Comfort Food 101: Indian Samosas and Saag Paneer

I have three true loves in my life: coffee, roller derby & Indian food. Seriously, anything related to the country of India is delicious and beautiful and amazing. When I was single I made curry for dinner at least 3 days a week. But now that I'm married, my husband is not as fond of Indian food as I am, so I make it less often. I needed a fix, so I picked up samosa wraps and paneer at my local Punjabi store and went to town.

I started with fresh snap peas and new potatoes from my garden. I cut the potatoes really tiny and steamed them with my shelled peas. As that was steaming, I grated *frozen ginger and fresh garlic on the smallest grate. Then I chopped a red Thai chile (traditional Indian samosas use green chiles, but this was what I had on hand). These 3 ingredients were then lightly mashed in a small bowl. This should make about 1 Tbsp.

*I buy fresh ginger as I need it and I throw it in the freezer whole in a sandwich bag. Then when I need some I just grate what I need and chuck it back in the freezer. Also, so many people peel their ginger, but a lot of the nutrients are in the peel, so I leave it on, it doesn't change the texture or the taste, so why not have all the nutrients as well?

When the potatoes and peas were nearly finished steaming, I stir fried cumin, turmeric, cayenne, sesame seeds, garam masala, and the ginger-garlic-chile paste for about a minute, then added the potatoes, peas, chopped fresh basil and savory (yeah yeah, I know, not traditional Indian herbs... but, again, its what I had on hand), lemon juice, sugar, and salt. Mixed those all together in the pan and cooked a few more minutes until it looked like this.

I let this mixture cool slightly, then folded the wraps as instructed on the packaging, stuffed them with the mixture and sealed them up.

I deep fried them in my tiny little home deep fryer, but you can bake them if you prefer. (Deep fried anything always tastes better!)

Indian Samosas:

1 pkg. frozen samosa wraps, thawed
3 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/4" cubes
1/4 cup fresh green peas
2 Tbsp. EVOO or ghee
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1/2 tsp. ground turmeric
1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp. sesame seeds
1/2 tsp. garam masala
1 Tbsp. ginger-garlic-chile paste
1 Tbsp. fresh basil, chopped
1 tsp. fresh savory, chopped
1 tsp. lemon juice
1 tsp. sugar
salt to taste

Steam the potatoes and peas until tender.

Heat EVOO and add cumin, turmeric, cayenne, sesame seeds, garam masala, and ginger-garlic-chile paste. Stir fry 1 minute. Add potatoes, peas, basil, savory, lemon juice, sugar, and salt. Mix them properly and cook for 2-3 minutes. Turn off heat and set aside.

Take a samosa wrap and fold it as directed on the packaging, stuff 2-3 Tbsp. of the mixture into it and seal it up.

Deep fry, in batches, for 3 minutes per side, or until golden brown. Serve with sweet tamarind sauce or mango chutney, if desired. Makes 12 samosas.

Next, I made a vegetarian Indian dish called Saag Paneer. It is a delicious spinach curry made with an Indian cheese called paneer. The recipe I used can be found here. I used fresh spinach from my garden and used sour cream instead of yogurt. I crisped up some store-bought garlic naan bread in the oven and devoured 2 helpings of this with an obscenely high number of samosas. Needless to say I am STUFFED.