Samosas

When deep frying these for the first time (initially I tried to bake them), I tried a couple of different temperatures as they aren’t specified in the original recipe. As far as I could glean from my limited notes, I always used 180 degrees for the second, high heat, fry. It looks like for the low heat, the first batch was on 150-160 and was too hot (caused bubbling), the second was 130 and the third and final batch was 140 (but then “accidentally to 155”, assuming I left the heat increasing by accident). Unsure if 130 was too low or if I just wanted to try something different for 3rd batch.

Trying a double batch today. A note from previous times that there’s usually too much filling, not addjusting for that today though.

Used an extra 4 tbsp of water in the dough (note double batch)

Only using half the ground coriander, feels like an excessive amount including the seeds.

Only using 3tbsp veg oil for spices so far.

Splitting the dough into 15 pieces, 64 grams apiece. Could also have done 12 pieces at 80 grams. Would be nice if they were bigger next time, but I want quantity this time.

Nevermind, 14 pieces it is, change one thing at a time etc.

Kept track of each batch I did in a table, uploading a year later. Batch 1 had 5 samosas, 10 min at 140 then 10 at 180, lost 10 degrees on adding the samosas, these ones were overdone and blistered.

Batch 2 was 5 samosas for 10 minutes at 130 then 8 minutes at 180 (target). Again it dropped 10 degrees when I dropped them in, and it never made it up to 180, got to 165.

Batch 3 was 5 samosas for 10 minutes at 130 then 8 minutes at 160, I think I dropped this because it was tedious to wait for it to cool down for next batch. Yum, but still took a while to come back down.

Batch 4 was identical conditions to batch 3 but with 7 samosas, seems fine, one burst but I think unrelated.

Batch 5 was done on 130 for 10 minutes and then taken out. I froze them and baked them later, it worked alright.

Making tonight in Muswellbrook, missing caraway, amchur, hing.

Also no fennel. So used cumin seeds in the dough instead of caraway, will use fenugreek in place of fennel. Less coriander than recipe, like last time. Used extra water again, maybe 3tbsp?

Nevermind, no fenugreek, black mustard seeds instead.

Did 1tsp g masala to make up for amchur. Doing in an actual deep fryer, starting at 150 relying on the temperature drop, then after 10 min will raise the heat to 160 and fry until golden brown. 2 batches of 7.

First batch in at maybe 125 by candy thermometer or 150 by deep fryer, going by thermometer. About 10 min later put heat up to 170 assuming it won’t get there.

Same deal for second batch roughly. This time dropped them into the oil rather than placing on wire tray first (first batch got grid marks).

Took them out of high fry after 7 minutes. Did all the batches the same conditions (not super attentively controlled). Dropping them in instead of placing on tray worked to stop the grid marks.

I think the dough worked perfectly. On the filling, I think too much water added to the potatoes because they ended up not chunky enough. Too much salt. Too much coriander.