| Moscow Food Co-op Recipes | |
 Roll dough to a diameter of about 5 inches. |
 Place a generous 2 tablespoons of filling on one half of the circle. |
 Fold the edges under and crimp with a fork. |
Meals Kids Might Eat:
Baked “Thanksgiving” Samosas
by Jyotsna “Jo” Sreenivasan, from the November 2005 newsletter
My parents are vegetarians from India, so it makes sense that we eat Indian vegetarian food on Thanksgiving. Samosas—savory pastries filled with potatoes and peas—seem like a perfect Thanksgiving food to me. In keeping with the holiday theme, I made these samosas with sweet potatoes as well as with the traditional white potatoes.
Since samosas are usually served with a tamarind chutney, and since cranberries are traditional for Thanksgiving, I came up with a cranberry-tamarind chutney for an East-West “fusion” taste. Although samosas are generally deep-fried, I baked my samosas because I have no idea how to deep-fry!
These samosas are kid-friendly—somewhat sweet and not at all spicy. My 7-year-old son ate THREE of them for dinner!
I know people are really particular about what foods they eat on Thanksgiving, but perhaps the presence of pastry dough, sweet potatoes and cranberries might persuade some of you to try this recipe.
NOTE: If you don’t want to bother making the chutney, you can eat your samosas with the mango chutney available in a jar at the Co-op.
Baked “Thanksgiving” Samosas
(adapted from Moosewood Cookbook by Mollie Katzen)
If you want your samosas to be spicy, you can add cayenne or curry powder in addition to the other spices.
Dough
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour (look for the “white wheat pastry flour” the Co-op sells)
1 1/2 cups unbleached white flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup yogurt or buttermilk
Extra flour as needed
Mix the flours and salt in a bowl. Add the yogurt or buttermilk. Mix first with a spoon, and then with your hand, to make a smooth dough. Cover and refrigerate until you are ready to assemble the samosas.
Filling
1 large potato (the size of a large person’s fist)
1 large sweet potato
1 Tbsp. vegetable oil
1 cup chopped onion
2 medium cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp. fresh minced ginger
1 tsp. cumin powder
1 tsp. coriander powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups frozen peas, thawed
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
Boil the whole potato and sweet potato until they can be pierced easily with a fork. Cool. Remove the skins -- they should peel off easily. Mash them roughly.
While the potatoes are cooking, sauté onion in oil until onion becomes translucent. Turn off heat and immediately add garlic, ginger, cumin, coriander and salt. Stir to cook briefly. Add peas and lemon juice and let cool. Add potatoes to the onion-pea mixture.
Assemble and bake:
Preheat oven to 425ºF. Generously oil one or two baking sheets. Create
a wonderful rolling surface using the Sharon Winstein method. (Sharon is my
mother-in-law!) She recommends a folded bath towel topped with a clean pillowcase.
It really works—try it! Have nearby: rolling pin, extra flour for rolling,
a bowl of water, a fork, vegetable oil and a pastry brush. Divide your dough
into 16 balls. Rub some flour onto the pillowcase. Take a ball of dough and
pat it into a small circle on the pillowcase. Rub flour onto the top surface.
Roll to a diameter of about 5 inches. Turn and flour the circle as needed.
Place a generous 2 tablespoons of filling on one half of the circle. Rub some
water along the edge of the circle and fold in half. Fold the edges under and
crimp with a fork. Place samosa on the oiled tray. When you have assembled
all of the samosas, use a pastry brush to brush vegetable oil over the top
surface of each samosa. Bake 10 minutes, or until bottom of samosas are nicely
browned. Turn down the heat to 375ºF. Turn each samosa over and bake an
additional 10 minutes, or to your desired brownness. Serve with cranberry-tamarind
chutney. Samosas are great hot or warm. I even like mine cold, straight from
the fridge! (But then again, I like my pizza cold, too).
Cranberry-Tamarind Chutney
Feel free to add cayenne if you want a spicy chutney.
2 cups whole cranberries, fresh or frozen
1/4 cup minced onion
1 tsp. salt
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 Tbsp. tamarind paste (available at the Co-op)
2 tsp. minced fresh ginger
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
3/4 cup water
Mix all ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer and cook, stirring, until cranberries pop. Smash any cranberries that look whole against the side of the pan, and keep simmering for maybe 15 minutes, until the chutney looks more brown than red. Remove from heat. The chutney will thicken as it cools.
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