Samsa with pumpkin: recipe

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

Hot dogs for Americans, pies for Russians, shawarma for Caucasians, samsa for Central Asian peoples are national dishes. But if the first three types of dough products are quite familiar to us, then the last one, as a rule, is rather vague. So let's get acquainted, dear readers, with what kind of delicacy this is.

Triangle cakes

As you already understood, samsa is nothing but pies. Usually they are prepared in the form of large triangles or squares. The birthplace of baking is the Mediterranean, Central and Central Asia, the African mainland. Traditionally, samsa is made with pumpkin, as well as minced or minced meat. Among the Central Asian peoples, who previously led a nomadic lifestyle, fat tail fat has long been put into the dough. Potatoes with spices and onions, peas and other vegetables and legumes are taken as a filling. But samsa with pumpkin is especially loved - sometimes sweet, sometimes, on the contrary, spicy, spicy. This preference is given to the dish in Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, among the population of the Arabian Peninsula. WhatAs for the test, it is also a special conversation. First of all, it must be fresh. Although, of course, rich samsa is also baked. With sweet pumpkin, of course, that's it. But for meat pies it is better fresh. Secondly, puff pastry is often kneaded for them. Then the pastries are much tastier. Naturally, what the pies are baked in is also important. Central Asian and Transcaucasian samsa - with pumpkin, meat and other fillings - is still cooked according to ancient traditions, in a clay tandoor. But the dish, which has already migrated to European cuisine, is baked in conventional gas and electric ovens.

Samsa plain: ingredients

However, the nightingale is not fed with fables. Therefore, we will smoothly move from a story about pies to recipes for their preparation. I'm sure many of you will find them useful! And we will take Uzbek cooking as the most accessible for us, accustomed to European traditions, as training samples. Samsa with pumpkin, the recipe of which is offered to you, has a peculiar s alty-sweet aftertaste, and the inside is necessarily added to the filling itself. Pie dough is kneaded with yeast, but without any fat or eggs. Ingredients: a kilogram of wheat flour (sifted), 100-200 g of water, 50 g of fresh dry yeast, s alt (1.5-2 teaspoons). And to make delicious samsa with pumpkin, the recipe offers the following filling: one and a half kg of pumpkin, 150 g of internal fat (fat tail), half a kilogram of onion, sugar and s alt to taste. You can put table sugar and tea s alt. Be sure to add more hot ground pepper. After all, real samsa withUzbek-style pumpkin and peppered!

Samsa plain: cooking and baking

Knead the dough from the listed ingredients. To do this, heat the water to a warm state, dilute the yeast, add s alt and half the indicated volume of flour. Mix well, cover with a towel and put the dough in a warm place. When the dough rises, add more flour, beat and put back in the heat. It increased in volume, rose well, began to “run away” - you can start rolling. Pinch off small pieces from the dough, roll them into thin cakes, put the filling and pinch into triangles. Then lay out on oiled baking sheets, put in a preheated oven and bake until cooked. For the filling, pumpkin, always ripe, peel and seeds, and chop the pulp into small pieces or cubes. Also finely chop the onion and lard. Add s alt, sugar, pepper, mix. Put in pies and bake for he alth! We hope that the proposed Uzbek samsa with pumpkin will be to your taste.

Samsa with lamb and pumpkin

The next recipe is also not quite ordinary. And you probably won’t get used to the taste of pies right away. But when you taste it … In a word, here's samsa with pumpkin and meat for you. Start with minced meat. For him, the meat of a young lamb, lean, is suitable, because lard is added to it separately. So, divide 1 kg of meat into pieces convenient for frying and simmer until tender. Then cut them against the grain into small pieces. Also shallowchop the onion (4 onions). Cut half a kilogram of pumpkin into slices, put in the oven and bake until soft (half cooked), and then chop into cubes. S alt, pepper to taste. And cut more lamb fat.

