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Recipe · Indirect · Medium

Uzbek Lamb Samsa on the Kamado, Tandyr Style

Uzbek samsa bakes in a clay tandyr, and a kamado is thick ceramic with a narrow mouth and radiant heat: the same physics. Here it sits on a stone, not slapped on the wall, filled with knife-cut lamb and plenty of onion.

Quick answer

Samsa bakes in the kamado over indirect heat at 230 °C on a stone preheated for 30 minutes, for 30 to 35 minutes, until the laminated pastry is deep gold and the base firm. The filling goes in raw: knife-cut lamb, fat and almost its own weight in onion, which releases its juice inside the sealed parcel.

Samsas recién horneadas con la superficie dorada y sésamo por encima, servidas en una fuenteSave to Pinterest
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Prep
60 min
Cook
35 min
Servings
6 servings
Temperature
230 °C

Ingredients

  • plain wheat flour500 g
  • warm water280 ml
  • salt for the dough10 g
  • softened butter120 g
  • lamb shoulder600 g
  • lamb fat (or pork lard)100 g
  • onion500 g
  • cumin seed (zira)1.5 cdita
  • ground coriander1 cdita
  • freshly ground black pepper1 cdita
  • salt for the filling1.5 cdita
  • egg, for glazing1 ud
  • sesame seeds (or nigella)2 cda

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Method

  1. 01

    Knead and rest

    Mix the flour with the salt, add the warm water and knead for 8-10 minutes until you have a smooth, fairly firm dough, much like an unleavened bread dough. Shape it into a ball, cover with cling film and rest it for 40 minutes at room temperature. The gluten relaxes over that time and the dough will then roll out very thin without springing back.

  2. 02

    Chop the filling

    Knife-cut the lamb into five or six millimetre dice and chop the fat even finer. Dice the onion small and mix everything with the cumin seed crushed in a mortar, the coriander, the pepper and the salt for the filling. Add no water and no oil: the onion will supply all the liquid. Keep the bowl in the fridge until you are ready to fill.

  3. 03

    Laminate the dough

    Roll the dough into a rectangle two or three millimetres thick and spread the softened butter over the whole surface with your hand or a spatula. Roll it up into a cylinder without compressing it too hard, stretch that cylinder with your hands to almost twice its length and chill it for 30 minutes. Then cut it into twelve equal portions.

  4. 04

    Set up the kamado

    Light the kamado for indirect cooking, fit the Big Green Egg ConvEGGtor legs up and set the Navaris cordierite stone on top of it. Stabilise the dome at 230 °C with the top vent nearly open and let the stone soak up heat for a good 30 minutes; with the Ooni infrared thermometer the surface should read between 210 and 230 °C.

  5. 05

    Shape the triangles

    Stand each portion on end with the spiral facing up, flatten it with your palm and roll it into a disc about twelve centimetres across, slightly thicker in the middle. Spoon on two heaped tablespoons of filling, around eighty grams, and close it into a triangle by folding three sides into the centre. Seal the seams by pinching them hard.

  6. 06

    Glaze and seed

    Turn each samsa over so the seams sit underneath and place them on the 14-inch Ooni perforated peel dusted with flour. Brush the tops with beaten egg, keeping it off the edges so it doesn't run, and scatter the sesame seeds, pressing them in lightly with a finger so they don't fly off inside the kamado.

  7. 07

    Bake on the stone

    Slide the samsa onto the stone leaving three fingers between them and shut the lid quickly so you don't bleed heat. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes at 230 °C without opening for the first twenty; after that, rotate them once if the back of the stone is colouring faster. They are done when the tops are deep gold and the bases sound dry when you tap them.

  8. 08

    Rest and serve

    Lift them off with the peel and rest them for five to ten minutes on a rack: the juice inside is boiling and needs to settle, and meanwhile the base finishes drying rather than sweating on a plate. Serve with quick-pickled red onion or a tomato salad. They are eaten with your hands, as they are in Uzbekistan.

