Samosas

This is my first blog entry. Naturally, it should have a special theme. And honestly, it wasn't difficult for me to decide what it should be about:

SAMOSAS

Stuffed pastries, food, delicious and delicious again.

And not just any samosas, but the original samosas from Kenya.

I first encountered samosas in Kenya in 1996, on a diving vacation. They stuck with me and became my favorite food.

And not just mine, but my whole family's. No matter where we were, or who we offered our homemade samosas to, everyone, absolutely everyone, loved them. We even sold them in Mexico, with great success.

I don't want to go into samosas in general here at the beginning, but only our version of samosas from Kenya. At first, I tried to imitate them somehow, based on various recipes and my memory of the samosas from my vacation, with varying degrees of success.

We had a brilliant experiment at our wedding when we told the head chef what they look like and what's inside them, and he then conjured up the starter from them.

Later, I found samosas in an African restaurant in Munich. They tasted just like the samosas from my diving vacation. And behold, the samosas were homemade by the restaurant owner herself, who is Kenyan. Unfortunately, the restaurant has been closed for many years now.

We became friends, and since I always took large orders home with me (near Marburg), she taught me how to make them. Since then, we've been making them ourselves. With great success and always just as delicious.

When we make and freeze the samosas, you really have to guard the refrigerator, otherwise they'll be gone faster than anything else.

Samosas are suitable for everything, whether cold or warm. As a starter, main course, or dessert. They are an absolute hit at any party or podlock.

Yes, I know, now you're getting hungry. Me too, and as I write this, I know what we'll be having later—a few are still slumbering in the back corner of the freezer.

So how do you make them?

Logically, you need the ingredients and the dough.

Here are our ingredients: ground beef, garlic, onions, ginger, chilies, vegetable broth (or bouillon cubes).

The dough is the biggest problem. We tried various doughs, but ultimately ended up with Chinese dough sheets, specifically square sheets. You can buy these in good Asian shops. It's important that they are not too thin or too thick. The dough also has no taste of its own. Incidentally, our Kenyan cook also used these sheets because it's much easier and doesn't detract from the taste.

The other ingredients are then mixed together in a pan and fried with little oil. Allow the ingredients to cool and fill the folded dough pockets. Then fry the samosas and serve with fresh limes, or put them in the freezer for later.

Tip: We now always heat our samosas in the air fryer. Simply brush the samosas with a little oil and heat for 10 minutes (375 F).

On our trips to Africa, we encountered some delicious samosas, but nowhere were they as good as in Kenya. In Tanzania and Zanzibar, they were excellent, in South Africa they were very hard to find, and in my dream country Namibia, I couldn't find any at all.

One last tip: you can of course play around with the ingredients (India has many vegetable or chicken samosas), but I like the ground beef version best by far. On my diving vacation in 1996, in addition to the classic version with ground beef, there was also a version filled with tomato sauce and cheese. It was incredibly delicious, but I've never been able to make it myself and haven't found it anywhere else. The diving school there no longer exists and I don't know which hotel it was affiliated with at the time. Maybe someone here on the blog can help me find it out. I stayed at the XXXXX in Malindi, which wasn't the hotel with the diving school. The local fish restaurant (open 24/7) also only served the minced meat version.

I have posted the recipe and quantities here for everyone free of charge.

If you want more, you can find the recipe with a video showing how to make it in detail, for a small fee (and it's definitely worth it, you'll see).

Enjoy.