Samosas with Friends August 2013

My friend's sister is a newbie vegan, and was asking for some cooking suggestions to feed her somewhat particular young son. This is what we will make together. That's right, I am now a cooking instructor. Huh. The thing that is great about this recipe is that it is adaptable. You can sub in whatever vegetables you like. You can use different beans instead of chickpeas. In fact, you can eat the filling just by itself. So it's a good starting point. Another friend of mine once told me her son refused to eat broccoli. She steamed it and served it plain. When they were over for dinner, we did a light saute (almost like a steam) using coconut oil and some sea salt. He devoured it. I find with my own son that a little seasoning has endeared a whole lot of things to him he wasn't super keen on when they were plain. Raw spinach leaves are fine, but dressed with a little avocado oil, a drizzle of balsamic vinegar and a sprinkle of sea salt and black pepper and suddenly they are delicious. Throw some diced avocado and tomatoes in there and forget about it! Amazing. Even when my son was a brand new eater, he was much more interested in food that had some pizzazz. And I'm not telling you to go crazy with the seasonings, but just the right about of seasoning can really bring out the natural deliciousness of beautiful ingredients. And don't forget not to fear the fat!! Many of the nutrients in vegetables are fat soluble. So judicious application of coconut oil for the hot ones or avocado oil for the cold ones is a great idea. If you are a butter lover, use butter. Just make sure it's organic so you don't get stuff you don't need. The chemical load in fat is far higher than in any produce. 

The selection of vegetables today is based entirely on what looked nice at the Sunday Farmer's Market. Yep, you've discovered my secret. I'm an impulse shopper. Anyway, it's fun figuring out what to make based on the ingredients you can find. That's how the cool kids do it, I imagine.

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  tsp sea salt

3/4 cup filtered water

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:

2 tbsp extra virgin coconut oil

1 onion finely diced
3 cups split chickpeas, already cooked

3 leaves green cabbage, finely diced
1 carrot, finely diced

1 large sweet potato, finely diced

1 very large pattypan (or 1 large zucchini) finely diced

1 or 1 1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp cumin powder

directions:

1. saute  the onions, and add the chickpeas and some of the salt and the cumin, and cook until the onions are translucent

2. add the cabbage, and sauté

3. layer in the rest of the ingredients, sprinkle with salt, and cover to cook for a while
4. stir to fully combine, and finish cooking

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.