Day 365.. technically a year.. Celebrating with a plate of Samosas

 I’m actually breaking into song as I write this up. Albeit in my head, Frank Sinatra is crooning his timeless classic.. My Way..

Jan 1st 2012, Siri Pulipaka , the author of cookingwithsiri.com was just winding up her own daily blog ( of everyday events) and was encouraging others to experiment with similar projects. On a pure whim, I got myself a blogger page, with nary a thought about how I was to complete 366 dishes. It was never my intention to add recipes for classic day to day fare, just links  if a particular dish was made using a recipe from other sites.

But, just as a new mother forgets everything about the intensity of her labor pain after seeing her infants face, I cannot recall anything hard or negative about this annual project. In fact, the support I received from everyone of you simply increased my motivation to kick back any lethargy and support every dish I could with recipes. The effort has paid off in terms of a repository of recipes that I hope to fine tune for future use. Thank you for making me go the extra mile.

My penultimate dish is a classic snack, the Samosa. Although this is a firm favorite in every corner of India, It may be safe to say that it is definitely a recipe from North India. (Yes, there are umpteen variations, but, the classic version is what I preferred to make for the family today)

 Samosas with a Potato & Green Pea filling:

You need:

For the Casing:

1 cup All purpose flour
1/2 – 1/3 teaspoon kosher salt
2 tablespoons cold butter, cut into small pieces
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon Bishops weed (Ajwain)
Water as required

Sift the flour, salt and ajwain together, add the butter and rub the flour between your finger tips. Work in the butter until the mixture resembles bread crumbs. drizzle in the oil and just enough water to bring in the mixture together into a dough, Knead lightly and cover with a wet tea towel until you’re ready to make the samosa casings.

For the Filling:

2 large  Idaho potatoes, boiled and mashed
1/2 cup frozen green peas, thawed and boiled
1/2 teaspoon Dry mango powder (aamchur)
1/4 – 1/2 teaspoon Chili powder
salt to taste

2 tablespoons oil
1 teaspoon Cumin seeds
1 teaspoon coriander seeds, crushed
1 teaspoon garam masala
1 tablespoon finely minced fresh ginger
2  thai chiles finely minced

Juice of 1/2 a lemon
1/4 cup finely chopped cilantro
6 green chilies with stems, slit lengthwise 
Oil for deep frying

Combine the potatoes, peas, the chile powder, salt  and the aamchur. Heat the oil in a small skillet. When it just begins to smoke add teh cumin and the coarsely crushed coriander. When the cumin seeds split, add the garam masala. Allow the spice blend to bloom before adding it to the potatoes. Mix to evenly disperse the spices. Add the lemon juice, taste and adjust for seasoning. Make 12 ping pong ball sized portions from the filling.

Divide the dough into 6 balls. Using four as required, roll out the dough into a 6 inch circle. Using a Pizza cutter divide the rolled out dough into two semi circles.. Fold each semi circle and press down on the edges to make a ‘cone. Place a portion of the filling and seal the open edges firmly to make little pyramid. Repeat with the remaining dough.

Heat 1/2 L of oil in a cast iron wok. When the oil begins to shimmer on the surface, place 2 samosas at a time into the oil. Cook on medium heat until the the samosas are golden brown. Remove the samosas using a spider skimmer onto absorbent kitchen towels. Once the samosas have been fried, add the slit green chiles to fry up in the residual heat. remove and sprinkle the chiles  with a dash of sea salt. Serve the samosas hot with a choice of spicy green cilantro mint chutney and sweet & sour tamarind chutney. Pair with  a cup of piping hot Masala Chai.

Deconstructed Gobi Paratha

One of the quirkiest statements I've heard my dad make (& he had his fair share of quirky but true observations about life that never failed to elicit a chuckle or two) was that when he was old and had lost his teeth, he hoped that his fondness for murrukku (a crunchy deep fried savory South Indian snack) was satiated enough  that he wouldn't have to ask anyone to grind up the murrukku in a coffee grinder  to feed him. Its odd that my recipe for this week could be interpreted as exactly that by those who are familiar with the dish in its original form and its deconstruction.

Read more »

Recaps & Rosemary Parathas

Call it childish, but the sensation of squirming with excitement as only a 6 year old is, in someways

one of the best states to be in occasionally. The feeling of ‘OH MY GOD, this can’t be happening to me, (but it is)’.. I went though one such ‘aha’ moment a fortnight ago, thanks to Cooking Channels Recipe Contest for their ‘The Perfect 3’ show.