Now it's the turn of the test. Using his example, we will tell you how to cook samsa with pumpkin from yeast-free unleavened dough. Sift flour (1 kg or so), add water and s alt, knead a stiff dough. Divide it into parts, roll each into a large layer half a centimeter thick or even thinner. Cut it into squares. In the middle of each, put a piece of lard, pumpkin and minced meat, pinch the pies in the shape of triangles. Brush each with beaten egg. Grease the baking sheets with oil and place the blanks on them with the "seam" down. Bake for about 25-30 minutes (until the pies are browned). It is better to eat them hot - so delicious!

Samsa puff: dough

Puff samsa with pumpkin is also quite a traditional Uzbek dish. The main difficulty of cooking is in the dough itself, more precisely, in rolling it out. After all, it is important that the oil that is put in baking soaks all the layers and does not tear the dough during rolling. Only in this case, the pies will turn out tender, airy - a true delicacy. You will need 700 g of premium flour, a little less than half a glass of water, half a spoon of tea s alt and 450 g of butter or baking margarine. Be sure to sift the flour - it should gain air. Take almost all the flour (leave 100 grams to sprinkle the rolling), add water and a piece of meltedbutter, s alt and knead the dough. Knead it well, roll it into a ball, put it in a plastic bag and refrigerate for about an hour. Leave the butter to stand at room temperature, then knead it with your hands (in cellophane!) into a flat cake. When the dough hardens, take it out of the refrigerator, flatten it a little and roll it into a layer. Put the butter in the middle, cover it crosswise with the edges, like an envelope with a letter. Wipe the rolling pin with flour, beat lightly on the “envelope”, and then with a little pressure roll the layer away from you (in one direction). Try to keep the layer thickness uniform. Fold the dough with a roller, wrap it again in cellophane and put it back in the refrigerator. After an hour, take it out and roll it out again, only towards you. Repeat the procedure twice more. After taking it out for the last time, roll it out for making pies.

Samsa puff: stuffing

And another Uzbek samsa with pumpkin. Peel a ripe pumpkin of medium size, grate it on a coarse grater. Cut into half rings and fry 2 large onions in butter. Mix with pumpkin, s alt, pepper, add a little turmeric and grated ginger. Don't forget the lard. If it is not available, take bacon or smoked bacon - it is also very good in this type of pies. As an option, cracklings are also suitable. What to do next - you already know. Roll out cakes from the dough, apply the filling, close up. Lubricate the semi-finished products with a beaten egg and bake in a preheated oven (or tandoor).

Samsa fried

Many people love not baked, but fried pies. They are right in a way. After all, fried dough has a very special taste and such an appetizing aroma! However, if you coped with puff pastry, then even more so with fried samsa! Knead the dough from the sifted flour and eggs. Do not try to make it too steep, otherwise the pies will turn out tough. Let it be soft enough, but not stick to your hands. Cover the dough with a towel and let it rest. Then roll out thin round or square cakes, put the filling, pinch the edges. In a cauldron, heat vegetable oil or fat, dip the pies into it so that they are completely covered, fry, turning over, for 6-7 minutes - until golden brown. Take it out with a slotted spoon and throw in a new batch. Fat or oil should be added from time to time. Let's talk about the filling for such samsa separately.

How to stuff fried samsa

First of all, of course, meat. Minced meat is more suitable for this type of dough products than others. For example, here is a recipe. Grind fatty lamb in a meat grinder. Chop the onion. Saute it in melted butter until soft, add meat, s alt and pepper. Fry the minced meat until the meat juices stand out. Then remove the pan from the stove, let the contents cool and fill the pies. Since the meat you took is fatty, and the samsa will be fried, do not put additional pieces of bacon in the product.

And more about the filling and dough

Throughout the article, we talked about how to cook a dish with pumpkin filling in its different versions. However, you can make egg and onion patties, just herbs, or just onions. Samsa is also baked with the so-called pumpkin kiyom - a kind of very sweet pumpkin porridge with the addition of saffron. For 1 kg of vegetable, 2.5 kg of sugar, 2 liters of water and 2 lemons are taken. Sugar dissolves in water, and when the syrup boils, the pumpkin pulp grated on a coarse grater is placed in it and boiled down to a thick consistency with frequent stirring. At the end, pour in the juice of lemons and add a pinch of saffron. Cooled porridge plays the role of minced meat. In this case, the dough for samsa is kneaded not with water, but with pumpkin juice.