basmati rice with black pepper and cashew nuts served with mung bean dal

Rice is very versatile: simple to prepare, it absorbs the flavors from anything you cook it with. Some people find rice boring, but I can’t agree with that. There are so many kinds, all with distinct flavors. And when you add other things, the taste permutations become virtually limitless! I can eat rice every day and be very happy about it. This is super easy to make and your friends and family will think that you’re a brilliant chef!

basmati rice with black pepper and cashew nuts

1cup basmati rice
¾ tbsp freshly and coarsely ground black pepper
Kosher salt to taste
1¾ cups hot water
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
4 tbsp broken cashew nuts

Place olive oil, cashew nuts, black pepper and rice in a deep pot already over high heat. Stir to coat everything with oil. Add hot water. Salt the rice and bring to a boil. Be sure to stir it to prevent sticking. Reduce temperature to simmer. Cover and cook for about 14 minutes or until water has almost been fully absorbed. Remove from heat and let it rest with lid on for 5 minutes before serving. You can serve this with beans, grilled vegetables or mung bean dal soup, like we did and you see in the picture.

New York style pizza with cilantro basil pesto, goat cheese, Kalamata olives and fresh arugula

I made this pizza for company last week. I guess I was thinking about it after reading Heavenly’s post about Lombardi’s Pizza in New York. Ah, New York!

Callie and Ellie were visiting from Virginia. Ellie is a real fan of Italian food. On that particular day, we were taking a break from sightseeing and revitalizing ourselves over several games of Hearts and bottles of Purple Haze (the raspberry wheat beer, not weed!) Making Hegui’s pizza dough was a snap. I used dry active yeast instead of the moist. If you don’t have a leisurely afternoon of casual home-entertainment in which to let your dough rise, you can always go for the store bought kind. The topping idea was an “invention” inspired by some leftover herbs. I had a lot of cilantro and basil lying around: really this is just a cilantro-added version of basil pesto American style.

I had enough dough for two. For the second, Hegui made the tomato sauce from his last pizza post to which I added shredded mozzarella, sautéed crimini mushrooms and fresh basil leaves tossed over on top after we pulled it from the oven (Like Hegui’s “pizza number 1″ but with mushrooms instead of olives). Both versions were yummy. The “green” one was fresh, tangy and almost tasted crisp, with the cheese smoothing out and balancing the flavors. The “red” tomato version was hearty and earthy.

New York style pizza with basil cilantro pesto, goat cheese, Kalamata olives and fresh arugula

For the dough:

Either start with pre-made dough or you can follow Hegui’s recipe on this link. I did the later.

For the cilantro basil pesto:

1 medium bunch cilantro
1 medium bunch basil
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp Kosher salt
black and red pepper to taste
juice of one lemon
olive oil
¼ cup parmesan cheese
¼ cup almonds

Put all ingredients except cheese and nuts in food processor. Process until smooth. You’ll have to gradually add olive oil to get the right consistency. I think that I used about a quarter cup. Next process in nuts; then, the cheese.

To prepare pizza:

1 pizza dough (above)
cilantro basil pesto (above)
¼ cup goat cheese (I used an inexpensive chèvre)
12 Kalamata olives, pitted and cut in halves
1 small bunch arugula

Pre-heat oven with pizza stone to 485F.

Stretch pizza to desired shape being sure to leave some extra dough to form a crust. Cover a wooden board with corn meal. Place dough on top. Spread with cilantro basil pesto. Dot with goat cheese. Sprinkle with olives. Gently slide from board to pizza stone. Bake 15 to 20 minutes. Remove from oven and decorate with fresh arugula.

red quinoa, carrot and cumin basmati rice

I made this rice dish before without the quinoa. This time around I decided to add the quinoa for more protein and texture. How can you go wrong with rice or quinoa? I served it with chole masala.

red quinoa, carrot and cumin basmati rice

2 carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 cup basmati rice
1/3 cup red quinoa
Kosher salt to taste

Rinse quinoa. Add to a pan with about a cup of water and boil for about 8 minutes. Drain. Using the same pan, add oil, carrot, salt and cumin then sauté until cumin is fragrant and carrot tints the oil a bit orange. Add rice and partially cooked quinoa. Add two cups of water. Bring to a boil with pan uncovered. Reduce heat to low. Cover pan and simmer for about 15 minutes until liquid absorbed. Remove from heat and let stand with lid on for 5 minutes before serving.

