Samsa

Samsa (called kǎobāozi in Mandarin, literally 'baked buns') are Xinjiang's baked meat pie — the easternmost expression of a Central Asian pastry tradition shared across Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan and beyond. The word samsa derives ultimately from the same root as the South Asian samosa, and the structural logic — a wheat pastry case around a meat filling — is common to all of them, though the Uyghur version diverges in its method of heat.

The dough is wheat flour, water and a little oil, mixed to a medium-firm consistency and rested. It is rolled thin — thinner than a typical dumpling wrapper, thicker than filo — and cut into squares or rounds. The filling is hand-chopped (not minced) lamb combined with raw onion, cumin, dried chilli and salt; the hand-chopping preserves the texture of the meat and the onion, so the filling has distinct pieces rather than a uniform paste. A small amount of lamb tail fat is mixed in.

The filled and folded parcels are then applied to the inside walls of a cylindrical clay tandoor — the same nang oven used for Uyghur flatbread. The intense radiant heat from the charcoal fire at the base bakes the pastry rapidly from the wall surface: the base in contact with the clay crisps and chars slightly, while the interior remains moist from the fat released by the lamb. The baking takes ten to fifteen minutes. Removing them from the wall without burning hands requires a flat paddle with a hook at the end.

Samsa are a morning food, sold from dawn alongside nang flatbread at Uyghur bread stalls. They are eaten fresh and hot; cooling significantly diminishes both the pastry texture and the flavour.