The category was ‘Indian’, the show focuses on three ‘perfect dishes in each category made by three of the celebrity chefs from the Food Network/ Cooking channel family and the fourth, a winning original entry from amateur home cooks (such as yours truly), vetted & tested by the professionals at Food Network at their Kitchens. (The same stoves on which Iron Chef Bobby Flay tests his throw down recipes with his assistants Miriam & Stephanie).

The Hallowed Food Network Kitchens!

The taping sessions were a model of perfect efficiency. The associate producer, Natasza Fontaine had taken care of every detail one could think of. The winning contestants were flown to New York City (In my case, I just hopped onto a North East Corridor train on NJ Transit), with a comfortable  hotel stay at the boutique, nautically themed, Maritime Hotel for 2 nights. Also included was a guided tour of the Food Network studios, where hardcore Food Network fans such as myself could find out all that we’ve always wanted to know, but never got the chance to ask. ( My question of choice.. What happens to all the extra food & ingredients?.. Answer: Food Network donates all extra produce & groceries (other than proteins) to City Harvest, close to 2200  lbs every year).

The taping session was organized like clockwork by the production company, Working Dog Productions. At 9.15 a.m Sharp on the day of taping, I was picked up in a SUV with a large sign that read ‘Food Network Contest Winners’. (my head promptly began to cook up visions of cheesy Hindi ‘Fillum’ shots.. “Hallo ji, myself, Food Natwork competisson winner” AARRGH!)

They had everything ready for the taping session at the studio, from hair & make up touch ups & picking out my outfit ( settled on a deep blue tussar silk ‘kurti’ that my late mother had gifted me 7 yrs ago. My way of remembering her & keeping her close. That sentiment completely overrode any fashion preferences). Kelsey Nixon, the host of the show, breezed in with her cheerful smile & completely set me at ease.

A huge batch of my blondie bars, looking oh so delish, perfectly arranged greeted me on the set. 

 

They had a ‘rehearsal, followed by 3 final takes, and added bits with the close ups. The attention to detail simply blew me away. So much to learn from that!

This was clearly one of my highlights from my life as a food blogger and needless to say, this was my general state of mind when I got back home!

As I get ready for my Big 100th blog post next week, (no clue yet as to what I’m going to create), This weeks recipe is one that has been a staple at home for a couple of months now. The last time I took photographs of the process, they got ‘swallowed up’ by my old laptop that croaked on me. I’m pretty sure that Rosemary has been incorporated into Parathas way before I stumbled on to the idea, but one thing is for certain, the taste is unforgettably delicious.


Rosemary Potato Paratha: (makes ~ 6 parathas)

You need:

For the Dough:
2 cups whole wheat flour (preferably Roti Atta Flour)
a pinch of salt
~ 6 oz water.

Combine the flour & salt, add the water in increments & knead to make a firm ball of dough. Divide into six and cover with a wet towel until ready to roll into parathas.

For the Filling:

2 large Yukon gold or Idaho potatoes
1 large sprig Fresh Rosemary (leaves stripped off the twig)
1-2 small fresh green chili. (adjust as per your taste)
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt (adjust up or down as per your preference)
Juice of 1/2 a lime.
Melted ghee for brushing the paratha.

 Finely chop the chili and Rosemary leaves almost to a minced consistency.
Wash & cut the potatoes into half & boil till a knife slips through with little resistance through the cooked tuber.
Drain excess water, peel the potatoes and place in a mixing bowl along with the salt, lime juice and finely chopped rosemary & green chili blend.

Break the hot potatoes so that the steam is released. This helps the filling to be as dry as possible. Mash the potatoes to crush any lumps to get a smooth filling. Shape the filling into spheres, approximately the size of ping pong balls.

 Roll a portion of dough into a 6 inch flat tortilla. (use a generous amount of extra flour to ensure that the dough does not stick to the surface or rolling pin.).

Place a ball of filling and roll the dough around like you would do for an enchilada. Pinch the ends & fold over so that the filling is evenly enclosed within the dough.

Flour the board & gently roll out the the potato filled dough into a 5 inch circle.

Heat a flat griddle and add place the paratha on it. Brush liberally with ghee, after two minutes flip to the other side and brush the other side with ghee as well. The paratha is done when both sides have turned a golden brown with tiny black spots. Serve with a Raita of your choice and Indian Mango or lime Pickle.

 Bon Appetit!