vegetarian paratha or maybe paratha veggie burgers

I absolutely love Indian cuisine and never got around making my own paratha. Paratha is just a pan-fried unleavened flat bread originally from the Punjab region that is popular all over India nowadays. This recipe was adapted from Prerna’s beautiful blog. Her parathas looked so tempting that I had to try them at home. I always have this phobia about making bread even when the dough does not require rising. I’m glad I finally made this one. They are supposed to be flat, but mine turned out kind of thick; sort of like a veggie burger. Scrumptious!

vegetarian paratha

1 bunch of organic spinach rinsed, dried and thinly chiffonaded
1 cup carrots, shredded
3 tbsp nutritional yeast
3 tbsp fat free cottage cheese
1 medium just harvested white onion cut into small cubes
3 small potatoes boiled and roughly mashed
1 clove garlic, mashed
1 inch piece of fresh ginger, grated
1 Serrano pepper cut into thin disks
5 long beans chopped fine, steamed for 3 minutes
1 tsp fennel seeds
1 tsp ajwain seeds
1½ cups flour
1 cup cream of wheat
Fresh black pepper
Kosher salt
Olive oil

vegetarian paratha is rich in wholesome fresh vegetables

the cream of wheat box is sooooo old-fashioned looking!

Mix spinach, carrots, cottage cheese, onion, ginger, garlic, salt, fennel, Serrano and black pepper together. Add dry ingredients and mix until incorporated. No other fluid is required as the vegetables will release liquid.

Grease your hands with a bit of olive oil. Grab enough dough to make a ping-pong size ball in your hands. Flatten the dough into thin discs. Place a bit of oil in a non stick skillet, bring temperature to medium and fry parathas about 6-8 minutes flipping half way through. The parathas will turn a bit brown on the surface. Watch out for hot temperature as it may burn the outside and leave the inside uncooked. It is super fun to make this bread, sort of like cooking pancakes.

Serve as a side with rasam, dal or with tamarind, mint and cilantro salsa. Enjoy them on their own as well. These are good!

vegetarian paratha dough is messy fun

fresh corn tamales stuffed with shitake mushroom and brie

This is a variation of a recipe for fresh corn tamales that comes from Stephan Pyles’ The New Texas Cuisine. In the Nineties in Dallas, Stephan Pyles was The chef that everyone talked about. In the last year or two that I was there, he opened Star Canyon on the edge of the Cedar Springs neighborhood, quite near where I lived at the time. I dreamed of going there, but since I was a student then and had no money, it seemed constantly out of reach. When I graduated from school, my parents took me to the restaurant as a treat. What an experience!

Many of the recipes in The New Texas Cuisine were things that got served at the restaurant. This one takes me back to a younger time when I was thin and had more hair! Ah, the good old days!

shitake mushrooms and brie for filling

The version from the book is without filling. I happened to have a bunch of ugly shitake mushrooms as well as some left-over brie from a dinner party sitting around on the day that I made these tamales. The ‘shrooms and the cheese added an earthy, nutty flavor to the sweet corn. This is really good and surprisingly easy to make. I was worried about shaping the tamales and keeping them properly wrapped. This proved to be fairly simple, really. I’d definitely make this again.

dried corn husks for wrapping tamales

fresh corn tamales stuffed with shitake mushrooms and brie

2 ears sweet corn
8 tbsp vegetable shortening
1 cup masa harina
2/3 cup cornmeal (I used quick cooking polenta)
¼ tsp cayenne powder
¼ tsp cumin
¾ tsp salt plus
1 tsp baking powder
¾ cup warm water
14 dried corn husks
2 to 3 oz. brie
½ cup shitake mushrooms, washed and sliced into very thin strips
Olive oil

Begin by soaking corn husks in a large pot of water for about thirty to 45 minutes.

Fill large steamer with water and set on stove to reach boiling.

While doing above, sauté mushrooms in a bit of olive oil and salt. Once they have become tender, set aside to cool.

Cut corn from cobs. In a food processor, pulverize half the fresh corn until a smooth paste.

