Sambusa — Print Recipe — The Culinary Codex

Crispy, triangular fried pastries filled with spiced beef and onions. Somalia's beloved snack is a staple during Ramadan, when plates of golden sambusa appear at every iftar table.

Ingredients

For wrappers: 2 cups all-purpose flour, 2 tbsp vegetable oil, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 cup warm water (or use spring roll wrappers)
300 g ground beef
1 medium onion, finely diced
1 green chili, seeded and minced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp ground cardamom
1/2 tsp xawaash spice blend
2 tbsp fresh cilantro, finely chopped
Salt and black pepper to taste
2 tbsp flour mixed with 2 tbsp water for sealing paste
Vegetable oil for deep frying (about 500 ml)

Instructions

1 Heat one tablespoon of oil in a skillet over medium-high heat, add the ground beef and cook for five minutes, breaking it into very fine crumbles with a wooden spoon until fully browned and no pink remains.
2 Add the diced onion and minced garlic to the browned beef, cook for three minutes until softened, then stir in the cumin, coriander, cardamom, xawaash, minced green chili, salt, and pepper, cooking for two minutes until the spices are fragrant.
3 Remove the filling from heat, fold in the fresh cilantro, then spread the mixture on a plate and allow it to cool completely to room temperature, as hot filling will make the wrappers soggy and difficult to fold.
4 If making wrappers from scratch, mix flour, oil, salt, and water into a smooth dough, knead for five minutes, rest for twenty minutes, then roll thin and cut into long rectangular strips about eight centimeters wide and twenty centimeters long.
5 Place two tablespoons of cooled filling at one corner of each strip, fold the corner up to form a triangle, then continue folding in alternating directions along the strip to create a neat triangular pocket, sealing the final edge with the flour paste.
6 Heat the frying oil to 170 degrees Celsius in a deep pot, fry the sambusas in batches of four to five for three to four minutes, turning once, until both sides are uniformly golden brown and crispy, then drain on paper towels and serve hot.