You may hear people who have traveled to or tasted Burmese food said that Burmese cuisine is somewhat a hybrid of Indian, Chinese and Thai.
If I may put it this way, Ametha pudeena samosa or beef and mint samosa is one of the examples of the Indian-inspired dishes.
The samosa is filled with ground beef that is cooked and flavored with cumin, coriander seeds, onion, garlic and mint. I found this samosa very delicious and flavorful.
The only “complexity” (if I may say so), is in wrapping the samosa into triangle shape. But again, I didn’t find it awfully complex either. I did it, so you can too 😉
The tamarind sauce is really a wonderful complement to this beef and mint samosa. This will be a great appetizer dish. Recipe is adopted from The Food of Burma.
AMETHA PUDEENA SAMOSA / BEEF AND MINT SAMOSA
Ingredients
- 1 ½ tsp cumin seeds
- 1 tsp coriander seeds
- ½ tsp black peppercorns
- 9 oz (250 g) minced beef
- 4 cloves garlic , finely chopped
- ½ inch -ginger , finely chopped
- 1 ½ Tbsp canola oil
- 2 cups finely chopped onions
- ½ cup chopped mint leaves
- 1 ½ tsp salt
- 8-10 spring roll wrappers , cut into 2 1/2 x 8 inches (6.5 x 20 cm) strips
- 1 cup peanut oil for deep-frying
Tamarind sauce:
- 2 bulbs of garlic , finely chopped
- 2 Tbsp tamarind paste
- 1 tsp grated fresh ginger
- 1 Tbsp honey
- 1 Tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp fish sauce
- 4-5 bird's eye chili (seeded if you like and chopped)
Instructions
- Heat oil in a deep small pan and deep-fry until golden brown. Place on paper towel to drain extra oil. Place on serving platter. Serve with tamarind sauce
Preparing tamarind sauce:
- Place the tamarind paste in a bowl and add about 2-3 Tbsp of lukewarm water. Mash with fork to extract the tamarind and then strain off to get the tamarind juice. Place the extracted tamarind juice and everything else in a bowl and mix well. Have a taste, it should be sour, sweet and salty
