chef chelsea: Indian Samosas - a historical and instructional lesson

So, yesterday my mother and I made a trip to a really nice Italian supermarket called Meat Farms. To all me Lawn Guylanders out there, it's on 347 headed eastbound, probably in Smithtown. Anyhoo. I was so amazed by the selection of vegetables and fruits and also painfully reminded of my culinary shortcomings. There were far more unfamiliar than familiar vegetables, fruits, and meats and poultries, and I vowed to do a better job experimenting with and studying foods that are foreign to me. I think I'll start by researching the ingredients I already use.

Samosas are a popular snack in India, and are sort of like Jewish potato knishes. They usually make a great vegetarian appetizer, but really you can add whatever you feel like to it. They are a very customizable recipe. It generally consists of a fried or baked triangular, semi-lunar or tetrahedral pastry shell with a savory filling, which may include spiced potatoes, onions, peas, coriander, and lentils, or ground beef or chicken. The size and shape of a samosa as well as the consistency of the pastry used can vary considerably, although it is mostly triangular.

Ingredients you will find are the triumvirate of Indian spices: the garam masala powder, the coriander powder, and the red chili powder. Turmeric is used, but I don't use it in most of my Indian dishes so I won't categorize it as such. You will also see cumin seeds, and sometimes cumin powder is used as part of that "triumvirate," but the addition of a fourth spice to the triumvirate would have to make me find a new word, so I shall not. :)

Here are some quotes from Wikipedia about the spices (bc I don't feel like being original right now and typing them all out to make something that sounds cohesive and sensible):
The word garam refers to spice intensity, not heat; garam masala is pungent, but not "hot" in the same way as a chili pepper. Garam masala is actually a mixture of different spices that are added to many Indian dishes. Typically, garam masala includes cumin, coriander, cardamom, black pepper and cinnamon, but may also included nutmeg or bay leaves, depending on whether meat, fish or vegetables are being cooked.

Turmeric, a bright yellow-orange root, is ground into a powder and used in countless Indian dishes, both vegetarian and non-vegetarian varieties. Perhaps the most well-known use is for curry, as turmeric is what gives the dish its bright yellow color.

SAMOSAS!
Ingredients:
Egg roll wrappers
Potatoes
Turmeric
Red Chili powder
Coriander powder
Garam masala
Cashew nuts
Cilantro
Ginger
Garlic
Cumin seeds
Extra virgin olive oil

1. Boil those potatoes. Dice them and place them in a pot of boiling water with salt and olive oil. They have cooked when you can stick a fork through the potatoes and they break.

2. Once they've cooked, bring out a skillet. Heat up oil, then add minced ginger, minced garlic, and the cumin seeds. DO NOT LET THEM BURN.

3. Before the oil-flavoring ingredients can burn, add the cashew nuts and turmeric. Roast them a bit.

4. Add potatoes, garam masala, red chili powder, coriander powder, salt, and pepper. Stir fry a bit. Since your potatoes are diced, you'll want to mash them up somehow. I almost think it was a failure on my part: I probably should have used a ricer before I added the potatoes to the pan. But I didn't. Instead I kept adding water to help me mash up the potatoes in the skillet with my spatula. I ended up having a pretty lumpy and uneven consistency, with many traces of white potato that hadn't reached the spices. Use a ricer. I'll do that next time.
5. Last but not least, the cilantro. Add it once the potatoes have cooked.

6. Heat up canola oil in a saucepan. I don't use an oil thermometer, so I can't really tell you how hot it should be. Anyway. While you are doing that you should be preparing the egg roll wrappers. I recommend watching from 5:29-6:26 of Vahrehvah's samosa YouTube video (I also took his recipe to do this) to learn how.