Where I've Been. Jury Duty..Film Festival Jury Duty That Is...

    It's been an interesting couple of days around here. I woke up yesterday to find my Wi-Fi down around my ankles and  myself unable to do much of anything online. Also Alan and I are going to be doing jury duty starting this week; Sonoma International Film Festival jury duty that is. Susan Sarandon is the special guest this year. She'll be getting a well deserved Lifetime Achievement Award.
   So this week is going to be a whirlwind of screenings and parties and gala events. Alan will be bringing along his camera and I hope to get some great pictures and stories and food experiences to share with everybody. The movies we're showing will be great and the food and wine should be equally great pairings since we're here in the heart of California Wine Country. If you're anywhere near the Bay Area and have some free time, drop by. I'm dusting off my stilettos and breaking out the silver lame. It should be some party up here this week.
  Meanwhile, I'll be sharing a great quick, easy and above all healthy samosa recipe sometime tomorrow. 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.

My Birthday Was Great!

Thanks to everyone who sent me birthday wishes, it was a wonderful weekend. The day before my birthday, Alan took me birthday present shopping, of course I stopped off at Bram, one can never have too many clay pots!

On the actual day Friday Alan and I went to one of my favorite places here in Sonoma, The Girl and The Fig.
   I wanted to show you the amazing fish I had but alas, Alan was not quick enough.

  He did stop me however before I could get my choppers into my birthday dessert.

        This was an amazing Meyer lemon cheesecake. When I was done with it, the only thing left on the plate was the candle.
   The next evening was the party at our house at which many Indian treats were served along with more cake. Coming up, lots of  recipes and a way to make Samosas, without all the deep fat frying.