Potato and pea pastries (Samosa)

1. Mix the flour with the ajwain and salt, add the melted ghee and rub in with your fingertips until crumbly. Knead with a little water into a firm, smooth dough, cover and rest for 30 minutes.

2. Boil the potatoes in their skins until tender, peel and mash coarsely. Cook the peas for 3 minutes. Fry the cumin seeds and coarsely crushed coriander seeds in the oil, add the ginger and green chillies, then the potatoes, peas, chilli powder, amchur, garam masala, salt and coriander; mix well and leave to cool.

3. Divide the dough into 6 balls, roll each into a 20 cm oval and cut in half. Moisten the straight edge of each semicircle with water, fold into a cone and press the seam together.

4. Fill each cone with two tablespoons of filling, moisten the top edge and seal tightly. This makes 12 triangular samosas.

5. In a smaller, deep pan heat the oil only moderately (about 150 °C) and fry the samosas in batches, turning often, for 10-12 minutes until slowly golden: this keeps the pastry crisp and blister-free.

6. Drain on kitchen paper and serve warm with mint and tamarind chutneys.

Tip: India's best-known street snack, which evolved from the Central Asian sambusa. The secret is slow, low-temperature frying: if the oil is too hot, the pastry blisters and stays raw inside.