Sweet Potato Phyllo Samosas

My sister had been bugging me about making samosas for about a month. On Friday I finally agreed, but when I told her they would be sweet potato samosas, her response was "What? Why?! Just make them normal."
OH
:(
I had definitely been expecting a little more enthusiasm. Oh well.

I decided to split up the batch and make 1/3 "normal", 1/3 sweet potato, and 1/3 sweet/normal mix.

The 100% normal ones were fine, of course, but the 100% sweet ones were a little too sweet and mushy. I thought the mixed ones turned out the best, with a 2:1 ratio of regular potato to sweet potato.

In the end, my sister conceded that they weren't bad: she just couldn't eat them with the raita I usually make for samosas because it was "too much. I feel like I'm eating dessert." Hmm, any ideas for a sauce that could accompany them would be appreciated. I like to make the samosas spicy, so something mouth-cooling would be an ideal complement.

Anyway, phyllo dough can be kind of a pain to work with if you've never used it before, but it's really not so bad once you get the hang of it. The first samosas I ever made were from the Moosewood cookbook. The filling was good, but I wasn't too impressed with the dough: they weren't crispy at all, and a little bland. The phyllo crisps up nicely in the oven and ends up being more similar in texture to fried samosas. I don't worry too much about the shape; this time I just made them into squares and cut them into triangles after they were baked. If you really want the nice, neat triangle look, try following the photos/directions in this recipe.

Also, you may want to add more peppers or cayenne if you want something a little spicier. The one pepper will be on the mild side for someone who likes things hot.

Sweet Potato Phyllo Samosas
Ingredients:
1 box frozen phyllo dough, thawed
2 medium sized russet potatoes
1 sweet potato (total amt of potatoes should be from around 2.5 to just under 3 lbs)
1 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp fennel seeds (optional, omit if you don't like fennel)
12 fenugreek seeds
2 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp salt (more/less to taste)
1 medium yellow onion, finely chopped
1 serrano pepper, seeded and minced (keep the seeds if you want it spicier)
cayenne pepper, to taste
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tbs minced or grated ginger
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp cinnamon
a pinch of nutmeg
2 tbs lime (or lemon) juice
1.5 cups frozen green peas (frozen are nice b/c they don't get mushy when you stir them in, but you can use non-frozen if you are careful not to crush them)
olive/vegetable oil or melted butter
pastry brush

1. Peel the potatoes and sweet potato (if you like the peel, go ahead and leave it on), and cut them into 1-inch chunks. Place them in a saucepan and cover with water. Boil until tender, about 25 minutes. You can gather your other ingredients and do any preparation/chopping during this time. When they are ready, drain, mash, and set aside.
2. Heat 2 tbs of oil or butter in a heavy skillet over medium heat. When hot, first add the cumin and fennel seeds, and then the mustard and fenugreek seeds. When they begin to change color and pop, add the chopped onion and salt. Saute over medium heat about 10 minutes.
3. Add the garlic, pepper, ginger, turmeric, coriander, cinnamon, nutmeg, and lime juice. Saute a minute or two more.
4. Add the mashed potatoes, and mix well. Taste and adjust spices as needed. Remove from heat and gently stir in the peas. Let cool for a few minutes. (Ideally at least 15 minutes)
5. Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C) and oil a baking sheet. Fill a small bowl with about 1/2 cup or more of oil or melted butter.
6. Unroll the phyllo dough and take a sheet from the stack. As you work, make sure to cover the remaining phyllo dough with a sheet of parchment paper, covered with a damp paper towel, to keep the dough from drying out. (Don't place the damp towel directly on the dough or it will get soggy). Using a pastry brush, brush the surface of the sheet with your oil/butter. Take another sheet from the pile and layer it on top of the sheet you just oiled. Brush this sheet with oil, take a third sheet and layer it on the other two. Place about 2 tbs of filling in the center of the layered sheets and fold into a little package. (or see link in post above on how to make triangles). Place on baking sheet and generously brush the top with oil. Repeat until you have used up all your filling.
7. Bake at 350°F for about 25 minutes or until golden brown on top.

Dairy Free summer: Carrot Cake with Chocolate Coconut Milk Ice Cream

Typically I'll eat dairy with virtually every meal. If there is a way to incorporate yogurt or kefir into a dish, I will. Earlier this month I decided to give up dairy for a while, hoping it would motivate me to be a bit more creative with my cooking.

Things I have learned so far: not every sauce I make needs to be yogurt based, coconut oil + nutritional yeast flakes = delicious spread for toast, chocolate coconut milk ice cream is the richest, creamiest, yummiest ice "cream" I've ever had.

