Hyderabadi Lukmi Or Keema Diye Shingara/Samosas -Two sides of the same coin

School lunch hour had finished a moment before and Vabhavi was walking towards her classroom through the school’s green field.She was eagerly looking at the small school gate near to the main, big Iron Gate as if trying to catch a glimpse of someone.
It has been two days since she last saw her Sevaram Kaka there. When she saw him last, he was waving bye to her and a smile which she kept constantly remembering over these past two days. Vabhavi was all puzzled by her Kaka’s sudden disappearance. She was little annoyed also with her Kaka for not telling her about anything before disappearing like this.
Sevaram was a Halvai and had a small Sweet Shop on the left corner of the school road. The road got its name from the town’s main higher secondary school which was on this road. So, people just started calling this particular road as school road out of utter convienence.Vabhavi was a student of class sixth in this school. Actually, Sevaram’s small sweet shop was extremely popular with locals living nearby. Every morning people would come to his sweet shop to hear the daily news. After all not every one has a small radio set with all the FM channels or radio Mirchi -91.3 FM in that particular area. Even if they have, they don’t mind mingling with their friends this way early in the morning or coming back from their work in the evening. And if that’s a winter morning, people generally don’t need a reason to be there. They would just love to soak up fresh morning sunshine while sipping a hot cup of Chai in small kulhar, turning the crisp pages of that day’s news paper. Some even read news papers, while eating jalebi with dahi in small earthen pots. Living in a small town has its own charm; people are not that much in hurry as compared to big metro cities where life is like a roller coaster. And if you miss the 8’O clock subway/tube/bus, you will surely going to be late either dropping your children to school or to your office.
Seva Ram had been making delicious snacks and sweets for a very long time as far as locals can remember about it. Vabhavi’s father was one of the frequent customers there. Many times Vabhavi would accompany her father holding his hands to her Kaka’s shop specially on her school holidays. On arriving there, she would be asked to pick her favourite sweet and snacks. She would often pick samosas with Laal Mithi chutney. Seva Ram would often pack few of them in a day’s old news paper to carry some home also.Vabhavi always loved to eat samosas while walking down the school road with her father, which leads to her home.
How she made a place into Sevaram’s heart is little unknown. But, Seva Ram adored this little girl so much that he would daily come in the lunch hour to her school and give some samosas to her dear niece.

Even Vabhavi’s father knew about it.

And He would often say” Tum Uski Adat Begadh Rahe Ho Sevaram” (You are spoiling her Sevaram.)

Seva Ram would often smile to this and say” Jane dijiye Na Shankar Babu, Bitiya Ko samosa acha lagta hai, or usey khilane mein hamein.” (Oh! it’s just that she likes eating samosas and I like to feed her some even.)

Vabhavi came from school with a heavy heart that day and asked her mother about her Kaka. Even her mother wasn’t really able to tell the exact reason of Sevaram’s disapperence. So, she was left with dismay.
That day when her father came from the Kachehari, she heard some voices coming down from the drawing room. She came down slowly thro the steps to the ground floor and heard her father and Seva Ram Kaka talking in the drawing room. She went to the kitchen first, her mother was making tea for both of them and some snacks also.
Vabhavi thought perhaps she can help her mother to bring these to the drawing room, and also this way she can hear what they really are up to.
What ever little she understood from their conversation, she came to know that her Kaka is now moving to a big city to help his brother with the sweet shop there. That means she would not be able to eat her favourite samosas from now on.

Tears started to roll down her eyes immediately, all three of them suddenly stopped talking to each other.Seva Ram immediately understood what has been bothering her now.

He came close to her, touched her head and started to gently stroke her hair consoling her.
“Bitiya, hum tumahare liye zaroor samosa leke ayange jab bhi tumse Milne ayenge, theek hain Na.”(When ever I will come to meet all of you here, I will make sure that I will bring samosas for you.) Even his eyes were moist with hint of tears.

And then after few more minutes her Kaka was gone. With that, he left some wonderful memories to cherish for Vabhavi and her parents. Few years later they also moved to this big city. And since then when ever her Kaka would come to meet up with them, he never forgot to bring a big pack of samosas.

Vabhavi was suddenly awakened from her thoughts, door bell was ringing. She knew it was her impatient 12 year` old son Abhi.
She opened the door with a smile and hugged her son. Abhi seemed to be little grumpy today.

And before she could ask him about his day in school, Abhi started telling -“You know Ma; they always serve pizza or baked beans and even Shepherds’ pie as school meals, but never samosas. How I wish I can eat samosas some day, like the ones Seva Ram Kaka brought for us that day.”

Abhi got hooked to the taste of samosas when last time he visited his grandparents in India. Vabhavi’s kaka came to meet them. He along with his brother has a flourishing business of sweet shops now in this big metro city. One of the main shops is in the heart of this big city and is a big food joint also.

