Samosa

Though the Central Asian delicacies infused into modern Indian cuisine are often rich spice-laden curries, a dish that appears to have taken the road less traversed and yet solidified its immovable position in every Indian heart and evening platter of tea and snacks is the Samosa. A popular savoury, Samosa is a fried pastry made with an outside crust of all-purpose flour and a filling of spiced potatoes, peas and peanuts, deep fried in vegetable oil, easily identified by its distinctive triangular or conical shape.

Often accompanied by a side of chutney made of either tamarind and sugar syrup or a chilli, mint and coriander paste, this crispy-shelled fritter is revered across Central and South Asia, Middle East and East Africa. Widely known as Samosa, it is believed that the name has been derived from the Persian word sanbosag (a triangular pastry).

Conventionally thought to be an Indian snack, the origin of Samosa can be drawn to Central Asia. The earliest written document of this appetiser was by a poet of the Abbasid Dynasty, Ishaq al-Mawsili, who praised it as the sanbusaj. Ancient Arab scripts dating from the 10th-13th century have mentions of Samosa. Autobiographies like Tarikh-e-Beyhagi, by Abolfazl Beyhagi, an Iranian historian, also wrote highly of this savoury filled pastry.

However, it was not until the 13th-14th century that this dish was brought to the Indian subcontinent by Central Asian chefs in the kitchens of the Delhi Sultanate. A scholar and court poet, Amir Khusro, has written on samosa made from meat, onion and ghee which was rejoiced by the nobles. Famed traveller of the 14th century, Ibn Battuta too pens down about the samushak, prepared with minced meat, dried fruits and spices being served at the royal feasts of Muhammad bin Tughluq. Such was its fame, that records of the Samosa were even found in Mughal texts like the Ain-i-Akbari.

Over the course of time, these meat-filled delectables were replaced by vegetarian alternatives to adhere to the larger Hindu population of the time. This opened unique paths for imagination. The Samosa became widely known as the shingara in the Eastern Zone of the subcontinent. A sweeter variant of shingara, with coconut filling, dipped in sugar syrup became popular in Bengal. In Hyderabad meat filled Samosa with thicker crust was consumed as ‘lukhmi’. Changes in the filling were directly linked to the availability of ingredients, making the Samosa a little different each time.