(These pictures did not turn out well... I need to invest in a better camera!)
Samosas are an Indian appetizer made from fried pastry dough stuffed with curried potatoes and peas.
This was one of those rare occasions where I actually followed a particular recipe. It came from the most beautiful recipe book I have ever seen filled with colorful pictures of India.
The recipe called for 1 tsp. cayenne pepper. Usually anything that calls for cayenne asks for just a dash! But I wanted to trust the recipe...
Grinding up the cardamom made me feel pretty cool.
"Dry frying" was a new technique to me. The seasoned mashed up potatoes cooked in the frying pan for about 8 minutes, without any liquid or oil, until the spices became fragrant. This totally worked! My complaint in the past about Indian food I cook has always been that I can't get the spices to blend well with the other ingredients.
I served them with homemade mint chutney:1/2 onion
1 serrano chili
1/2 tsp. lemon juice
1/4 tart apple or mango
1/4 C. fresh mint
1/4 C. cilantro
a little water
---blend---
Thoughts
Although we all agreed that these were delicious, the dough turned out to be grueling to make. It was so elastic that it was difficult to roll thinly, and to get it to go into a perfect, stuffable circle. However, the dough was flaky in a different way than I've had at restaurants. You can decide if 3 hours is worth it. I'm glad I made them once, but I'll probably get takeout next time I'm craving.
This chutney was more spicy than the sweet chutneys I'm used to. I liked it!!
It seems that every wonton and dumpling recipe I've seen uses egg to seal the dough. This recipe used cornstarch mixed in water. I think this worked better than egg, and it's vegan! Cornstarch it is from now on.