Using a hand mixer, whisk vegetable shortening until light. In a separate bowl, combine masa harina, cornmeal, cayenne, cumin, salt and baking powder. Then gradually add warm water to the dry ingredients to form the dough. Whisk the dough into the shortening. Fold in ground and whole corn kernels.

fresh sweet corn

wrapped tamales ready for steaming

Drain corn husks and pat dry. Tear two into about a dozen long strips to use for tying tamales. With remaining twelve husks, lay them in pairs so that the wide parts of the husks overlap one another by about two inches. Divide dough evenly to make six tamales. Poke holes in each tamale and stuff with some sautéed shitake and brie. Cover stuffing with dough.

To close tamales, carefully roll the corn husks around filling. Twist each end and tie shut with a strip of corn husk. Place tamales in steamer and steam, covered, for 35 to 45 minutes.

I served these with pico de gallo and smoky ancho salsa.

fresh corn tamales stuffed with shitake mushrooms and brie served with pico de gallo and smoky ancho salsa

My original idea for this recipe wasn’t Southwest at all. I was reading this cool food blog, bitchin’Camero, and got super excited by Mel’s recipe for smoked salmon, goat cheese and spinach empanadas.

Southwest inspired homemade empanadas

My folks had just gone on an Alaskan cruise and brought us some smoked salmon as a gift. Perfect! I made the dish more-or-less the way described, but I tried to be ambitious and make my own dough. I should have read between the lines when Mel gave hints on buying pre-made empanada shells at a local grocer or even on-line. Will I ever learn? The filling for the salmon etc. empanada (I made one large pie instead of hand-held ones) tasted great. The crust, not so good: sort of brick-like.

this smoked salmon, goat cheese and spinach empanada looks great but the dough didn't work

Not to be deterred by such a minor setback, I tried again: this time with a different crust recipe and a new filling. I’d already used up the salmon so improvised here with a Mediterranean-meets-Southwest style stuffing. The empanada dough recipe comes from about.com. The dough was easy to make and turned out very well. I ended up sprinkling some sea salt on the finished empanadas before popping them into the oven, which might have been overkill. Otherwise, this was fantastic.

some key ingredients for Southwest inspired homemade empanadas

Southwest inspired homemade empanadas

For the filling:

½ cup olives, pitted (I used kalamata and stuffed Spanish)
3 fillets anchovy
4 sundried tomatoes
6 cloves garlic
12 small dried mild chiles (I used chile puya)
2 small onions, peeled and cut in halves
¼ cup pepitas, briefly dry pan roasted
8 spring onions, chopped
Goat cheese to taste
Salt to taste

For dough:

Follow the link above or take Mel’s excellent advice and try frozen shells. Making the dough yourself brings a real sense of satisfaction if it comes out right. Plus the empanadas can take on irregular and exciting shapes, which make them seem more unique and fun.

To prepare the filling:

Using a cast iron pan on high heat, roast the garlic and onion until blackened a bit. At the same time, roast the chile peppers for about 20 to 30 seconds on each side. Immediately toss them into a small pot of boiling water. Boil, covered, for five minutes. Remove from heat and allow to rest, covered, for another fifteen minutes. (This is the same preparation that I used for smoky ancho salsa but with a different chili pepper.) Remove chiles from water. Carefully remove and discard stems, seeds and inner ribs. Place peppers in food processor.

Add olives, roasted garlic and onion, sundried tomatoes and anchovies to chiles. Pulse until a thick paste is formed. Transfer to a bowl.

Mix pepitas and spring onions with blended chile filling.

Southwest inspired homemade empanada close up

To stuff empanadas:

Place a large spoon of filling in the center of each piece of dough. Top with a chunk of goat cheese. Close dough per recipe directions and bake. Allow to cool on wire racks and serve. These would be great for a picnic to wine country!

New York style pizza is hard to find here in San Francisco. There is a place on 18th and Castro that I think makes something similar to what you get at those hole-in- the- wall pizza places in NYC. Sometimes when we go shopping in the Castro area I try going with an empty stomach so I can reward myself with a slice…or two.

Still, it’s not quite the same. Maybe like wine, the context matters for good pizza? There’s nothing like that hot slice fresh out of the oven burning the roof of your mouth at 2AM in the East Village after you’ve been to three parties and as many bars on a weeknight, is there?

pizza number 1 with kalamata olive and fresh basil

But I’m here on the West Coast now… the Left Coast. It’s not the same, but maybe it could be reproduced in my kitchen? I’ve always believed that it’s hard to make pizza at home, which has put me off trying. But it was finally time, that is after I’d run around a bit to get some of the basic pizza making things that I needed. Aside from getting the right kind of flour and more yeast, I also trekked over to the gigantic Target store in Colma to get a pizza stone for the oven. The stone, I’m led to believe, is the key for the right kind of crisp crust.

