For the love of Samosas

I've always had a certain love for Indian food.  

In fact one of the most romantic dates I've had involved Indian food.  While I know that most people have a love/hate relationship with it...I have a certain affair with it.  

I love the warmth of the spices that fill my senses and the versatility of the spices.

So one day I just decided to make Samosas.

1 tbs ghee, 1 clove finely chopped garlic, 1 tsp finely chopped ginger, 2 medium finely chopped onions, 1 tsp curry powder, 1 tbs, lemon juice (or vinegar), 1 tsp garam masala, 1 tbs coriander.....

The recipe called for 2 tbs chopped fresh mint which I didn't bother with and I had decided to add

1 tsp cumin, 1 tsp cinnamon, and 1 tsp cardemom.

The recipe also requested 250 grams of minced beef or lamb...I used about a pound of beef.

To make the filling, heat the ghee in a sauce pan and fry garlic, ginger and half the onion until onion is soft.  Add Curry powder, salt, vinegar/lemon, mix well.  Add minced beef/lamb and fry over high heat.  Stirring constantly until meat changes colour.  Turn heat down and add hot water.  Cover pan and cook until meat is tender and all the liquid is absorbed.

Towards the end of cooking, stir frequently to prevent meat from sticking to the base of the pan.  Sprinkle with garam masala and chopped mint/coriander, remove from heat and allow to cool.  Mix in reserved onion.  

For the dough, use 225 grams plain flour, 1 tsp salt, 3 tbs oil, 1 approx 100 ml hot water, 1 oil for frying.

To make the dough, sieve together the flour and the salt.  Rub in the oil.  Add enough water to form a stiff dough.  Knead for 10 minutes until smooth.

Divide into 12 balls.  Roll each ball into a round 15 cm/6" across.  Cut in half.

Pick up one half, flatten slightly, and form a cone, sealing the overlapping edge with a little water.  Fill the cone  with 1.5 tsp of the filling and seal the top with a little water.

Make all the samosas the same way.

Heat the oil in a Karahi (Wok) over medium heat.   Put as many samosas as you can into the hot oil and fry until crisp and golden.  Drain.  Serve with a chutney or your favourite chilli or tomato sauce.

Now, this is my first time working with samosa dough and I don't have the most delicate of fingers.  Needless to say this is how my first batch came out.....

So I went with a second bout with my second batch and went in an easier direction.  With won ton wrappers.  And this is how THESE came out.

Either way both came out good although very different from each other.

Would I make it again?  Sure.  I'm a huge fan of the filling.

I had adapted my recipe from here

My next adventure is supposed to be with curry.....I'll get to that eventually.

Cottage Pie

Since I had an access of vegetables I had decided to utilize what I had and decided to make Cottage Pie.
What I like about Cottage Pie is that you can easily mix anything in it.  Normally I would add frozen mixed vegetables.  But since I decided that I would utilize what I had to save money...I went a different route.

Ingredients I had were

celery
carrots
onions
half a napa cabbage
garlic
1 lb 80% ground beef
red potatoes
garlic
worcestershire sauce
a few slices of Gruyere cheese.
button mushrooms
milk
room temperature butter

So what I did first was prepare the vegetables.  I grabbed a few stalks of the celery as well as a few carrots and cut those down to smaller pieces.  Cleaned and sliced the mushrooms.  And sliced the napa cabbage.

I then pulled out my food processor and grated the vegetables till they were a fine bits (much like you would find in making pot stickers).  Once that was completed, I sliced the onion till they were all equal pieces, and crushed the garlic.

I put the oil in the pan, put the onion in, and cooked till it was translucent.  I then added the chopped garlic.  Shortly after that I added 1 lb ground beef and cooked till brown, then added the grated vegetables...Stirred it around...Let it sweat, then added salt, pepper and the worcestershire sauce.

After that was done cooking, I put them into two individual loaf pans, leaving just enough room for the mashed potatoes and put it in the fridge.

I had cooked this in two steps as I had run out of milk a few days ago.

The next day I then proceeded to boil the potatoes.  I used 6 red potatoes and boiled them for approx 36 minutes.  I then drained the potatoes from the pot, put them back in the pot, added butter and milk and mashed over stop top...Nearing the consistency that I had wanted, I then added the Gruyere cheese and mashed (and added milk and butter) til desired consistency.

Once it is at the consistency that it is desired you top the mashed potatoes on the ground beef mixture that was sitting in the loaf pans....And let me tell you, I think I may have added just as much cheese as potatoes in this concoction as this was the cheesiest mashed potatoes I've had.

After I was certain that the potatoes and the meat were about room temperature in the loaf pan, I then heated it for approx 35 minutes at 350 degrees (preheated).

This is by far the most 'veggie-filled', cheesiest, Cottage Pie I've made.

And fact of the matter is, it's still good.