Indian Classics - Traditional Potato and Peas Samosas

My favourite samosa memory is from my hometown, even though I've had über delicious ones when I've been away at university as well. My cousin Brad introduced me to this little chaat place just under a block of apartments close to home, called Vrindavan. They made some really good chaats and samosas. One of my favourite chaats from there was a 'ragda samosa' where there made and fried fresh samosas, which were then broken up and smothered in a curried pigeon pea or chickpea sauce called a ragda and sprinkled over with chopped onion, a sweet/ sour tamarind chutney, cilantro and spicy, fried chickpea noodles called sev. The whole experience is, and has always been, mindblowing to me, with all the textures and tasted melding together into an explosion of flavours. Every time I visit back home, this is one of my first foodie stops.

Of course, I would be doing the dhabas of Delhi a disservice if I didn't mention them when it comes to samosas, of course. JNU, where I was at residential university is widely considered to have some of the best dhabas or street eateries in Delhi (though I am sure other university students would disagree vehemently with me) and samosas used to be the fail safe option as we staggered out bleary eyed after pulling all-nighters at the library or in friends' rooms. Or even after a hard night's partying, haha. Samosas were my personal hangover cure at university, all that deep fried goodness and a hot, steaming cup of  masala chai... what's not to love about that cure? (OK, until I discovered the traditional British fry-up, but that's a story for another time) 

Who the heck even makes homemade samosas in this day and age of the ubiquitous Indian street snack that's proliferated everywhere in the world? Why, me, the idiot, of course. Egged on by my equally crazy ass friend Addie Raghavan, who reckons that he really needs to exorcise the memories of his mother's samosas :) And while my mum makes samosas, it was a rare enough occurrence that I don't actually remember very much about them. So we picked a date to work on these ourselves, as we were both slightly fed up with all the 'fusion' samosas out there and wanted to work on a classic recipe, with the tastes that we both remembered.

Addie wanted to try making traditional North Indian samosas, while I just wanted to make a version that tasted authentic. I love both traditional and fusion samosas, though I will admit that I do turn up my nose at ones that are called samosas but made with filo pastry. Samosas are NOT made with filo pastry, those are North African briouats, and are a completely different beast to samosas.

As Addie and I were hatching our samosa plans, Marlow Moo and Diane, aka Argenplath (whose pretty hands you need to admire in the title shot for this post)  were listening in. So of course, we had to invite them along as well. Talk about racking up the pressure, eh? I looked up a few recipes in my cookbooks, and we decided that we would modify the one from my beloved The Mangalore Ladies' Club Cookbook.

While the recipe itself was pretty straightforward, we did have to adapt it quite heavily to the famed Alberta dry weather. I'll be upfront. These snacks are a lot of work. Not huge work, and certainly not unmanageable, but as we were making them I just realised why it was just that much easier to buy them instead.

But we persevered. The dough was probably the trickiest part. Samosa dough is almost like a shortcrust pastry, only deep fried. A good crust should be flaky, crispy and with no doughiness to it. To make it, I should have technically got an Indian version of refined flour called maida, but I didn't have time. So Addie and I decided to use plain all purpose flour as our first attempt at dough. Addie used the shortcrust pastry method to make the dough, which is essentially rubbing the fat (in our case, the oil) into the flour and working in the water to make the dough. For this first batch, we used warm water, and worked the dough for a few minutes until it was smooth and silky. We rested the dough, and then rolled it out to make the samosa crusts.

We made a few mistakes with this dough. First off, we didn't use any baking powder or raising agent, so the dough was a tad heavy. Then we realised that we didn't roll out the dough thin enough, so the first batch of samosas were doughier than we would have liked.

So we decided to make a second batch. The second batch started off on a weird note, as I realised that I had actually run out of all-purpose flour. Oops! The only flour I had in my cupboard was fine ground Italian 00 flour, so we used that instead. It was an inspired move. The 00 flour mimicked maida more than the all-purpose did, and this time we added baking powder which made the dough lighter. We also rolled out the dough very thin, until it was almost translucent, and when we fried up our second batch, the difference was instantaneous. The samosa was flakier, crisper and lighter and had absorbed less oil. There was no doughiness that we could detect, and it was pretty close to the roadside and restaurant samosas that Addie and I enjoyed in India (ahem, not our mums' ones perhaps?)

