A Hot 'n Steamy Smooth 'n Creamy Afternoon Delight..Idli!

   Get your minds out of the gutter! Afternoon Delight has many meanings... well, at least one other when it comes to tea time or tiffin or snacking or whatever you choose to call it. What's hot and steamy, smooth and creamy if it's done right??? Idli that's what!
   Idli are little steamed buns, sometimes plain, sometimes spiced, traditionally served with sambar, as part of breakfast. But they can also be enjoyed for lunch and of course as a terrific tea time afternoon delight.

   As with anything worth waiting for, idlis take time and a slow hand. Of course there are all sorts of modern shortcuts to idli making, using all sorts of instant gratification tools like... baking soda. But !'m talking about old school, fermented over one long steamy hot night idlis. You know what I'm talkin' about. Served fresh and hot out of the steamer with a delicious chutney and hot cup of chai, you are in business and in an immediate get-out-of-here-and-leave-me-alone-with-my-idlis frame of mind.
    So... wondering how to get from batter to idli plate? It takes at least 24 hours. Idlis can be made from semolina, ground rice or rawa which is a sort of cream of rice powder. Rawa is what I used.

Idili

Here's what to do:
Soak 2 cups of Cream of Rice (rawa) in 4 cups of water.

 Soak 1 cup of urad dal in 2 cups of water.
 Leave both of these to soak for about 4 to 5 hours.
 Drain both the cream of rice and the urad dal.
 Put the drained urad dal in a blender or food processor and grind it into a batter

 Put the drained cream of rice into a food processor and blend it into a thick batter.

Mix the two batters together in a bowl and add some salt to taste.

Now set it aside in its' bowl to ferment overnight. I wrapped the bowl in a towel and stuck the whole thing in my oven to stay out of drafts and cozy overnight.

   
Steaming The Idli
This is actually the easiest part of the whole thing. I have an idli maker  which looks like a giant egg poacher, so I imagine an egg poacher would be the perfect substitute.
Spray the little pockets of the idli maker with non-stick spray and added the idli batter in.

Drop the idli mold into a large pot filled with a couple of inches of boiling water and slap on the pot lid. !5 minutes idli!!!!
Now if you don't have an idli mold or a pressure cooker you can make these using any old steamer. Just roll your idli batter into little balls and flatten them a bit. Pop them into any steamer and cook them.

Serve them up with a soupy sambar for a breakfast treat as they do in India, or with a coconut, fruit or cilantro chutney piping hot at any time a pick-me-up is needed. There. Wasn't that worth waiting for??
  This weekend I'll be waiting for the stove repair person and getting ready for a houseguest from LA (my favorite old cooking buddy) who's coming for a visit. There'll be lots of feasting and cooking of course, plus I review my first Vook. Read all about it and follow along on Twitter@kathygori

Baked Not Fried, The Alternative Samosa

  I love samosas. Crunchy, crispy filled with vegetable deliciousness. So when it came to the menu of foods for my birthday party last week, they were at the top of my list. What I don't like about samosas are the oily greasy part. Ok, I take that back. Like every human I love the greasy. That's half the fun. However, the greasy doesn't love me and I don't like what it has the potential of doing to my pants size.
 I also don't like half-baked short cuts to tasty. Most of the time they just don't seem to work out. That's why I decided on a full-baked short cut.  I would make samosas without the deep fat fryer. I would bake them.
There are a lot of recipes out there for baking samosas. Turns out a lot of people enjoy them, but would prefer not getting all the extra oil in their diet. A quick perusal of the internet led me to many variations of baking. Various temperatures.  I factored in all the different ways of going about it and then decided on a 400 degree oven for about 20 minutes. It worked.
We had about 18 people over to the house for my party. I settled on a menu of potato and pea samosas, momo made of  shrimp, more momo made of chicken,  a dhokla and assorted chutneys.
  I made my dough and filling a day ahead of time for easy assembly at party time. In two steps you'll be all set to tuck and roll on party day. The following recipe will make enough samosas for 6 people. needless to say I tripled it.
  Samosa Dough
  mix together:
1 cup of flour
1/4 tsp of salt
3 Tbs of vegetable oil
1/3 cup of water
   Mix all of this together. Knead it up and then set it aside covered with a warm damp cloth to rest for about 1 hour.
 If you're going to be using this the next day, cover the bowl with plastic wrap tightly and set it in the fridge. Take it out a good hour before you intend to use it so that it can come to room temperature.
  About the filling. There are a lot of different things one can stuff a samosa with. The most common being potatoes and peas. Even with that combo there are still a lot of variations depending on where the recipe comes from. Without being fancy I'll start off with a basic.
Samosa Stuffing
Boil 3 medium potatoes for about 15 to 20 minutes.
  When they're done, peel them, dice them and set them aside.
  In a large heavy pan heat :
1.) 2 Tbs of oil
   When it's hot toss in the diced potatoes and
2.) 1/2 cup of peas frozen or fresh . If using frozen, thaw them first.
3.) 2 tsp of ground coriander
4.) 1 tsp Kashmiri chili or 1/4 tsp cayenne 1/4 tsp paprika
5.) 1 tsp amchur (dried mango) powder
6.) 1 tsp of turmeric
7.) 1/2 tsp garam masala
  Mix it all up and cook it for about 5 minutes or so.
     As it worked out, I discovered that doubling the stuffing recipe was enough, even if I tripled the dough. I was paranoid about running out of samosa stuffing so I tripled the amount of that. Big mistake. Big. Mistake. I had waaaaay too much. All I needed to do was to double it and I would have been fine. You live, you learn.
So, now to assemble the samosas.
   Roll the dough out in a long cigar shape. Break off pieces of it as though making chapattis.
   Roll each piece into a ball then roll it out with the rolling pin into a round disc, same as a chapatti.

Take the disc and divide it in half. Each rolled out little ball makes two samosas.

Take a tablespoon of filling and place it in the corner of one of the halves.

Fold it over like so, into a little triangle.

Place your folded samosas on a lightly greased cookie sheet. Brush the samosas with a bit of oil.

   Slide the cookie sheet into a preheated 400 degree oven for about 20 minutes. When the samosas start to brown turn them over and brush with a bit of oil and cook  for a bit longer, 5 minutes or so, until they've lightly browned on both sides.

 Take them out and serve them hot, with chutney of your choice.

Or three. I made one hot hot hot, one sweet and one of cooling yogurt with mustard seed.
   The samosas drew a crowd both around the table

And under it, as patsy was hoping to get lucky.

     One of my birthday gifts was an olive tree from McEvoy Ranch. We made sure to get it outdoors before Patsy got any bright ideas.
    Of course among all the other stuff there had to be Princess cake.

I had a great party, I also had a good two days of cleanup, but....let the good times roll! Coming up, a killer momo recipe that can be whipped up in minutes and a look at some great dipping chutneys.