SAMOSAS - THE MAGICAL FAST FOOD THE WORLD LOVES!

The triangular or tetrahedron pyramid shaped flaky pastry filled with spicy potato, chicken or lamb filling is a popular snack not only in India but in several countries of the world. The virtually omnipresent Samosa can come with a savoury filling, such as spiced potatoes, onions, peas, cheese, beef and other meats, or lentils. It may take different forms, including triangular, cone, or half-moon shapes, depending on the region.

The word samosa is officially present in the Cambridge dictionary and this is what the dictionary says about it… a South Asian food consisting of a small pastry case in the shape of a triangle, filled with vegetables or meat and spices and fried. The deep fried, tightly pack of spicy goodness that we thought belonged to India is actually a delicious and well-traveled immigrant from Central Asia!

The word samosa can be traced to the Persian word sanbosag. In the Arab world this snack is crescent shaped  and is called sanbusak or sanbusaj. In Afghanistan it is called Sambosa and in Ethiopia and Somalia it is called Sambus. In Bengal we call it Shingara, in Goa it is Chamuka and in Tamilnadu it is called Samsa.

Samosa is so so common in India that you literally get samosa and chai or tea at every other street corner. I always considered it to be a quintessential Indian delicacy but it has its origin in Middle East and it was introduced to India during the Delhi Sultanate rule in the 13th or 14th century by traders from Central Asia.  Some say it was introduced by the Middle Eastern chefs who migrated for employment during the Delhi Sultanate rule, although some accounts also credit merchants for bringing the fare to this part of the world. Later, having earned the blessings and love of the Indian royalty, the samosa soon became a snack fit for the kings.

Amir Khusro (1253–1325), a scholar and the royal poet of the Delhi Sultanate, wrote in around 1300 CE that the princes and nobles enjoyed the "samosa prepared from meat, ghee, onion, and so on". Ibn Batuta, a 14th Century traveller while describing a meal in Mohammad Bin Tughlaq's court wrote that the samushak or sambusak, a small pie stuffed with minced meat, almonds, pistachios, walnuts, and spices, was served before the third course, of pulao.

An interesting note here is the breadth of social classes making and eating the samosa, with the dish recorded in both trade routes and noble houses. The samosa proudly wore both the grand stamp of royal approval as well as the honest humility of being a snack of the streets. Herein lies a hint at the dish’s continued, unwavering popularity and success, even hundreds of years into its lifetime – its universality.

The Britishers too fell in love with the samosa on their arrival in India and they, along with the Indian diaspora, took the tasty tidbit with them to the far corners of their colonial empire. The samosa settled in the hearts of people everywhere, leading to the evolution of multiple regional versions.

According to samosa aficionados, a samosa is deemed perfect when crispy-crunch of the lightly golden casing contrasts beautifully with soft texture and spicy taste of the filling. The most popular and common filling is made of boiled potatoes, green peas, onions, green chilles, ginger and spices. The samosa was adapted as a vegetarian snack with spicy potato filling in almost all parts of India. It’s there in every party, office meeting, chai meet-ups, you name it and samosa will be there! 

Chicken samosa

In Bengal a variant of an unique filling with chopped cauliflower and peas is the popular fhulkopir shingara and the die hard non vegetarian Bengali often uses spiced minced meat as filling and the Avatar then is mangsher shingara! And how can a Bengali avoid fish and sweets, so we have mache shingara, narkeler shingara (sweetened coconut filling) and khoya shingara which is finally dipped in sugar syrup!Then, there are those who like their samosas sweet. Labong latika (a Bengali sweet) is nothing but a mawa-packed samosa sealed with a clove. And, finally there are the baked samosas for the calorie-conscious. The baked versions are yummy but one keep yearning for a fried one while eating them!

In Hyderabad a smaller version of the samosa with a thicker pastry crust and mince-meat filling, referred to as Lukhmi. The conventional North Indian samosa is also available but they smash it mercilessly and mix it with chutney and serve it as Samosa raghra. In Goa and in Portugal samosas are known as chamuças. They are usually filled with chicken, beef, pork, lamb or vegetables, and generally served quite hot. 

Samosas in Kerala, Tamilnadu, Karnataka are made in different sizes, and fillings are greatly influenced by the local food habits. They may also be folded in a different way, much more like Portuguese chamuças, with a different style pastry. The filling also differs, typically featuring mashed potatoes with spices, fried onions, peas, carrots, cabbage, curry leaves, green chillies, etc. It is mostly eaten without chutney. Not only Goa but in all former Portuguese colonies - Brazil, Mozambique, Angola a variant of samosa is a popular snack empada but when this is not fried but baked it is called 'pastéis'.

Samosa chat

The meat samosa contains minced meat (lamb, beef, or chicken) and are very popular as snack food in Pakistan and Bangladesh where it is again called Shingara. The thin crispy cover of the samosa in Karachi gives it the name of 'kagzi samosa' and the version popular in Faisalabad is really big in size. The sweet samosas in Peshawar will shock you because they have no fillings inside and dipped in sugary syrup.The 'samosa chaat' in Lahore is a combination of a crumbled samosa, along with spiced chickpeas, yogurt, and chutneys. 

Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan have Uyghur-style samosas with a heavier bread dough and a lamb centre; Africa’s eastern Horn reserves sambusa for the local observations of Ramadan, Eid and Mesqel.

Frozen samosas are increasingly available from grocery stores in Australia, Canada, the United States and U.K and these are smart snacks for families as children love them. So you can see how the humble samosa has stolen our hearts and much like the Barbie doll we can get it in different forms but still remains universally appealing!