words by Anisha Oommen. Images by Nachiket Pimprikar. Illustration by Kajol Deorukhkar.
Special thanks to our partners.

ALSO ON GOYA