Artichoke kofta makhani, A tribute to chef Sanjeev Kapoor

Phew… getting caught up in the excitement of the world cup was really something & the echoes of a hard fought & well deserved win for the boys in blue still reverberate up & down ones spine….anyways, passion is passion in any form & I had to get myself to post this long overdue recipe before the taste buds lost the thrill of sampling this experiment that has undoubtedly worked its way to my list of ‘must make on a regular basis’ recipes.
As is my practice, I usually test out a recipe (with my twist on it of course) whenever I review a book, because to me books on food constitute a  valuable literature survey that I sometimes draw inspirations from. My personal belief as far as creating recipes has not altered one bit from my academic approach to science. There are hypothesis that one may chose to validate from scratch or a touch of applied experimentation from known tried and tested existing work. Either way, in all fairness credit should be given to the source. It may not be rocket science, but food certainly fuels the intellect that creates a rocket scientist!
During the course of reading through Chef Sanjeev Kapoor’s latest magnum opus ‘How to cook Indian’, I came across a couple of north Indian recipes that appeared to completely omit  a crucial ingredient, viz ‘garam masala’.
Now as much as South Indians chafe under the assumption that the rest of India believes that Southie cuisine is all & only about idli/dosa, Sambhar/Rasam & the quintessential ‘thayir saadham’, a number of us in turn, tend to assume that North Indian cuisine is all Punjabi food & everything should have onion &  garam masala.. (Do I hear some low frequency grumbling & teeth gnashing here? ;-))

Back to the recipe: the gravy is a rich indulgent makhani, which as the name suggests is made with a lot of butter & cream, what is interesting about this dish is that there is no ‘garam masala’ at all… instead its just cardamom & mace.. when I asked Chef Kapoor about this, his simple reply was.. ‘I was just trying out something new & it worked great!’ which is absolutely in line with this foodie passion of mine. With this fabulous result as my literature review, I present yet another wonderful candidate for Indian food, the baby artichoke.

I did make my own variation on the makhni sauce, simply because it was hard for me to get myself to use the copious amounts of cream & butter needed in the original recipe, but the spices used were not changed in any way. This dish pairs wonderfully well with oat flour phulka rotis.

For the Makhani sauce you need:

1 large onion chopped
1/4 cup broken cashew nuts
2 clove garlic, minced fine
1 tablespoon each oil & ghee
4-5 pods cardamom
1/2 blade  mace ( the orange colored outer frill on a nutmeg)
1 cup crushed tomatoes
1-2 tsp red chilli powder (adjust as per personal taste)
Salt to taste
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup half & half
1 tablespoon honey
2 teaspoons toasted ‘kasoori’ methi’ (dessicated fenugreek leaves)

Combine the onion, chili powder & cashew nuts  & grind to a smooth paste.
Heat the oil & ghee in a frying pan & add the cardamom & mace, Saute till fragrant. Add the garlic & saute for ~ 1 minute.
Add the onion/ cashew paste & saute till the paste emits a fragrant aroma & the raw onion smell has disappeared.
Add the tomatoes & salt, cover & cook on a medium flame till cooked. Add 1/2 cup water if the mix appears dry.
Lower the heat, add the unsalted butter  to the tomato gravy, stirring well to evenly combine the ingredients. and let the flavors combine under a closed lid.

Add the toasted kasoori methi & honey. Combine & cook for 5 minutes.

 Finish by adding the half & half, cook briefly for ~ 2 minutes. Take off the heat & set aside.

For the Artichoke kofta:

1/2 cup chopped artichokes (for preparing the raw artichoke, I’ll refer you to my previous artichoke recipe, you need about 6-7 baby artichokes for this)
1/2 cup ricotta cheese
1 scallion finely chopped
1 tsp each coriander & cumin powder
1-2 deseeded minced green chilli
1 tablespoon cilantro finely chopped
1 tablespoon besan (garbanzo bean flour)
salt to taste.
oil for deep frying

Combine all the ingredients to form a thick mixture. using a cookie scoop (or a tablespoon), roll into a ball & flatten into discs.
Heat oil in a cast iron pan, when it gets hot, fry the koftas in batches on medium heat till golden brown on both sides (~ 2 minutes per side). Remove with a spider skimmer or slotted spoon & place on paper towels.
Add the koftas to the makhni gravy & gently cover completely in the gravy.
Transfer to a serving dish, garnish with chopped cilantro & a dash of cream, and serve hot with phulka oat flour rotis.

For the oat flour roti, simply make a chapati dough with equal quantities of  oat flour & whole wheat atta. Roll out as you would for regular rotis.These rotis do not quite have the stretchy texture of regular chapatis,  the best way I can describe them is a very mild version of the rustic bajra roti, with a characteristic earthy flavor!