Samsa
Flaky baked pastries stuffed with meat or pumpkin.
Samsa are the irresistible savoury pastries you’ll smell before you see: triangular or square parcels of flaky dough packed with minced lamb and onion, or pumpkin, then baked against the searing wall of a clay tandoor oven until the crust blisters and crackles.
What's in it
- Layered or short-crust dough, baked until golden and flaky
- Lamb and onion, or sweet pumpkin in season
- Often brushed with egg and scattered with sesame or nigella seeds
- Traditionally baked stuck to the wall of a tandoor
Good to know
Where to try
Bakeries and bazaar stalls sell them fresh and hot all day: perfect street food, eaten in hand.
Eat carefully
The juices inside run hot straight from the oven. Let it cool a moment after the first bite.
Tandoor vs oven
Tandoor-baked samsa (tandir somsa) have the best blistered, smoky crust, worth seeking out.
Straight from the Tandoor
The best samsa never see a baking tray. The baker slaps each pastry onto the inner clay wall of a blazing tandoor, where it bakes from the radiant heat and falls away when it’s done. It’s a technique shared across the Silk Road, from Indian samosas to Turkish börek, but the Uzbek version is its own crisp, hearty thing.
More Dumplings & Pastries
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