Oven Baked Samosas with Mint-Cilantro Dipping Sauce
Ingredients (Samosas):
1 cup diced potatoes (I use Southwestern diced potatoes in the frozen food section)
1Tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 small onion finely chopped
½ jalapeno pepper; seeds & stem removed finely chopped
2 teaspoons fresh ginger, grated
1 clove garlic – chopped
½ teaspoon coriander
1 teaspoon garam masala
½ teaspoon ground cumin
¼ teaspoon ground allspice
½ teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt and freshly ground pepper
1 plum tomato, seeded & finely chopped
¼ cup frozen peas, thawed
2 Tablespoons fresh cilantro, chopped
¼ c. vegetable stock
Puff pastry
1 egg, beaten with a splash of water
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Cook the potatoes in a large skillet coated with olive oil until tender, about 3 – 5 minutes.
- In a large skillet over medium-high heat, add the olive oil.
- Add onion and cook until soft, about 3-4 minutes, then add jalapeno, ginger, garlic, coriander seeds, curry powder, cumin, allspice, cinnamon, and salt and freshly ground black pepper and cook about 2-3 minutes.
- Stir in the drained potatoes, tomato, peas, and cilantro and cook another minute.
- If the filling seems too thick, add a splash or two of vegetable stock.
- Remove from the heat and let cool.
- On a lightly floured surface, unroll the puff pastry. Cut into 8 pieces.
- Spoon one teaspoon of the potato filling onto the middle of each wedge.
- Brush the edges of the dough with egg wash and fold up.
- Brush the outside of each samosa with egg wash and transfer to a baking sheet.
- Bake 15-20 minutes, until golden brown. While samosas are in the oven, prepare the dipping sauce.
Ingredients (Dipping Sauce):
3-4 cloves garlic
1 one inch piece of ginger – chopped
1 bunch fresh mint, leaves removed from stems (about 1 c.)
1 bunch fresh cilantro leaves removed from stems (about ½ c.)
1 jalapeno pepper, seeds and stem removed
1 teaspoon sugar
salt to taste
Juice of two limes
1 Tablespoon water
1 Tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil
½ lime
¼ cup water
Directions:
- Place garlic and ginger in the food processor and pulse until finely chopped.
- Add the mint, cilantro, jalapeno, sugar, salt and lime juice, and puree until ground.
- Add water and olive oil, pulse to combine.
- Serve up the samosas with the dipping sauce alongside.
Butternut Soup – Yields 8 Cups
Ingredients:
2 medium butternut squash
2 medium onions
1 apple
4 Tablespoons butter/margarine
1 ¼tespoons medium curry powder
4 Tablespoons cake flour
Pinch of ground nutmeg
2 chicken stock cubes
3 c. boiling water
2 c. milk
1 ½ teaspoon salt
Directions:
- Peel, seed and dice the butternuts.
- Peel, core and chop the apple.
- Peel the onions and chop roughly.
- In a large saucepan, sauté the chopped onions in the butter/margarine.
- Add the curry powder and fry the mixture lightly.
- Add the butternut and apple and sauté the mixture for a while.
- Add the flour and nutmeg and stir-fry lightly.
- Dissolve the chicken stock cubes in the boiling water.
- Add the stock together with the milk and salt, to the butternut mixture. Boil, with the lid on, over moderate heat until the butternut pieces are soft. Stir the mixture occasionally.
- Puree or blend until smooth. The color of the soup should be a deep yellow and the texture creamy.
- Serve the soup hot. Each bowl of soup may be garnished with a teaspoon of cream and a little finely chopped parsley. For an interesting variation, replace the nutmeg with a little finely grated orange rind and add a few shreds of orange rind to the garnish.
Cucumber-Zucchini Salad
Ingredients:
2 medium cucumbers
1 cup hot water
2 medium zucchini
1 tablespoon salt
½ c. white vinegar
1 teaspoon fresh ground coarse black pepper
4 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
Directions:
- For the dressing: Dissolve sugar in hot water then blend with the vinegar, salt, and peppers.
- Arrange in alternate layers: 2 medium Cucumbers, scored with a fork, not peeled but sliced very thinly and 2 medium zucchini, raw, same size as cucumbers, prepared the same way.