As promised to Vabhavi, he always used to come with a big bundle of samosas and Besan ke ladoo for all of them whenever they would be coming back to home to meet Abhi’s Grands.

Vabhavi was smiling listening to her son. She went to the kitchen while her son kept blabbering about his school and his school friends. She took out some potatoes from the vegetable basket and put them in pressure cooker. She then started to look for some Maida. She has now some work to do before Abhi comes from his swimming sessions.

Perhaps, this was a better way to relive her childhood memories in a foreign land also.

(This is all part of fiction writing for Chalks and Chopsticks- afood blog event.No part is written on keeping anyone in mind living or dead.Even the incidents mentioned here are all fabricated.)

Keema diye petit Shingara/Keema Samosa
This will make many small samosas depending on the rounds you make with the dough.I was able to make at least two dozens of them.I brought some of them to my daughter’s school and the mothers of her classmates liked them also. Even my picky-eater ,my daughter liked it so much that , I had to go straight to the kitchen for frying next batch of samosas after coming back from her school.Petit samosas are way better than large ones as this way kids wont waste the left-over because there will be no left-overs, trust me on that.

Recipe is adapted from Here

Recipe requirements
For the keema
250 gms of chicken mince (you may use mutton mince also, but it’s better to pressure cook the mutton mince before drying them up with spices)
½ cup of cashews
¼ cup of sultanas or raisins
2-4 heaped tsp of cumin powder (if you can use fresh grounded powder, it will enhance the flavor)
2-4 heaped tsp of black pepper powder
2 tsp of red pepper powder
2 tsp of Shaan shekh kabab masala powder
2 fat cloves of garlic chopped finely
Half inch of ginger chopped finely
Salt as per taste
2 tbs of lemon juice
For the samosa dough
Approx 1 and half large tea cup of Maida (all purpose flour)
¼ cup of sooji (semolina)
3-5 tbs of oil /ghee for moyen
About 1 cup of cooking oil for frying the samosas.
Method
In a saucepan, add in the washed minced meat, keep the flame at medium.
Keep stirring the mince; add in salt and red pepper powder, cumin powder, Shaan shekh kabab masala powder and black pepper powder.

Fry the mince for some times, add in lemon juice and keep frying the mince for about 10-14 mints till they become dry and crumbly. There is no need to add oil while frying the mince.
With the help of rolling pin and the cutting board, crush the cashews coarsely. Add crushed cashews and sultanas to above.

Meanwhile knead the dough. Soak sooji/semolina with some warm water in a separate bowl. Let it sit there for 10 mints or so. This way they will become soft and would be easy to knead with the rest of ingredients.

Take out the Maida/flour in a big bowl. Make a well in the centre; add oil. Add in the prepared sooji/semolina. Knead well all of them to semi-soft dough. Tip-It’s better to knead the dough beforehand and let it sit for 1-2 hrs prior of making the samosas.

Make small balls out of the kneaded dough. Roll each small balls to round shape, the rounds should turn into thin but not like paper thin, otherwise the filling will come out while frying them.
Cut the round in to half. Take the half in your hand now, fold the half into a triangle shape and with the help of your thumb and forefinger, and gently fill the keema filling into it. Seal the ends firmly by your thumb and forefinger of other hand. Make other samosas this way. I have tried to make very petit samosas as you can see here. This way kids would not waste and will enjoy small samosas very much. However if you wish you can make bigger rounds and increase the filling as well. But for that you also need lots more oil for proper deep frying.

Make other samosas this way and keep them covered with a kitchen towel for 1 hr outside or if you wish you may refrigerate also (this way samosas will need less oil for frying). When you are ready to eat, just heat up a deep bottom pan with 1 cup of oil and fry them very well.

Now to the way of making Hyderabadi Lukmi


The recipe for the dough and mince remains same here, except for the way the dough is rolled and then cut and then filled with the filling.Lukmi/lukmea is served in mainly at Hyderabadi marriage ceremonies or may be sometimes at the breakfast table. Mainly atta or whole wheat flour is used but I have used the maida+sooji combination for the dough.
Roll the balls to big rounds and then place the filling in centre. Seal it with the oil at the corners and then top it with other round. Press with a fork at all of the side of the round. If you wish you can make squares also as that is what the real lukmi is all about. Deep Fry them in hot oil at low. Take them out over tissue paper first and then serve with the sauces of your preference.

Just to Note-
Try to knead the dough at least 2 hrs before you are about to make/fry samosas.
Shape up the samosas and fill the filling inside and let it sit there for at least 1 hr before you deep fry them in hot oil. This way the samosas will fry up well.

This is my platter of fried stuff.

Now, I know from where I am getting those extra calories and I am trying to loose weight, eh? Now that’s what “dieter’s dishonesty” is, I guess. Sra are you reading this.

This post is going to Chalks and Chopsticks -3rd Edition - co-hosted by Aqua at Served with Love and Sra at When my Soup came Alive .

Happy Cooking Friends