I had a bit of the samosa dough left over, so I chucked it into the fridge to make more samosas the next day. I actually felt that the dough worked a lot better when I took it out the next day and used it. The samosas came out a little crisper, and the dough was also easier to work with. So it may be worth making the dough and the filling a day in advance before assembling and frying up the samosas. 

The filling itself was a recipe from my mum, that Addie and I adapted to our taste. Its a classic potato and peas filling, that is ubiquitous all over India and pretty straightforward. It can be made well in advance, and actually benefits from this, as the spices get a chance to be absorbed into the potatoes and peas. Obviously, you can go pretty fusion with the fillings as well, and restaurants here sell a variety of fillings, including local restaurant Guru's famous butter chicken filling. So do feel free to ignore me and my incessant ranting about fusion samosas and go with the filling you like the best.

Both Addie and I were pretty happy with this recipe, and its definitely one we can see ourselves making in the future.

Marlow Moo has done an excellent recap of our samosa making experience over at Mr Moo's Adventures, and there are also step by step pictures over here, so do take a moment to stop by and take a look. And as usual, if you need to, just hop on here or over to The Tiffin Box's Facebook Page and ask any questions that you'd like to. I am an ongoing service, after all :)

Recipe: 
(Printable Recipe)
Makes about 12 samosas

Samosa Dough: 

2 cups Italian '00' flour *see notes
1 teaspoon whole ajwain (bishop's weed, or carom seeds)
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
4 tablespoons unscented oil (vegetable/ canola/ sunflower/ grapeseed)
Warm water as required

Method:

Sift the flour, ajwain seeds, baking powder and salt into a large bowl, and make a well in the centre.

Rub the oil into the flour, until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Add the warm water, a little at a time and knead into the flour adding more water as required to make a soft, pliable dough. Knead dough for 4 - 5 minutes, until smooth.

Cover the dough with plastic wrap or cling film and leave to rest for at least half hour, or overnight in the fridge.

Bring back the dough to room temperature before making samosa shells. 

Samosa Filling: 

2 - 3 tablespoons unscented oil (vegetable, canola, sunflower or grapeseed) 
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 medium onion, diced finely
1 inch piece of ginger, chopped finely
1 - 2 green birds eye chillies, chopped finely
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 - 2 teaspoons ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon amchur (dried mango powder)
1/2 teaspoon garam masala
2 large potatoes, chopped
1 - 2 cups water
1/2 cup fresh or frozen peas
Juice of half a lemon
Salt to taste
Large handful cilantro, chopped

Method: 

Heat the oil in a saute pan, then add the cumin seeds. When seeds sizzle, add the onion, and fry for 5 - 7 minutes, until the onion is soft but not coloured.

Add the ginger, chillies, turmeric, ground cumin, amchur and garam masala. Fry together for a couple minutes, then add the potatoes.

Saute the potatoes in the onion-spice mixture for about 5 - 7 minutes, until they begin to fray around the edges. Add enough water to cover the potatoes, then simmer for about 15 - 25 minutes, until the potatoes are very tender.

Add the peas, and cook for a few minutes. Season to taste with the salt and lemon juice.

Take off the heat, and mash coarsley. Stir in the cilantro. Let the filling cool completely before stuffing into samosas.

Assembling the samosas: 

Water to seal edges of samosas 
Enough oil for deep frying, I use canola or sunflower oil.

Carefully cut the dough into 6 equal pieces. Take one piece (keep the rest covered with plastic wrap) and gently shape it into a ball.

Dust your counter with a little flour, then using a rolling pin, roll out the dough into a very thin, translucent oval shape.

Cut the oval in half width ways. Make a cone shape, using the straight cut side of the oval, pinching the edges together with a little water to help seal the sides.

Take a lemon sized ball of potato stuffing, and place into the cone. Gently fold over the rounded side of the cone, using it almost like a flap, and making it into a triangle. Seal all edges well, using a little water, then using the tines of a fork, press a decorative pattern into the edge. Pinch the top and side edges of the triangle into a 'mohawk'. 