California pizza tends to be thin with a thin crust. The stuff is flimsy and really requires a fork-and-knife dining approach. This homemade pizza was stable enough to be eaten with the best tools on earth: two hands! That’s more like it!

I made two pies with this recipe. And though they may not have had the classic New York City terroir, or shape for that matter, they were both pretty darn fabulous.

homemade New York style pizza two ways

for the dough:

4½ tsp fresh yeast (if using dry active, cut amount by half)
1 cup lukewarm water (~100F or 40C)
3 cups of pizza flour (high gluten content) plus more as needed
1½ tsp Kosher salt
1½ tsp sugar
1 tbsp olive oil, plus more
Semolina or corn meal for sliding pizza onto stone

key ingredients: homemade pizza dough, homemade tomato sauce and two types of goat cheese

The dough is made in 3 stages.

First, using a large bowl mix together the warm water, salt, sugar, yeast and a half cup of flour. Set aside and let rest for 20 minutes in a warm, draft free part of your house. The dough will rise and look like a thick, bubbly sauce. An intense bakery aroma of yeast will permeate the kitchen. This should be a sign that your yeast got home from the store alive and that you didn’t kill it using too hot water. (I tried making a challah bread once and killed the yeast by over heating the water. That was sad)

Next, add remaining flour and olive oil to yeast mix. Mix with a spatula to incorporate then switch to using hands and knead for about 8 minutes. If dough is too sticky add a bit more flour. In the end it should be smooth, stretchy and slightly sticky. Form an even ball shape. Place in a bowl. Drizzle olive oil over to grease the entire surface. Cover with a kitchen towel. Let it rest for approximately 1½ to 2 hours or until it doubles in volume.

You can make the pizza straight away or store the dough in plastic bags in the fridge to use the following day. I made mine in the same day.

About 20 minutes before you’re ready to cook, bring oven temperature to 485F with the pizza stone inside. It’s important to warm the oven and the stone at the same time to prevent it from breaking.

pizza number 2 with red bell pepper and sweet Vidalia onion

For tomato sauce:

28oz can unseasoned peeled tomatoes, chopped with juices
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tsp tomato paste
4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
½ tsp dried oregano
½ tsp dried basil
½ tsp black pepper
1 dried red peperoncino, crushed (or chile de arbol)
¼ tsp sugar
½ tsp red wine vinegar

Simmer all ingredients but vinegar and 2 tablespoons of olive oil for 35 minutes. Stir occasionally to prevent sticking. Remove from heat. Add reserved olive oil and vinegar, stir and set aside. It’s best to make the sauce while your pizza dough is rising. Of course, you can skip this step if you go without tomato sauce or get something pre made.

Preparing the pizza for baking:

To shape the pizza cut the risen dough into two equal pieces. Stretch each one into a pizza shape, leaving the edges a bit thicker for the crust. Now I know that pizzas at restaurants are always circular or sometimes rectangular. But this is homemade so you can let your imagination run wild as to the right shape for you. Mine were irregular organic shapes that we both quite enjoyed when it came time to serve them.

Sprinkle a liberal amount of semolina or corn meal on a wooden chopping board or pizza board. Place the shaped dough over top. Add toppings as you like. Open up oven door and carefully slide pizza off the board onto the hot stone. Close the door and bake for 20 minutes. Repeat with second pizza.

Pizza 1: tomato, cheese, olive and basil

Tomato sauce
Goat cheese mozzarella
Bucherón cheese
Kalamata olives
Fresh basil (to be added after pizza is out of oven)

Pizza 2: tomato, cheese, olive, onion and sweet red pepper

Tomato sauce
Goat cheese mozzarella
Bucherón cheese
slices of vine ripe tomato
Kalamata olives
sweet Vidalia onion slices
sweet pepper slices

Or add your own toppings…the options are endless.

a slice that you can pick up with your hands!

2007 Kingston Family Vineyard Lucero syrah

We enjoyed these two pizzas with a chewy, dark Chilean 2007 Lucero Kingston Family Vineyards syrah.

biscoito de polvilho azedo AKA sour manioc biscuit

Growing up in the countryside in Brazil was not fun in the sense that we didn’t have a bakery to go to every morning to get bread. On the other hand, it was great because my mother liked to bake. She had a rustic wood burning oven built outside the house near the kitchen in the same style that you might see at California pizza shops. She would fire up this oven once or twice a week, to bake for the crowd. The aromas that permeated the air are still vivid from my childhood memories.

