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Samsas hold a very special place in my heart. I have countless fond memories of enjoying them while growing up. As a child, my family and I would visit my grandparents every weekend. My grandfather hails from Bukhara, a region in Uzbekistan renowned for its delightful cuisine. Even before becoming a baker, my favorite dish of Uzbek origin was Samsa. Think of it as the Uzbek version of an empanada. Samsa is a pastry filled with beef, onions, and spices. To elevate it, I opted to use boneless short rib for the beef, and let me tell you—it’s irresistible. I devoured half the batch immediately; I simply couldn’t resist. The unique spice blend, featuring cumin, caraway, nigella seeds, and black pepper, complements the beef perfectly. The onions in the filling release their juices, creating a luscious interior for the samsa while also generating steam to puff up the pastry into a beautiful pocket. It’s much simpler to make than it appears, and once you try it, you’ll find yourself reaching for this meat-stuffed pastry again and again.
Pasta machine
Making the dough- in bowl combine water, egg, olive oil, vinegar, flour and salt. Mix until no flour remained in the bowl, then transfer to a working surface and knead for 10 min.
Round the dough into a tight ball and set aside, covered with a plastic wrap, while working on the filling.
Dice the onions and the short rib and add into a bowl. Add the cumin powder, caraway seeds, black pepper, nigella seeds and salt. Mix until combined.
Preheat your oven to 420°F or 220°C.
Back to the dough, cut the dough into 2-3 pieces. Using a pasta machine, open each piece of dough into a sheet (middle thickness your pasta machine gets).
Place the sheeted dough on the working surface. Fold one corner onto the sheet, creating a two layered triangular shape, cut the edge, so you get a perfect squared sheet of dough. Repeat with the rest of the sheeted dough.
Place 2-3 tbsp of filling in the middle of the squared dough. Fold all corners to the center and pinch them together. Using your fingers, seal the edges so the filling is fully sealed in the pastry.
Place on a baking tray, lined with a parchment paper, 1 inch one from another.
Whisk the yolk and a sip of water together until combined, and brush all the shaped samsas. Sprinkle sesame and nigella seeds on top of each samsa.
Bake for 30 minutes.
Remove from the oven and serve with freshly grated tomatoes and zhugg.
YASSS!
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