Assemble about 4 samosas at a time.

Meanwhile, heat the oil in a deep pot to 350 F. I like using a deep frying thermometer to give me accurate and consistent results.

Gently lower in the samosas, one at a time. Deep fry them for 4 - 5 minutes, until they are golden brown. Remove them from the oil, carefully, using a slotted spoon and drain on kitchen paper. Serve warm or at room temperature with various chutneys.

Notes:

Addie and I found that the best results for the samosa dough came from using the finer ground Italian 00 wheat flour that can be found in any Italian grocery or large supermarkets. You can also use Indian maida flour, which is also a refined flour or a regular all-purpose white wheat flour.

Mangalorean Fried Prawns With Chilli and Vinegar (Sungtan Meeth Mirsang)

So the Yeggies came and went, and as I predicted, I didn't win :) But I did get the opportunity to chat about food with CTV's Morning Live with host, Stacey Brotzel. I haven't been on TV since my Masterchef days, so I hated how I looked and sounded, obviously. Of course, I then had to go and have a look at my old MC video and I was kind of shocked how much my accent had changed and how blimmin' young I looked in those videos. Anyway I'll let you be  judge, as the video is over here. Just try not too laugh too hard, will you?

Meanwhile, in other news, Aditi has been getting all cheeky on me. Today, I had a ladybird fly into my hand. So I got all excited, and told Aditi, 'hey, look, a ladybird flew into my hand... I am going to be so lucky' At which point, she deigned to look up at me from her game, all bored, like, and went 'yeah mom, you are lucky. You have me'... ooooh, that li'l monster. If she didn't have her moments like the one below, she'd be sold to the gypsies in a second (kidding, of course, no one would pay anything for her, in fact they'd probably pay me to take her back, haha)

So what did she say that made me bawl? Well, she's been getting an allowance of a dollar every Friday, and she has been saving up hard for a backpack toy. Every week she counts her coins and decides how many more she needs for the toy.

So she comes up to me a few days ago and said, 'Mom, I've decided not to buy the toy after all'. So I said, 'Why not, Aditi?' She then says to me, 'Mom, cause next Sunday is Mother's Day and I have two more Fridays to go before that... and I want to spend all my coins buying you the best present in the world!' I was stunned and asked 'Did Dad tell you to do this?' and she was like 'No, I just decided this, and of course Dad will be taking me to get you a present, but I want to spend my own money and its going to be the best surprise you ever had'.

I think I already got the best present in the world!

10 Things I Learned at the Food Bloggers of Canada Conference (FBC2013)

1. That the best laid plans of mice and mine can be thwarted by an ice-storm or two. But also that a crazy bumpy red eye flight, freezing rain on arrival, an evangelical vegetarian anti-immigrant (who is also an immigrant) taxi driver and bone deep tiredness stands no chance against the real life warmth of meeting the three people who are the heart and soul of FBC.
   
   
2. That swag-bags need to be stuffed with military precision. Just ask Kathy.
   
   
3. That power cuts just mean more time in front of warm, cosy fireplaces. Unwashed hair be damned. Well, not if it stinks... but most Canadians are too polite to say you stink anyway. So I guess, unwashed hair be damned.
   
   
4. That meeting Sweetopia turns you into a mumbling, blushing (yep, brown people can blush) inarticulate fangirl.
   
   
5. That your voice is what draws readers to you. And if they like it, keeps them with you. And occasional pictures of cookies don't hurt either. 
    

My Masala Dabba (Spice Box) - All About Cassia Bark and Cinnamon

I don't know anyone who can resist the warm, soothing fragrance of cinnamon, do you? This warm, aromatic spice is used in everything from mulled wine to fragrantly spiced curries, to enduring cinnamon buns and baking of all kinds of goodies.Cinnamon has been prized everywhere since the early Egyptians and its not surprising that its a staple in Middle Eastern cooking as well as in cusines from all over the world. Mexican cuisine prizes its 'cannella' and no Indian spice cupboard is complete without its distinctive curls and bark.

There are several varieties of cinnamon, but in this short piece I will be focusing on the two genus' that I use the most, cassia bark and 'true' cinnamon. 

