Soul Cocina: Sammy Samosa

POTATOES, they make great samosa filling.

Tune: Diggin My Potatoes by Big Bill Broonzy and Washboard Sam

Soul cocina Samosas at Dolores Park.

Yukon Gold potatoes are boiled in salted turmeric water. They become golden.

Potato flowers in June at Eatwell Farm. Photo via

My garam masala blend for samosas is about 1 part cinnamon, 1 part star anise, 1 part green cardamom, 3 parts brown cardamom, 5 parts cumin, 6 parts fennel seed, 8 parts coriander seed, a tiny pinch of asafoetida, a big pinch of amchoor and a few dried kashmiri chilies. I slowly toast all the whole spices and dried chilies. When they are nicely toasted, I let them cool down and grind to a fine powder. Then I fry lots of garlic and ginger in ghee [lately I have used rice oil to keep them veggie] along with fresh green chillies. Then i add the garam masala to this mix and cook for another few minutes as the spices cook and infuse into the ghee or oil. Then I pour this mix over the potatoes. I mix together all the ingredients and roughly mash the potatoes.

English peas are shucked and blanched before mixing with spiced potatoes. When cool, chopped cilantro aka fresh coriander is folded into the mix along with a squirt of lime juice.

Filling and forming the samosas.
The dough is made of 9 parts all purpose flour to one part rice flour. A little ghee or vegetable/ rice oil. water, saqlt and ajwain seeds.

Samosa vendors on the streets of Calcutta.

Soul Cocina Mission Street Samosas with three chutneys.

Tune: La Batata de Tata by PapoRap Y Juanito

Tune: L Pacheco's Cumbia Squares RMX by Dj Lengua

Tune: Tope also by DJ Lengua from Discos Unicornio is a dubbed out trippy cumbia
Hear more dubby Lengua beats on the ones and twos mix here [recomended slept on late night listening] complete with chicha, mexelectrodisco, classic cumbia, cumbia beats, central Peruvian highlander music. Big up the sonideros around the world.

Tune: Sonaremos El Tambo by Celia Cruz & La Sonora Poncena