Samosa Wednesday

My mother-in-law is a lovely woman. I'm very fortunate when it comes to in-laws in general, I must say. However I mention Kathryn specifically because she really really REALLY likes these samosas. Which is great, because I think sometimes my in-laws just think my food is plain old strange. But these samosas are a crowd pleaser. Easy to do up ahead of time and freeze. Delicious quickie dinner when pulled out of the freezer and into the oven. Or great when made fresh and eaten the same day. I've been known to do up double or triple batches to freeze for upcoming parties. They bake up beautifully right from frozen, (along with my version of panzarotto which I will share no doubt at some point) and have never let me down. We've even had our friends Karen and Aidan over for a cooking lesson and dinner to learn how to make them (and of course eat them after, but they didn't need any instruction on that part). These samosas can be made in parts, so it's helpful for when you don't have a large chunk of time all at once. You can mix the dough at one point, then set it aside tightly wrapped. You can make the filling days in advance if you like.


Part 1) dough


ingredients:


1/4 cup extra virgin coconut oil
2 cups kamut pastry flour (finely ground, whole grain)
1 cup blanched almond flour
1 1/2 tsp sea salt


3/4 cup filtered water + 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar


directions:


1. put the flours, salt, and oil in a food processor. pulse a few times to thoroughly combine.
2. turning the machine on, slowly trickle in the water (and vinegar) until the ingredients clump together and form a dough. If it seems too dry, add more water whilst the processor is on, a teaspoonful at a time. You do not want to add too much water, because then the dough will be very hard to work with. Too little water and the dough will be too crumbly.
3. take the dough out of the food processor, wrap it in parchment and put it in a plastic bag, or wrap it in plastic wrap. Set the dough aside to rest. (you can also make it ahead of time and put it in the fridge. However, it will need to come to room temperature before you can use it.




Part 2) filling


ingredients:


1 clove of garlic, finely minced (1-2 tbsp)
1 onion finely chopped (approx 1 cup)
2 tbsp extra virgin coconut oil
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp turmeric


3 - 3 1/2 cups sweet potato, cut into small pieces
2  cups cauliflower, chopped (or kolrabi, nappa cabbage, celery, carrot, etc)
2 cups cooked chickpeas
1 tsp sea salt
black pepper


directions:


1. saute the garlic and onion in coconut oil with salt, cumin, and turmeric until cooked through
2. add the sweet potato
3. add the cauliflower
4. add the chickpeas
5. add the salt and black pepper
6. saute until everything is cooked through. Adjust seasoning to your taste as needed


This recipe will make approx 24-36 samosas depending on how big your balls are. When our friends came over for dinner, it fed 4 adults and 2 toddlers with enough left over for lunch the next day.


Part 3) samosas


directions:
1. take the fully rested dough, and divide into 20 g balls using a kitchen scale. Or if you are not as ocd as me, just make ping pong ball size dough balls. Try to make them even. Using the kitchen scale method, I got 35 balls this time. You could make 'em a touch bigger and get 24 balls, but I like this size best. Keep the balls covered by a piece of parchment topped by a damp towel to keep them from drying out. This is very very important!

2. one by one, roll the dough balls into circles, put some filling in the middle, and fold three sizes to make a triangular package. You should probably roll the dough on baking parchment or a mat of your choice. I find this dough easy to work with and somewhat forgiving.

3. place the samosas on a lined baking sheet. You don't need to leave a lot of space between, but you also don't want them to touch.

4. here, you have to make the decision to bake or to freeze. If you elect to freeze your bounty for later, put the baking sheet fully loaded into the freezer. Once the samosas have frozen solid, put them in airtight freezer bags. They can be baked right from frozen in about 40 minutes at 345.
5. If you choose to bake them now, put your baking sheet in the oven at 345 for about 25 or 30 minutes, until they seem adequately brown for your liking. If you want to bake them in a few hours, cover the samosas on the baking sheet with a piece of parchment topped by a damp towel
6. serve with some kind of seasonal salad (chopped tomato) or side vegetable such as oven roasted broccoli. If you like mango chutneys and dipping sauces, go for it. We don't, so we never use em. The secret is adequately seasoning the samosas so they can really stand on their own without sauce.


These samosas are easy. They are admittedly a wee bit time consuming, but being able to break the procedure into steps and/or make them at ahead of time and freeze makes them convenient. I like things I can do in steps at my leisure.


Let me know how they turn out, and what vegetables you decide to use in them. Really, almost anything will work. We've done spinach and ricotta fillings, lentil fillings, sweet fillings such as dates and pecans (and callebaut chocolate chips), raspberries and chocolate, apple and walnut. But the good ol' sweet potato and chickpea is definitely a standby. Squash might be nice ...