Cassia Bark  

Latin Names: Cinnamomum Cassia (Chinese)/ Cinnamomum Burmannii (Indonesian)/ Cinnamomum Loureiroi (Vietnamese)

Indian Names: (Jungli/ Wild) Dalchini (dahl-chi-nee)

One of the most familiar spices in the Indian kitchen is cassia bark. I always thought that cassia was the outside bark of the cinnamon tree/ shrub, and to some extent I was right. But as I read and researched more about cinnamon, I found out that cassia is actually a genus of cinnamon, and commonly grown in China, and therefore also known as Chinese Cinnamon. It grows extensively in China and South East Asia, and is cheaper to cultivate the 'true' cinnamon. Chinese cinnamon is cheaper and exported widely around the world, and also comprises a large portion of the ground cinnamon market. There are three commonly used types of cassia, Chinese, Indonesian and Vietnamese (Saigon). Saigon cassia tends to be more expensive, though disruptions in production have meant that its Chinese cassia that is the most exported and consumed. India and Sri Lanka (Ceylon) are also huge producers of cassia, with the state of Kerala in India, in particular, having some of the largest cassia/ cinnamon estates in Asia.

Cassia bark is widely used in Indian cooking, in particular, and my research suggests that the reason is that its cheaper to buy and use. However, taste testing also suggests that the flavour of cassia is milder and less intense than 'true' cinnamon, and this contributes to the flavour profiles of several Indian dishes in which cassia is widely used.

Cassia bark can be easily identified by its rough, tree bark like texture and tends to be extremely hard and difficult to powder. The flavour, as I said earlier, is milder and less intense to cinnamon, and youy have to rub your fingers on it to get a sense of the fragrance. The profile is warm and aromatic, similar to cinnamon, but the taste tends to be less overpowering, therefore it can be used in larger quantities to ground or 'true' cinnamon.

Dukra Maas (Mangalorean Pork Curry with Bafat Spice Mix/ Bafat Pork)

Its a ritual that takes place in almost every Mangalorean Catholic home every Sunday. First, the women of the family are up at an ungodly hour to start the sannas, the batter of which would have been ground the night before. Then the kids are unceremoniously kicked out of bed, and yelled at to get ready, otherwise they're going to be late to Sunday school. After the due religious routines have been followed, said kids may be lucky enough to be taken to a nearby restaurant, duly salivating at the thought of a masala dosa or a idli sambar (a thin rice crepe filled with spicy potato curry, and a steamed, fluffy rice cake, not unlike a sanna, with a hot steaming vegetable stew) Then the men of the family are dispatched to various grocery errands, while the women (and very often, the reluctant, whining, complaining kids who would rather be watching Sunday morning kid's television) would start the (seemingly endless) chopping of onions, ginger, garlic and hot green chillies that could take out an elephant, that was the base of this dukra maas. 

The bafat would usually have been made a few weeks earlier, with fresh batches smuggled legally sent to various relatives who live in 'abroad'... and a small batch is left behind for the weekly Sunday ritual of the dukra maas, of course. Once the chopping is all done, the pork is then cubed into small pieces, and the cooking process begins. During the cooking process there will probably be a steady stream of 'I am hungry....' whines coming from all directions. The dog would add a couple of squeaks too... and he may be lucky enough to get a bone for his troubles. The house starts to smell more and more fragrant as the curry simmers away, and the smell is strong enough to lure a few interested neighbours into the fray. They peek at the curry, shoot some breeze, ask a few questions about the provenance of said cooking pig, and then meander away to their own homes, where, perhaps there is another kind of curry cooking.

Indian Classics - Kesar Badam Milk (Indian Almond Milk With Saffron)

Growing up in Catholic Mangalore, the one festival that we didn't really celebrate was the intensely riotous festival of colours, Holi. In India, Holi signifies the arrival of spring and is celebrated by throwing powdered colours at people, as well as buckets full of coloured water.

But that changed when I headed to university in Delhi, and for two crazy years, I celebrated Holi with a passion that belied all my Holi-less days growing up. Our university turned into a rainbow as everyone was doused in every shade of colour known to humankind.

