Samsa with meat. A selection of the best recipes with photos

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

Classic and one of the most popular dishes of Central Asia - samsa with meat - should traditionally be baked in a special open oven called a tandoor. Without the participation of this "heating apparatus", the dish is considered to be not real. However, inquisitive culinary experts found out from their own experience that the main thing in samsa is the right dough and filling, and not at all the method of baking.

What is samsa

If you don't quibble over the details, then this dish is just a pie. It is usually made in a triangular shape, but there are also square varieties and round ones that look like delicious buns. However, in order to get exactly samsa with meat, and not a simple pie with it, you must follow clear rules.

The simplest and easiest thing to do is to use exactly the spices that, for example, the recipe for Uzbek samsa with meat provides. That is, no sets of seasonings, no "Central Asian" herbs - only black (let's say red) pepper, sung by oriental poets zira andsesame seeds. Moreover, the latter are not included in the filling, they are sprinkled on the finished product before cooking is completed.

The basis of success is dough

However, seasonings are seasonings, but if you decide that samsa with meat will turn out quite well from ready-made dough, get a standard meat pie. Although the main ingredients for any test are the same, the planned Central Asian dish contains additional ones, and also requires compliance with some subtleties.

The beginning of the creation of the dough from which our samsa with meat will be prepared is quite ordinary: flour is poured into a bowl of s alted water (half a teaspoon of s alt per 0.5 cup of liquid) with constant stirring, but do not forget to stop in time - the dough should not be too dense.

But then the process of preparing the dough deviates to the side: from 50 g of chopped bacon (necessarily fat tail!) Fat is rendered and added to the dough. Cracklings do not belong there, so they will either have to be thrown away, or, alternatively, used in another dish - eaten with fried potatoes, for example.

The dough is kneaded very carefully, rolled into a ball, covered with a napkin and put in the refrigerator, where it should stand for about an hour.

The right stuffing: choosing and preparing meat

Classic and most delicious samsa - with minced meat, and with lamb. In our conditions, you will not find it everywhere, so you have to replace the lamb with something more affordable. However, the meat should still be chopped, not ground. In-firstly, it will not be so “wet”, and secondly, with chopped filling, samsa with meat is more juicy and closer “in spirit” to the original.

In addition, the minced meat should include all the same fat tail fat. However, if in the dough its taste is noticeable only with a subtle note and gives it a piquancy, then in the filling, the fat tail greatly affects the taste. If you don't really like the smell of lamb, lard can be replaced with ghee.

The right stuffing: keeping the ratio

Precise proportions - almost to a milligram - of course, is not required, so you should not buy a pharmacy scale. However, too much deviation from accepted norms will kill the taste of samsa.

So how to make samsa with meat and not turn it into a pie? Unlike the ratio we are used to, in this Asian dish there should be half as much meat as onion, and half as much lard - or ghee - as lamb. Moreover, when calculating, it is necessary to take into account the fat that is part of the meat. Onions are better to take white, often called salad. If you decide to take it a little less than the norm, add more fat.

All components are finely chopped, s alt and pepper are added (you can pepper both red and black at the same time), zira - a pinch, no more, it is very spicy, and everything is thoroughly mixed.

Art modeling

When the dough is infused to the desired condition, it is cut into four equal parts along the length. The resulting bars are cut across, again into equal pieces. Determine their size yourself, shedepends on what size samsa with meat is planned. The resulting lumps of dough are rolled out into not thick, but not thin cakes, prepared stuffing is placed on them, and the fun begins - modeling.

Such a samsa with meat (a recipe with a photo is posted in our article) at the output should turn out to be round, like a small bun. The basic principle is similar to sticking up khinkali: the edges are pinched like the neck of a bag. It is necessary to press the dough as tightly as possible, not even a small hole or slit should remain, otherwise the meat juice will flow out during baking. The resulting knot is pressed into the "body" of the samsa and becomes its base, so you need to make it flat.

How to make samsa triangular

Since most Asian "pies" are still made in the form of triangles, let's look at how to achieve this shape.

Option one: the cakes are rolled out the same round. After unfolding the filling, the edges of the pancake are wrapped in an envelope so that the dough overlaps each other.