One of the things I adored was the biscoito de polvilho azedo or sour manioc biscuit. This Brazilian biscuit has the consistency of profiterole shells; they’re soft, chewy, airy inside and crunchy on the outside. But whereas profiterole shells are almost flavorless, biscoito de polvilho has a salty and tasty sour flavor which I think goes well with dinner or with a good cup of black coffee or even café au lait.

I’ve forgotten my mother’s recipe but the other day I was looking at my blogger friend, Neide Rigo’s site and found one there that resembles my mother’s. Neide calls it Rosca de Polvilho, which is the name for the same dish in the southern part of Brazil.

I made it at home and it turned out fabulously.

some key ingredients for biscoito de polvilho azedo AKA sour manioc biscuit

biscoito de polvilho azedo AKA sour manioc biscuit

1 cup flavorless oil (e.g., canola, almond)
1 cup water
2 tsp kosher salt
5 to 6 cups of sour manioc flour/starch
1 cup whole cold milk
2 eggs
grated cheddar (optional)

Pre-heat over to 485F. Grease a couple of large baking trays and set aside.

Bring water, oil and salt to a boil. Place about 3 cups of manioc flour in a large bowl. Whisk in boiling liquid to scald the manioc flour. Mix until incorporated. Add milk and eggs then continue mixing. Add remaining flour in stages until it’s all incorporated. The dough will be ready when it stops sticking to your hands.

Shape dough into ping-pong ball size rounds and place them 2 inches apart on baking tray. Bake for about 22 minutes. The biscoitos will puff up and the bottoms will brown a bit.

mixing the dough

preparing the dough for baking

hot from the oven

Serve hot. I added grated cheddar at the top for additional savory flavor, but you can leave the cheese out.

I’ve been wanting to make this recipe for ages, but was having trouble locating Szechuan peppercorns. Finally, I found some in the bulk section of my least favorite grocery store ever, Rainbow. Everyone in San Francisco raves about that place but I think that it has poor lighting; it’s difficult to find things; it’s very overpriced; and, the worst thing of all, the staff is rude. Ugh! I rarely shop Rainbow but this time I was desperate so put up with the rough conditions.

Szechuan fry bread

This recipe comes from my favorite East-meets-West cookbook, Silk Road Cooking: A Vegetarian Journey. The dish is surprisingly easy to make, particularly considering that it’s a bread. It was delicious: not too spicy but very flavorful. The sauce is sour and a little savory, which matches perfectly. Brilliant work, Najmieh!

Szechuan peppercorn

I served this with Szechuan style green beans with zucchini, essentially using the same recipe as the one with long beans. We loved it.

Szechuan fry bread

3 cups flour, sifted
1¼ cups boiling water

¼ cup sesame oil
1 tsp. Szechuan peppercorns, toasted and ground
2 tbsp. sesame seeds
2 spring onions, shredded

Olive oil for frying

some key ingredients for Szechuan fry bread

Place flour in food processor with bread dough attachment. Pulse in water to mix and make dough. Mix for three to five minutes until a soft dough is formed. Place in bowl and cover with damp cloth. Let rest for thirty minutes.

Place rested dough on floured surface. Roll into a long cylinder about two inches in diameter. Cut into six equal pieces. Roll each piece into a flat round about six inches across. Paint each piece with sesame oil on one side. Sprinkle sesame seeds, Szechuan pepper and shredded spring onion over each. Roll each round into a cigar shape. Twist each cigar into a spiral. With a rolling pin, gently flatten each spiral to form a round. When I did this, some of the sesame oil and stuffing came out. That’s o.k.

Heat a non-stick pan on medium high. Pour about two tablespoons into pan then add first bread. Fry for a few minutes until the edges dry out and the bottom becomes a reddish brown. Flip and fry reverse in same way. Repeat with remaining breads.

stuffing the bread

vegan ajwain samosas

Our friends Christian and Alecks are moving back to the East Coast this summer. Alecks will be teaching at NYU and Christian is going back to grad school. Exciting times for these two boys with lots of changes happening in their lives right now! Congrats to both of you!