About this recipe

Uzbek samsa is a triangle of laminated pastry stuffed with lamb and onion, baked stuck to the wall of a clay tandyr. A kamado shares with that oven almost everything that matters: thick ceramic that banks heat, a narrow mouth that holds it in, and walls that give back radiant heat rather than hot air. The difference deserves saying out loud: here the samsa bakes on a stone, not slapped onto the wall.

The kamado is a tandyr with a lid

In a tandyr the dough sticks to the clay and takes heat by conduction where it touches and by radiation from the rest of the dome. In the kamado we build those two halves separately: the Big Green Egg ConvEGGtor blocks the direct flame and, sitting on it, the Navaris 38 × 30 cm cordierite stone plays the part of the wall. On my Big Green Egg Large I give the stone a full half hour at 230 °C and check with the Ooni infrared thermometer that the surface is around 220 °C before the first batch.

Onion is half the filling

An honest samsa carries almost as much onion as meat, hand-cut into fine dice and going in raw. Once the triangle is sealed, that onion releases water in the heat and steams the lamb inside its own wrapper, which is why no stock goes in and nothing is fried first. The meat is knife-cut too, into five or six millimetre dice, because a mincer tears the fibre and leaves a paste that sheds its juice too early.

Laminated with butter, not puff pastry

The dough is water, flour and salt, with no yeast. You roll it very thin, spread it with softened butter, roll it up like a Swiss roll and slice it: every portion already holds its layers in a spiral. It isn't puff pastry — there are no folds and no chilling between turns — so it stays short and brittle yet sturdy, able to hold a juicy filling without going soggy. Half an hour in the fridge before rolling the portions keeps the butter where it belongs.

In 30 seconds

Yeast-free dough laminated with butter, a raw filling of knife-cut lamb and almost the same weight of onion, tightly sealed triangles, egg wash and sesame. Stone preheated for 30 minutes, indirect at 230 °C for 30-35 minutes. Five minutes of rest before you bite: there is boiling broth inside.

Editor's tips

  • Seal them properly and set them seam-side down: any juice that escapes caramelises on the stone and welds the base to it within minutes.
  • If you can't find lamb fat, add sixty grams of cold diced butter to the filling; without fat, knife-cut meat simply dries out.
  • Crush the cumin seed in a mortar just before mixing: pre-ground cumin from a jar carries half the aroma that defines samsa.
  • If you bake in two batches, give the stone eight to ten minutes with the lid closed to recover before the second load goes in.

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FAQ

  • Can I stick the samsa to the kamado wall like in a tandyr?

    No, and it is worth saying plainly. A kamado wall is not meant for dough: the mouth is narrow, the lid seals against a fibre gasket, and anything that drops onto the charcoal is a nuisance to clean. Baking on a stone with the ConvEGGtor in place reproduces the same radiant heat with none of those problems.

  • How long and at what temperature does samsa bake?

    Thirty to thirty-five minutes of indirect cooking at 230 °C, with the stone preheated for half an hour. That is the window where the pastry colours without scorching and the raw lamb inside cooks through. Above 250 °C the top browns long before the filling has set.

  • Why do mine burst and leak their juice?

    Nearly always too much filling or a weak seal. Leave a finger's width of clean dough at the edge, free of fat and juice, pinch the three seams hard and set the samsa seam-side down. If the dough ended up too thin at the join it will not hold the steam pressure either.

  • Can I use beef or chicken instead of lamb?

    Beef works well if you pick a fatty cut such as chuck and keep the onion ratio. Chicken turns out dry: use thigh only and add sixty grams of cold diced butter. Lamb is still the flavour that defines Uzbek samsa, especially alongside the cumin.

  • Can I freeze them unbaked?

    Yes, and it is the best way to have samsa on a weeknight. Freeze them shaped and spaced apart on a tray, then bag them once solid. Bake them straight from frozen at 230 °C without thawing: they need eight to ten minutes longer, with the egg wash brushed on just before they go in.

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