Sunday, April 24, 2005

The Great Samosa Adventure

Last night, had dinner with a group of friends who get together periodically and cook an elaborate foreign meal. This month's feast was Indian. Our hostess, the wonderful Miss Mauvene Borton, did an amazing job on the research and gave our assignments last week. Mine was samosas. (I figured this was just as good as anything since I've never made any type of Indian dish before.) Well, the meal was fantastic and the recipes deliciously authentic -- and seemingly simple enough to make at home anytime. From scrumptious tandoori chicken and saffron rice to spiced vegetables and an amazing shrimp salad with a light curry dressing.

But back to the samosas. These sorts of dishes are ones I usually test drive before preparing, but due to scheduling this week (and no real desire to be eating potatoes and peas for days) I just thought I'd wing it. Luckily, I had three recipes, one of which provided a back up plan. I'm not a talented baker and I'm certainly not talented when it comes to working with pastry dough. ( I can barely make biscuits, don't tell anyone in my family!) Pie crust? Forget it. So, here I was kneading my little ball of pastry trying to figure out how this small amount was going to convert into those big luscious samosas you find at your favorite Indian restaurant. Well, after dividing, rolling, making a cone and ultimately, only cramming about a teaspoon of filling into each one before frying -- which took a while, too -- I wimped out. Thank goodness for phyllo dough. I'm not sure anyone had ever had phyllo samosas before (I hadn't), and even though after transport, they were a little soggy and misshapen, they worked out remarkably well. Tasted right -- the filling worked perfectly -- but looked weird. Oh, well. Still, all in all, a terrific dinner and a fabulous hostess. Bonus treat? Colored stick-on jeweled bindis for all the girls!

Menu:
Samosas
Curried Prawn Salad
Carrot Salad (with terrific spices)
Mixed Vegetable Curry (red, dark, wonderful)
Madras Potatoes
Califlower and Potatoes with spices
Saffron Basmati Pilaf
Tandoori Chicken
Mango Sorbet

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Looks like a great menu and a good time.

Scott
http://scotthutcheson.typepad.com