Uzbek Somsa from Scratch
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Uzbek Somsa from Scratch is satisfying street food made with mutton or beef. I used rotisserie chicken leftovers.
After my return from Uzbekistan few days ago, I decided to make my version of somsa, mutton stuffed triangular pillows, baked in the oven or tandoor.
Somsa or samsa is excellent street food served all over the places I’ve visited and it’s fulfilling and tasty. If you have your dinner at the restaurant it is an appetizer and you get one pillow because once plov is served and eaten, you are full and happy.
Here are two collages to make the process easier:
Once taken out from the fridge, here’s what you do:
In most of the cases, it was stuffed with beef and I loved it. Mutton was of too intense flavours for me.
So, once I started to think how to present this tasty dish, reconstruction was a key word. Although I have bought Uzbek cookbook, copy-paste was not an option. Rotisserie chicken is great to use since it is juicy and flavoured enough to add some ground black pepper and caraway seeds only.
If you use mutton, its’ cubes need to rest with chopped onions, coriander, caraway seeds, salt, ground black pepper, salt and vinegar. Pressed with heavy stone, it rests for 6 hours before you stuff the dough circles.
So, my version is chicken mix with some olive oil sprinkled over it, some salt (be careful since rotisserie is already salted) and ground black pepper to taste.
To get typical Asian taste, I simply sprinkled the pillows with caraway seeds once egg washed.
As about the dough, I used some instant dry yeast dough instead of puff pastry. Al together, we got lighter but tasty version of this fabolous dish.
Uzbek Somsa from Scratch
Uzbek Somsa from Scratch is satisfying street food made with mutton or beef. I used rotisserie chicken leftovers.
Ingredients
- Dough ingredients:
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp instant dry yeast
- 1 cup warm water
- salt to taste
- 1/3 cup melted salted butter to spread over the dough once rolled out
- Filling ingredients:
- 300 grams rotisserie chicken, cubed
- Virgin olive oil to sprinkle the meat, optional
- Black ground pepper to taste
- Egg yolk and 1 Tbsp water for egg wash
Instructions
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On flat clean working surface, combine flour, yeast and water, using your hands.
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Form a soft ball and cover with kitchen towel. Let it rest for 30 minutes.
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Sprinkle your working surface with flour and roll the dough out to have approx. 12 x 13.8 inches squared piece.
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Spread the dough with melted butter.
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Carefully roll the dough starting at longer side. That way you'll get a cigare shaped roll. Cut it to 18 equal parts.
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Tap each part using your hands to get flat patties. Stack patties with foil between them and leave to rest overnight in the fridge.
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Before you start rolling the dough next day, preheat the oven to 200 C /392 F.
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Roll each patty into a circle 4 inches in diameter. Use your rolling pin to get that.
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Place one generous tablespoon of meat to the center of each patty.
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Bring two opposite sides to the center to form a triangle and pinch the corners.
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Cover with the lower part to get closed triangle.
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Place somsa on the baking sheet covered with parchment paper. Make sure the seam side is down.
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Brush each one with egg wash and sprinkle with caraway seeds.
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Bake for 20 minutes. Somsa should became golden once done.
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