The shingara is a staple snack in the Bengali menu. It differs from other versions of the samosa and is rarely encountered outside Bengal. The popularity of this dish is evident from the thousands of hot shingara roadside stalls that open shop every evening across large and small cities and towns of Bengal. These establishments frequently offer slightly different variations of the shingara filling, have been in business for several generations, and have loyal followings.

The recipe here makes a shingara that is filled with paneer/potatoes rather than the more common potatoes/peas mix. It is best enjoyed piping hot!

Procedure

1. Prepare the filling as outlined above and set aside.

2. Now prepare the flour shells for the samosas (see the photos above for a visual description)

   1. In a bowl, take the flour and add 3 tbsp oil and 1/4 tsp salt. Knead thoroughly for about 5 minutes. The more you knead, the better the shingara.

   2. Now take 1/4 cup water at hand, and to the oil-kneaded flour add water by the teaspoon and continue kneading for 3-5 minutes more until the flour is moist, but a tight ball. Avoid adding too much water together, and keep it tight, if the dough becomes loose, add more flour/oil mix to compensate.

   3. Pinch off five equal sized balls from the kneaded dough, roll between your palms to get a circular shape, and cover with a moist cloth.

   4. Using a rolling pin (or a bottle!) on a smooth hard surface, flatten out the dough balls. Take a pinch of dry flour on the rolling surface, place the ball, and using the pin, roll into a roughly oval shape. Bisect each oval shaped dough cake across the width (not length!) to get two triangular pieces (Fig 1). Remove and place aside. You will have 10 pieces from the dough prepared above.

   5. Take a single piece of the dough and fold it into a cone, cementing the folds together with a few drops of water each time you fold (Fig 2 and 3).

   6.  Into the cone, stuff filling to 3/4 volume. Seal the top of the cone by closing the top flap onto the body using some water as glue, using your fingers, "staple" the top flap tightly to the body (Fig 4).

3. Now that we have the filled shells assembled it is time to fry the samosas:

   1. In a kadhai (i.e., wok) , heat 1/2 cup oil to smoking, then turn down the flame to low. Use a light white oil suitable for frying (e.g. vegetable/sunflower oil, etc). 

   2. Place the shingara cones gently into the oil, and fry on low heat 3-5 minutes until golden brown, flipping each shell midway.

Serving suggestions:

Serve piping hot and with some coriander/mint or tamarind chutney on the side.