Destination
Kampala
The story
Ugandan sambusa is Kampala's version of the East African samosa. Small triangular filo-style pockets are stuffed with a mixture of spiced minced beef (or chicken, or lentils), onion, green peas, garlic and green chilies, sealed shut and deep-fried until deep golden and crackly. Sold at every Ugandan Muslim quarter breakfast counter (Old Kampala, William Street), and at every roadside cart as a snack with tea. Served hot with a small dish of tomato-and-lime dipping sauce or a spoon of Ugandan chili sauce. The dish arrived in East Africa with Indian and Pakistani traders in the 19th century and became a fully local snack across Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia and Rwanda.
Method
In a large bowl, whisk flour and salt. Add oil and rub in with fingertips. Add water gradually to make a firm but pliable dough. Knead 5 minutes on a lightly floured surface. Cover with a damp towel and rest 30 minutes.
Warm oil in a wide pan. Cook onion 5 minutes; add garlic, ginger and chilies. Cook 60 seconds. Add mince, break up, brown 8 minutes. Add curry powder, cumin, coriander, garam masala, turmeric, paprika, salt and pepper. Cook 3 more minutes.
Off the heat, fold in the peas, coriander and lime juice. Cool completely; hot filling melts the pastry.
Warm oil in a small pan. Cook garlic and chili 30 seconds. Add tomato purée, salt and sugar. Simmer 8 minutes until thickened. Off the heat, stir in lime and coriander.
Whisk the cornflour and water into a smooth paste for sealing. Divide the dough into 8 balls. Roll each ball into a very thin oval about 30cm long and 10cm wide. Cut each oval lengthways into 2 long strips.
Working with each strip: place a heaped teaspoon of cooled filling at one corner. Fold the corner over the filling to make a triangle. Continue folding down the strip like folding a flag; every fold makes a neat triangle. Seal the last edge with a dab of cornflour paste. Repeat until you have 16 sambusas.
Heat oil to 175C. Fry the sambusas 4 to 6 at a time for 90 seconds per side until deep golden and crisp. Drain on a wire rack.
Arrange on a platter. Serve immediately with dipping sauce, lime wedges and hot Ugandan chai. Excellent as a bar snack, an appetiser, or a lunchtime meal.
Tips
- Cool the filling completely. Hot filling melts the oil in the pastry and gives you an unshapeable, greasy mess.
- Thin pastry. Roll to 1 to 2mm thick. Thick pastry gives you a stodgy sambusa.
- Seal well. Any gap and molten filling leaks into the fryer.
- 175C oil is the target. Cooler and the pastry absorbs oil; hotter and it burns before the filling heats through.
- Freeze ahead. Uncooked sambusas freeze beautifully. Fry from frozen; add 90 seconds to the cook time.
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