Lunch-time Delight: The Simplest Samosa

I will not lie, I love to make things quick and easy whenever I can (that's why I'm a sad case when it comes to bread :O) So anyways, I was raiding my fridge this afternoon and wondered what to eat. I was really craving some indian-inspired spice, but wasn't about to drive down to grab it (I guess I'm lazy that way). I remembered that we had eaten mashed potatoes the other night and thought about eating it... but man, mashed potatoes are pretty bland. I through some spices and veggies into it and it smelled just like a samosa. Hmmmm.... this got my creative juices flowing. Let's whip up some healthy, easy samosas!

Simple Samosa

Ingredients:

- 2 cups mashed potatoes

- 1 tsp salt

- 1/2 cup frozen veggies, thawed and microwaved for 1 minute

- 2 tsp cumin

- 1/2 tsp coriander

- 1/2 tsp cardamom powder

- a sprinkle of fennel flakes and some pepper ( I use cayenne, because I love the heat!)

- Four 10" flour tortillas, warmed and cut in half

Method:

1. Mix together all the ingredients except for the tortillas

2. Take one tortilla-half and roll/shape it into a cone. Fill it with your potato mixture (don't go overboard :P)

3. Seal the edges of your samosa by dabbing your fingers in water and pressing the tortilla-edge. Prepare the other samosas the same way.

4. Deep-fry in hot oil, until golden-brown; or for a healthier treat, bake in a 325˚C oven until the outside is crisp.

5. Serve with chutney, curry, tikka masala... or just eat by itself... Yum!

My sister's don't really enjoy samosas, but my mom really liked it. She and I are in this "eat healthy" stage, well... we try anyways. But my dad still prefers the real thing :P (You can't blame him)

Indian Inspired Dinner: Part 2

... as promised, here's my continuation of the Indian-inspired Dinner I prepared.

So, in addition to the naan and spicy chicken kabobs I planned to make some chicken pizza's. I made them by taking 3 of the largest naan dough balls (uncooked), rolling them out and placing them on a baking sheet. I baked the bread for 10 minutes at 325F; just enough time for the bread to slighly brown, but not cook through fully. I then took out the semi-cooked bread, slathered on some barbeque sauce and topped the pizza with grilled chicken slices and grated marbeled + gruyere cheese. Pop the pizza's back into the oven until the cheese is all melted and goey... and there you have a quick, Naan-bread Chicken Pizza.

The Three Pizzas... the front two are bbq, and the back one is basil mayo.

I also decided to try out a wacky version of a chicken pizza using the basil mayo (from my basil chicken pita post) instead of barbeque sauce. OMG that pizza turned out so good. It was very moist and basil-y and was the perfect compliment to the naan-bread base.

A close-up of my soon to be famous, Basil-mayo Chicken Pizza

Funny thing... my sisters actually fell in love with the chicken kabobs that I had made and weren't to excited about the pizza! I was so surprised, I guess you never really know what you like until you eat it, eh?

NOTE TO SELF: I must market my new Basil-mayo Chicken Pizza... maybe Panago will sign me on :P

Indian Inspired Dinner: Part 1

The other day my dad asked me if I wanted to make dinner... what do you think my answer was? Well, you can probably guess by the pictures that I answered "YES!"

I'm always looking for ways to experiment and improve my culinary techniques... this time I was rarin' to try something Indian inspired. Having been intrigued by the Thai Chicken Tacos at Milestone's (pictured here) I really wanted my family to have a taste of this amazing dish.

Step 1: Finding the perfect kabob recipe...

I wanted to pick the perfect recipe to use in this Indian-inspired Chicken Taco and I found it in the Reshami Kabob recipe from kabobandcurry.com. So I prepared/marinated the chicken the night before... and stuck them on skewers (which had been soaked for 30 minutes) just before grilling them on the George Foreman Grill.

Step 2: Finding the perfect Naan recipe...

This one was pretty easy to figure out. I went to allrecipes.com and found the naan recipe with the best review. Here it is... Naan Bread. I was a little afraid that this recipe wouldn't turn out. Not because I don't trust allrecipes, but because I don't trust yeast. Me + Yeast do not equal good times... for some random reason (maybe my impatience) it doesn't seem to rise properly in my presence :(

Luckily, this time the story was different. The Naan rose perfectly.

After shaping and frying the naan in my well-greased skillet they turned out beautifully.

Step 3: What do you garnish with?

I settled on garnishing this dish with my thai peanut sauce and some warmed Tikka Masala sauce from Patak's.

Step 4: Assembly

To make the Indian-inspired Chicken Tacos you take one piece of naan, layer on a handful of chopped garden greens (lettuce, cabbage, carrots, scallions etc.), place one skewer on top and then drizzle the taco with the peanut sauce.

Continuation... I wasn't too sure if my sisters would enjoy the spicy chicken kabobs, so I decided to prepare a couple different options for their dinner... Part 2 is to come!