Square parcels of thin dough filled with lamb, fat and onion, baked against the wall of the tonur until blistered and crisp.
What makes it samsa
Lamb chopped by hand, with tail fat and plenty of onion.
Baked on the wall of the tonur, not fried.
Folded into a square or triangle, with a thin, crisp crust.
Where it comes from
Samsa is a cousin of the samosa and the Central Asian somsa, all usually traced to the same old Persian name. In Kashgar's bazaars it's baked in batches through the morning, the parcels pressed onto the hot clay wall of the tonur and lifted off with a long hook.
The filling is simple on purpose — chopped lamb, tail fat, onion, cumin and pepper — and the fat melts into the onion as it bakes.
How it varies
Pumpkin samsa
Squash and onion instead of lamb.
Thin-skinned dumplings
Pitir manta: steamed, not baked, with dough barely thicker than paper.