- Drain any water formed from cucumbers before adding the dressing.
- Allow vegetables to marinate in the dressing at least 1 hour before serving.
Bobotie and Yellow Rice with Sambals
Ingredients (bobotie and sambals):
1 medium onion, minced
1 teaspoons Cape Malay curry powder
1 ½ pounds ground beef
½ teaspoon tumeric
½ cup 1% low-fat milk
½ teaspoon sugar
2 slices Texas toast thick-sliced bread
1 tablespoon finely grated lemon rind
1 apple, peeled and diced
1 egg beaten
¼ cup seedless raisins
2 teaspoons salt
1 tomato, peeled and chopped
1 Tablespoon breyani spices
2 tablespoons apricot jam
¾ cup milk
12 – 16 almonds, whole, blanched (or use split)
Custard Topping:
½ cups 1% low-fat milk
1 egg
1/3 teaspoon tumeric
Sambals:
sliced banana, chutney, grated coconut, slivered almonds
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Soak the bread in the cup of milk, set aside.
- Peel and chop the onion.
- Heat about 3 tablespoons oil in a large pot.
- Fry the onion over medium heat until translucent.
- Add the curry powder, breyani spices and turmeric. Stir, and let the spices fry for a few minutes. Add more oil if they stick: usually quite a bit of oil is needed.
- Add the chopped, peeled tomato, sugar, grated apple and lemon rind and stir through.
- Fry for a minute, then add the meat. Break up the meat so that the ground meat is loose.
- Add the salt.
- Stir often, and mix through with the spice mixture.
- Add the apricot jam, and stir so it melts into the meat mixture. When the meat is medium done, remove the pot from the heat. Stir through and let cool a little.
- Gently squeeze excess milk from the bread (add the milk to the custard topping) and tear apart into chunks. Fold into meat mixture.
- Break the egg in a bowl, whisk, and add the milk. Add this to the meat as well.
- Place the meat mixture into a greased casserole dish, and stud with almonds on top.
- Bake for 40 min. Remove from oven and cool completely.
- Prepare custard topping: beat together the milk, eggs and tumeric.
- Gently pour over the cooled meat mixture.
- Sprinkle with nutmeg and place bay leaves on top.
- Return casserole to oven until the top is set – about 15 min. Serve warm (not hot or better still, room temp.) alongside yellow rice and sambals on the side.
Ingredients (yellow rice):
1 c. long grain white rice
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ t. salt
½ c. dark raisins
1 ½ t. ground turmeric
1 T. butter
3 T. white sugar
2 ½ c. water
½ cup toasted slivered almond
Directions:
- In a saucepan, combine the rice, salt, turmeric, sugar, cinnamon, raisins, butter and water. Bring to a boil uncovered.
- When it comes to a boil, reduce the heat to low, cover and let it simmer for 20-30 min, or until rice is fluffy and water has been absorbed.
- Remove from the heat and fluff with a fork. Keep warm until serving time.
Malvapoeding
Ingredients (pudding):
2 Tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon white vinegar
1 pinch salt
½ cup milk
1 cup superfine sugar
2 eggs
1 Tablespoon apricot jelly
1 1/3 cups cake flour
Ingredients (sauce):
1 cup heavy cream
½ c. butter
½ c. white sugar
½ c. water, orange juice or sherry
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- In a small saucepan over low heat, melt 2 Tablespoons butter or margarine together with vinegar and milk. Remove from heat, and set aside.
- Meanwhile, sift flour, baking soda, and salt together into a separate bowl.
- Beat 1 c. sugar and eggs with an electric mixer on high speed until fluffy and light colored, about 5 minutes. Gradually mix in the apricot jam. Fold the dry ingredients into the egg mixture alternately with warmed milk mixture using a spatula.
- Pour batter into a greased, 1 quart oven-proof baking dish.
- Bake approximately 45 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Place cream, butter, ½ cup sugar, and water in a saucepan and stir over moderate heat until the butter has melted and sugar is dissolved. Do not allow the mixture to boil.
- Remove pudding from the oven, pierce several times with a skewer or fork, and pour the hot cream mixture immediately over the pudding. Serve hot or cold.
Rooibos Tea and wine