Uncle Tim's Samosas

Our closing date on the new house is 11 days away and we still haven't heard from the VA if they accepted the appraisal and will let us buy a foreclosure, but they haven't said "No", so maybe we will escape home buying purgatory yet.  Stay tuned to find out!

For now there is nothing to do but wait, and continue to convince my brother Tim to cook  his famous recipes and blog them.  My goal before we move to our new house is to get him to make all of his specialty dishes for the blog so that when I want to make them all I have to do is go to the blog for instructions with pictures. 

This vacation from cooking has been sort of nice, but I do miss it. And now  that Bubba has become accustomed to much fancier cuisine, I guess I will have to up my game and add in some new and interesting dishes.

I love dumplings, pot stickers, empanadas, hot pockets, ect. Any type of doughy bread or noodle stuffed with something. Samosas are an Indian style stuffed appetizer that just happen to be another of  Tim's specialties.

Ingredients:

Dough:

2 cup flour

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup unsalted butter

Filler:

 2 (or more) potatoes

2 tablespoon yogurt/sour cream

1/4 cup ice water

diced onion

pinch of red pepper flakes

2 cloves of garlic

2 teaspoon of minced ginger

salt & pepper to taste

1-3 tablespoon curry powder

1/2 cup peas (we also used carrots)

frying oil (peanut)

Like most of my Eastern recipes, I'm not sure where this one originally comes from or how truly authentic it is. It certainly isn't like what we get at Indian restaurants. But it passes the truest measure of success:  It tastes good. 

And if someone helps me in the folding process, it also looks good. 

(you'll see; think dog biscuit)

Like pot-stickers, there's a dual process, making the filler and making the dough.

For the filler:

Dice the potatoes and boil them to soft, as if you were making mashed potatoes.

Now, while that's stewing, the dough:

In a mixer/Cuisinart, sift the flour and teaspoon of salt, and blend in the butter until it's a relatively uniform mixture.

We have a lovely ancient broken Cuisinart that takes half an hour for any of us to
remember how to assemble.

Prepare ice water: ice + water

Now the fun bit:

Pour, -SLOWLY- the ice water into the Cuisinart while blending (best done w/ two people). Don't over water, but sometimes you can't help it, just add more flour in the kneading process if it gets too goopy.

Knead the dough, gradually adding flour until it forms a nice ball of a similar consistency to bread dough (maybe a little heavier, but basically make sure it holds together and there's no butter lumps).

Now the filler: When the potatoes are fully cooked, drain the water and cook over low-medium heat. Add the diced onion, the garlic, the ginger and the peas. Cook for about five to ten minutes while stirring, then add the yogurt/sour cream. Mix it together and then season with the red pepper flakes, the salt & pepper, and the curry. How many tablespoons of curry you use depends on how "Indian" you want the Samosas to be: 1-not Indian and mild, 2-cheap Indian takeout, 3-the real deal and kinda spicy. Make sure it's mixed well and take off the heat.

(Sorry, I couldn't cook and take pictures, so this is the end-product of the filler)

Pinch off a golf ball sized (actually, some what smaller than than that. ping pong ball or walnut?) bit of dough and smooth it into a circle about 1/4 cm thick.

Slice the circle into two equal halves a place a spoonful of filler into the center of each 

(Don't overstuff!)

Fold the corners up and pinch the seams together. If you have to, wet your fingers with cold water to create a seal.

Mine come out pyramidal shaped , or sometimes like a Napoleon hat, not very elegant.

Fry the Samosas in an oil cooker until browned, about 10-20 min.

Bottom left: see the dog biscuit? No idea.

We found a lovely sauce for it: Pataak's Hot Mango Chutney.

Bubba loves them, sans Hot Mango Chutney, of course.