They are going to live on Washington Square at the end of 5th Avenue in Manhattan right, where the East and West Villages connect. How nice! I know that area well. When I moved to NYC in 2003 I lived on 8th Street at 6th Avenue in the shoe shop district. I was just a block from my beloved Balducci’s. I think that Balducci’s was the best gourmet food place I’ve ever been: small, well stocked with goods from all over, and always fresh and unique. Too bad they no longer exist. There were also other exciting places to shop around that area. I enjoyed Jefferson Market on 6th Ave; the fabulous cheese shop on Bleeker Street; and the farmer’s market on Union Square. In late summer, the Union Square Farmers Market had this scrumptious peach pie a la Martha Stewart that was just incredible. You know how peaches taste in the late summer: ultra ripe, sweet and amazing. Yumm! Sometimes I would venture south form there to Dean & De Lucca on Broadway and Spring Street or even further down, to Canal for Asian produce and fish. Downtown Manhattan kicks ass! Here I am reminiscing about the Big Apple. C&A enjoy your stay there! You’ll have a blast.

Last Saturday we held a small going away party at our place for the lucky couple. We wanted to make something different and memorable, so I suggested Ethiopian food. When I said that, I saw Christian’s eyes light up. I knew from then on that he had something brilliant in mind. He had cooked Ethiopian before; many times, actually. He wanted to prepare the meal himself. Alecs and I acted as sous chefs.

Alecs enjoying a vegan ajwain samosas

We made: pumpkin & cauliflower stew, spicy red lentils, gingered collard greens, and monk fish with Berber spice. The injeera bread came from a store in Oakland. With Christian’s supervison, I made the pumpkin and cauliflower stew which I will publish soon.

While reading about Ethipioan food, I noticed they use the spice ajwain in their cooking, which is similar to Indian cooking. With that in mind I decided to make these vegan samosas from the Ajanta cookbook as an appetizer.

Christian enjoying a vegan ajwain samosas

Since making these samosas, I’ve fallen madly in love with ajwain seeds. The week after the Ethiopian party, I made angú with leek, fava and ajwain. Delicious!

The samosas turned out divine! I served them with a tamarind/mint/cilantro salsa which was adapted from the same book.

vegan ajwain samosas for good bye

For the dough:

2 cups flour
¾ tsp kosher salt
6 tbsp canola oil
2 tsp ajwain seeds
½ cup water (plus more)

For the filling:

5 small cooked potatoes
4 tbsp canola oil
1 cup frozen garden fresh pea
1 cup sweet corn
1 cup frozen shelled edamame that has been boiled for 4 minutes
Kosher salt to taste
4 tsp coarsely ground coriander seeds
½ tsp black pepper
½ tsp dried crushed red pepper
3 tsp mango powder (amchur powder)
2 tsp turmeric

To make the dough:

Mix all ingredients together plus ½ cup of water, then knead for few minutes. Add a little more water if too thick. It should have the consistency of pizza dough. Shape dough into a ball, place on a bowl and cover with a damp kitchen towel. Let rest for about 45 minutes.

While dough rests, make the filling:

Cut potatoes into small cubes. Add oil to a non stick skillet followed by the sweet corn and sauté for a couple of minutes. Add salt, coriander, amchur powder, turmeric, black and crushed red pepper and give it a good stir. Add remaining ingredients and cook for about 5 minutes stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and let cool.

stuffing the samosa

wrapping the samosa

Assembling the samosas:

Using a rolling pin flatten the dough on your counter top to about ½ inch thick. With a knife cut the dough into 12 equal parts. Roll each part into a ping-pong ball shape and place them on a tray. Cover with a damp towel.

To form each samosa:

Place one ball on the counter and flatten it with your rolling pin to make a circle of about 7 inch wide. Cut the circle in the middle to make two ½ moon shapes. Place 1 to 1&½ tsp of the filling in the center of a half moon. Fold corners over the filling to make them into triangular samosa shapes. Transfer to a lightly greased tray. Repeat process with the other 1/2 moon and 11 balls.

Makes two dozen.

stuffed samosas ready for frying

To fry samosas:

Fill a 10 inch wide pan to about 1 inch deep with canola oil. Bring temperature to medium high. Add 4 to five samosas at a time and fry them for about 4 minutes on each sides or until color becomes golden. Remove from pan and place on paper towels to drain. Repeat process with remaining samosas.

Serve hot or room temperature with tamarind, mint and cilantro salsa.