Holi is also about bhang... click on that word at your own peril :) Bhang is an intoxicating drink made with the leaves and buds of the female marijuana plant, and for one day is pretty much legal all over India. At university, we used to be served 'bhang thandai' (a chilled milk based bhang drink) in our residence mess halls. Obviously, you could choose if you wanted to drink it or not, but to be honest, what self respecting university student, away from home, wouldn't indulge? So we started off with bhang first thing in the morning, steadily getting more and more intoxicated as the day wore on and we all were wearing a plethora of colour. We danced out in the streets with wild abandon, and even the most uptight of people let go of their inhibitions, as everyone embraced the beginning of spring and the bounty it brings. Technically we still had classes, but seeing as most of the lecturers were down with the students, I can only assume not much teaching or learning happened. 

And once the day was done, we all scraped ourselves off the ground, and oozed our way back to our rooms, where we spent hours trying to wash all the colours out of our hair and skin, usually to the chorus of 'why are you hogging the bathroom, get out and let others shower too' 'knock, knock, are you ever getting out of there?' 'other people need to shower too'... (these are Indian student halls, about four bathrooms shared between twenty odd girls led to a fair bit of possessiveness and yelling and screaming and threatening and accompanying hilarity :))

Sadly, as I am not so much in with the East Indian population here in Edmonton, I didn't manage to find an, ahem! bhang party to attend this year... to be honest, I would imagine most people celebrated quietly indoors anyway, owing to the freezing temperatures :) So this year, my Holi has been spent vicariously enjoying all the pictures that my friends in India, and some abroad, have been posting on their Facebook timelines! And missing the bhang warmth and colours of India.

Mango Ginger Crumble

 

I've always said that you can take a girl out of the tropics, but you can't take the tropics out of the girl. Yes, and that would describe me to a tee. As I always bemoan on this site, I miss the tropics. I am not saying that I don't love living in Edmonton, but to be honest, when its the end of March and we have over a foot of snow... well, it gets old very fast. This is the time when I am so heartily sick of winter and the cabin fever sets in. I get really tired of having to put on a million (erm... maybe a slight exaggeration, but close, nevertheless) layers of clothes, and hats and mittens and giant snowboots... its so wrong. Especially when then cat's bounding along with spring fever and shedding everywhere, and on occasion, you can hear a lonely bird or two tweedling their lonesome song... 

Yes, these are the days the sunshine girl in me longs to shed all those layers and the only hat I want to wear is a sunhat. Preferably a pink one. With pink flipflops to match... its not that much of an ask, is it?

Recipe. Dragon. Giveaway. 'Cookin' Greens' Rapini with Coconut and Spices

Well, piqued yet?

I was recently approached by my absolute favourite brand of frozen greens, 'Cookin' Greens' who threw down an intriguing challenge to me. Cookin' Greens may already be familiar to my readers. Last year, I made my Palak Paneer with their Flash Frozen Chopped Spinach, and to date, its one of the most popular recipes on The Tiffin Box.

This time round, the challenge was a different one. I was very excited to hear that Cookin' Greens were going to be on CBC's Dragon's Den and to celebrate this, they contacted their favourite food bloggers (ahem!) and gave them a rather fiery task... we were to create a recipe for a Dragon, using a Cookin' Greens product.

My pet dragon turned out to be internet mogul Bruce Croxon and I had to make him 'dinner' using Cookin' Greens Chopped Rapini. Yipes! Bruce turned out to be a pretty formidable challenge for this poor food blogger, but I went with my sword erm... knife, flying, and my pans all girded up.

Indian Street Food (and Drinks) - Sugarcane Juice

I'll start off on a weird note. Have you heard of the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon? Despite its complicated sounding name, its a simple thing, really. It a phenomenon when you hear, see, or find something unusual, and then suddenly you hear it repeated within a very short period of time. For example, I was reading this book, and one of the key aspects of it was a tuna melt (yeah, I know, I know!! Humour me, OK). The next day I went with Kay to the Blue Plate Diner here in Edmonton, and, lo! a tuna melt was staring at me from the menu. 