Option two: the dough is not cut into pieces, but rolled out in one large cake, sort of like a cake. The resulting layer of the desired thickness is cut into triangles. When the filling is placed on them, the corners are bent, and the edges stick together.

In both cases, the “seams” are sealed approximately the same as on dumplings, and very, very diligently so as not to lose a single drop of precious meat juice.

Basicbaking principles

Samsa with meat is baked in the oven. Moreover, it must be preheated very strongly. If you chose a baking sheet or a large frying pan for baking, grease the bottom with vegetable oil. If samsa will be baked in ceramics (suddenly you have a suitable dish and you want to get almost tandoor samsa), then the bottom of each product should be lightly sprinkled with water.

From above, the future goodies should be greased with oil (vegetable, and not necessarily olive oil), sprinkled with sesame seeds and also sprinkled lightly. You will have to sprinkle the samsa a couple more times during the baking process, otherwise the dough may come out a bit dry.

And the last secret: when your envelope balls are browned, the cabinet door opens a little, but the oven itself does not turn off. In this position, the samsa should stand in the oven for another ten minutes.

Puff pastry

They say that the recipe for Uzbek samsa with meat implies the use of puff pastry. Of course, store-bought, ready-made, in no way suitable for our purposes. However, puff samsa with meat does not require anything too complicated. You can simply transform the usual dumpling dough a little - and you will get an excellent result.

The order of work will be as follows: flour is poured into a bowl, s alted and boiling water is gradually poured in (in no case cold water). You should get an elastic dough; kneading ends when it stops sticking to the hands. Butter or high-quality margarine is slowly melted over low heat (or in the microwave), the dough is rolled out so thinly thatis about to tear, and is smeared with margarine butter. Then the pancake is folded, rolled out again and again lubricated. This procedure must be done five or six times. The resulting "puff" is put in the refrigerator, and for quite a long time - for two hours.

Features of further work with puff pastry

After settling, the dough is taken out of the refrigerator, rolled into a thin cake and again spread with melted butter. However, now you don’t need to fold it - it rolls up like a roll. The resulting "sausage" is cut across into pieces, and these pieces are rolled into cakes. Please note that the pieces of the roll should be placed on their side, and not on the cut. Otherwise, instead of a cake, you will get some kind of lace.

The thickness of the cake, as in the case of the traditional dough, should not be too small. The filling, in principle, is the same if you want to get a result close to natural Uzbek. Baking is no different either. True, some chefs advise: when preparing puff samsa with meat, do not grease the baking sheet (the dough is already oily), but lay it with food parchment.

Modern variety of toppings

As already mentioned, initially there was only one type of samsa - with lamb. However, over time, a fairly wide selection of fillings appeared. First of all, it is, of course, other types of meat. In our places, they often make samsa with beef: lamb still needs to be found, and cow meat is right at hand. No less often, chicken is used for the filling. What is interesting, with porkno one cooks samsa. Either the meat is too oily for this dish, or it is the echoes of the Islamic heritage of samsa.

In addition to meat, this dish is also found in a vegetable version. They stuff "pies" with pumpkin, and peas, and potatoes, and mushrooms. There are also egg-stuffed recipes, complete with anything.

"Parents" of samsa - Uzbeks - since ancient times made it a dessert. To do this, fruit jams were placed inside, and on top, in addition to the unchanged sesame seeds, the delicacy was sprinkled with sugar.

There are also mixed fillings. One of the most popular options is samsa with potatoes and meat. You can take any dough for it - even ordinary, even puff. Some experimenters suggest adding semolina to the usual dough for such samsa - they say that this way the dough turns out to be more magnificent, but tight. However, even if you choose the usual, keep in mind that it will take longer to knead it to make it more dense. Nevertheless, the filling is supposed to be more raw and heterogeneous, so it can break through the sides of the pie.

Again, it's a question of the proportions. Most culinary experts agree that even mixed samsa, with potatoes and meat, should include onions. However, its amount already probably depends on personal tastes. Nevertheless, in such a volume as in traditional samsa, you no longer use it.

In a word, you need to get the hang of it, practice on classic recipes, feel the taste of real samsa - and there you can already invent your own recipes. Good luck with your experiments and bon appetit!