Mincemeat Samosas aka Mangsher Singara

Mincemeat Samosas aka Mangsher Singara 

I remember the first time I had read about Mincemeat samosas. This was before I read about how samosas the beloved triangular deep fried snack had originally been an import from Turkey. Anyway it was in one of the short stories I was reading where the protagonist tried making a living out of selling meat filled samosas. Frankly speaking I was never a fan of the potato filled samosas. I didnt mind the winter time delight of cauliflower and potato filled ones but yes I would much prefer some other snack.

The first time I tried my hands on it was when I first met my friend P. I do have a lot of friends whose names begin with P but this was the first time I invited someone over and our sole initial connection had been food blogging.

Anyway that was what like 2 years ago. So much has changed since then . Well anyway P got married last year and moved to Bangalore and I went to Stellenbosch , came back and am going again. Frankly I miss P in our city.

Anyway one fine day I realized I have just over a month left in Calcutta and so I wanted to cook. Initially it was going to be roasted chicken and then I thought that it was a day for some meat filled deep fried samosas.

Now I know most people steer clear from ghee all in favour of refined oil. I dont get it. If its deep fried its anyway junk so to me the point of frying in refined oil over clarified butter or a more flavourful oil such as peanut oil , sesame oil or mustard oil seems quite pointless. You want to eat healthy have some salad, smoothie, limited quantity of rice with vegetables and fish or steamed chicken but when you are indulging perhaps indulging the right way is the best way.

Look I know in the world of blogging most people go crazy over measurements but I say go with your own flow. And believe me if the old bengali cookbooks are any indication then you would do the same. I mean we all have different taste buds. I will give a rough estimate of what I used but I say believe in your instinct.

This makes about 8 large samosas or 12 to 14 medium sized one

For the filling :-

400-gm mincemeat (lamb or goat and I dont see why you cant use beef. here is a tip , ask your butcher to make a mince is such a way that it includes both meat and fat)
Approximately 2 tsp thick garlic paste
Approximately 2 tsp thick ginger paste
1 medium onion minced
7 to 8 green chilies minced well
Dash of lemon juice

For the spice mixture
2 to 3 green cardamom
1 inch cinnamon
3 to 4 cloves
1 blade of mace
1 large bay leaf

2 tbsp clarified butter

For the dough :-
Roughly 2.5 cups of all purpose flour
2 tbsp solid clarified butter
1 cup cold water

4 tbsp solid clarified butter
Mustard Oil

Green chutney
A handful of mint leaves
1 bunch coriander leaves
2 to 3 green chili
Lemon juice
Rock salt
Pinch of roasted ground cumin powder


Heat the 2 tbsp ghee and add the minced onion and fry till its lightly browned and then add the ginger paste and garlic paste and then the mincemeat and fry on medium heat for about 5 minutes and add the ground spice and cook will the oil leaves the side of the pan, add the lemon juice and keep aside.

In the meantime make your dough and rest.

Once the mincemeat filling cools down, take little balls from the dough roll them out a bit fill with mincemeat and join with your fingers.

Heat up mustard oil and ghee and fry on medium heat to low heat. The trick to making good samosas is controlling the temperature. So when the samosa goes in the oil it must be really hot and then you have to lower the temperature and increase it and adjust the heat.

Tip - When rolling out the balls of dough for filling wiht the mincemeat try making them a bit thin but not too thin. If its too thick the insides remain uncooked and if its too thin chances are the mincemeat might poke through.

Serve hot with the chutney

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