At this point, you're probably wondering where on earth this waffle of mine is going, right? Well, its going somewhere... I promise. And it all started with a piece of sugarcane grass. Kathryn and I were shopping at Fruiticana, a local Indian grocery store for our Cook Indian Vegetarian class, and what should be staring at me, but piles of sugarcanes, all beautiful in their green and gold finery! I almost did a little dance right there with excitement (Kathryn and Aditi must have thought I was completely nuts!) as I convinced Kathryn that we should buy one straightaway. The plan was to use them in our South East Asian class, but that never really came about, and the sugarcane was duly stolen appropriated by the chief leftover scrounger, aka, me.

So I get home with this cane, and my Kay just looks at me and goes, is that sugarcane?? Really? And I go, well, yeah. What's wrong? And he tells me that on the very same day, one of the students in his office, a lovely young Zimbabwean chap called Chaka was bemoaning the fact that he couldn't find sugarcane anywhere in Edmonton... talk about Baader-Meinhof phenomenon overload or what!! So Kay happily took a piece of the sugarcane to Chaka, who was impressed and pleased and excited too, and my good deed for the day was done :) And to make things even weirder, just the day before, Michael, another one of Kay's students had just told him about the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon. As Jughead would say, 'weird, weird'.

Indian Sweets - Classic Cardamom and Rosewater Kheer

In India, if something good happens in your household, there is a popular saying 'muh meetha karo' - literally translating as 'sweeten your mouth'. I've had a rather good week, and so my post today is for you to 'apna muh meetha kariye'. 

I was lucky to have two cool things happen to me this week. The first one was this site being nominated for Edmonton's first ever #Yeggies Awards, or The Edmonton New Media Awards in the Food section. I doubt heavily that I'll win, simply because I am up against some fantastic food blogs, but just to have been shortlisted is an honour, and its wonderful to get local recognition as well. 

The second, super duper exciting thing that happened... is below! 

Yep! Yours truly was featured over two pages, the front and second page of the Edmonton Journal's Food Section. This is a truly remarkable honour for me and I am still pinching myself, I am so excited! I owe this to so many people, chief among them are Kay, for being such a patient guinea pig, and Kathryn for being the best teacher any person could have... and for being an amazing boss too. I had a blast with Liane Faulder, the Journal's food columnist who wrote this feature, and the photographer, Greg Southam gave some fantastic photo tips. All in all, I had a really great week, and I am still in a bit of a daze. A nice one though!

My Masala Dabba (Spice Box) - All About Cardamom

New Series on The Tiffin Box - My Masala Dabba (or My Spice Box)

This series is something I've been thinking about for a while, ever since I wrote the Exploring Ethnic Cuisine, over at Food Bloggers of Canada. I finally got around to it after one of my readers commented on my post on homemade chaat masala where I agonised over what a spice was, only to find it sitting in my spice cupboard under a different name.

So I thought it may be time to do a series on all the spices I use for my everyday cooking, and perhaps introduce you to new ones as we go along. Along with My Masala Dabba, I will also do a Herb Collection, but to be honest, that will probably be quite a shorter series.

I would very much appreciate your feedback on this series, as its something that is very new to me. What kind of spices would you like featured? How much information would you like? How would you like them presented? I'll start off with the spices in my own cupboard, and slowly move to the more exotic ones that may not be as familiar or easy to source, but I'll try my best to make sure you can find them. After all, the ethos of The Tiffin Box is that I should be able to find what I need here and you should be able to source them too, without needing a trip to India, otherwise all my recipes are essentially redundant, so to say :)

I am not aiming to be Wikipedia here - I just want to share my knowledge of the spices I use and how I use them, along with pictures. This is not a comprehensive dictionary of spices or their use. And sometimes I may well be wrong in what I write, so please don't hesitate to jump in and correct me or add your own thoughts to the post. Tell me what you know, and what I've missed and I will add it to each post. I welcome all criticism and feedback and its what makes me and this site better.

(Green and Black) Cardamom

GIVEAWAY - Win Tickets To Winefest Edmonton 2013 (Closed)

Yay! We have a winner!  

Aditi picked Comment Number 2 as the winner, so congratulations to Peggy Doyle. I will email you shortly, please respond to me latest by 9. 30 AM. 

And to see how Aditi chose the winner, check out the video :)

What better way to celebrate the arrival of a new computer than with a glass of wine... or two, or three eh? So enter...

Yay! Winefest!