I first tried this recipe I found online, with a few adjustments:

1. I used 3 eggs instead of 6.
2. Instead of the cocoa powder (actually, in addition to the cocoa powder), I used a few handfuls of 60% chocolate chips, heated on a double boiler until melted, then mixed in with the coconut milk.
3. In addition to the nutmeg, I added a pinch of cinnamon and a pinch of ground cloves

I'll copy her recipe here in case the link goes dead someday:

Barbara Smith's Chocolate-Coconut Ice cream
http://sugarmagnolia.wordpress.com/2009/06/17/chocolate-coconut-ice-cream/

For the cream:

* 2 cans full fat coconut milk
* 6 eggs
* pinch of salt
* 4 tablespoons of honey (more or less to taste)
* 2 heaping tablespoons of cocoa powder (I used green & blacks)
* tablespoon vanilla
* teaspoon of nutmeg
* chocolate chunks (optional)

In a medium bowl, mix the honey, salt and cocoa powder into a paste, add the eggs and mix well. Heat the coconut milk in a saucepan on medium heat. When warm, pour it slowly on to the egg/honey mixture, a little bit at a time and whisking constantly (to prevent the eggs curdling). Pour that mix back into the saucepan and reduce heat, add vanilla and nutmeg and keep stirring until the cream coats the back of a spoon. Pour back into medium bowl, and cool in the fridge for about an hour.

That’s your base. At this point you could throw it in an ice cream machine (lucky you!). Or go about it the low-tech, primitive way, but warning–this will take a few hours and you might eat quite a bit of the cream on it’s way to becoming iced. siiigh. When the ice cream is almost solid and scoopable, add in the chocolate chunks or any other toppings/fillings you might like.

As I was making this, I realized that the coconut milk was thick enough on its own, and the recipe could probably do without the eggs. So yesterday I decided to attempt an egg-free version. The result was only slightly less rich, and just as creamy. I also used maple syrup instead of honey-- by mistake, really...I just thought that's what I had used the last time, and it turns out that either sweetener works just as well as the other one. I also used half a bar of 100% cacao:

which I probably wouldn't use again for this. It's really bitter (obviously), so I added more maple syrup until it tasted good, which ended up making it a little too sweet. Stick to semi-sweet or 60% bittersweet chocolate for this recipe.

One thing about this ice cream: it freezes faster and at a lower temperature than any dairy ice cream I've made (due to the lower sugar content, maybe?). A hard layer of it forms and sticks to the bottom and sides of the freezing canister of the ice cream machine

Don't try to scrape this off. Wait until it warms up a bit and softens and then just scoop it out (into your mouth )

It's also better to eat this ice cream straight from the machine if possible. It gets way too hard in the freezer, though letting it sit out for a few minutes before serving might fix that problem.


Now about the carrot cake...


I don't really like baking...I mean, I do, but it's a lot easier to end up with a disaster when straying from a recipe than it is with regular cooking. A few weeks ago I baked some brownies that tasted exactly like corn muffins. They were edible, I guess, but they weren't brownies.

Hmmm well so I wanted to make a carrot cake. A dairy-free carrot cake, so no butter. I had half a jar of coconut oil, so I wanted to use that. I also wanted to make it egg-free, but got nervous it wouldn't turn out right, so I settled on half eggs, half flaxseed egg replacement. Next time I'll try out all flaxseed; I think it'll work. (If someone else gives this a try, let me know how it turns out in the comments).

I sat down with 4 different recipes, calculating and compromising to come up with proportions that would result in something tasty.


The result was...well, not quite a carrot cake. More like a carrot muffin: cakey and crumbly. Actually, these would make really good muffins.

I'm quite happy with how it turned out, despite the fact it wasn't exactly what I was aiming for.


Chocolate Coconut Milk Ice Cream
Ingredients:
(Small batch; double the recipe for a full batch)
1 can full fat coconut milk
2 tbs maple syrup or honey (or more/less to taste)
1/4 to 1/2 cup of semi-sweet or bitter-sweet chocolate chips (or more/less to taste)
a pinch of salt (optional)
a pinch of nutmeg/cinnamon/ground cloves (optional)

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler or in a heavy bottom pan on low heat. When the chocolate is completely melted, pour in the coconut milk, a little at a time, stirring or whisking the mix to ensure complete incorporation. While the mixture is hot, stir or whisk in the sweetener and any optional ingredients. Pour the mixture into a bowl and let it sit in the fridge overnight or for a few hours until it is completely cooled.

Pour the mix into an ice cream maker and process according to the manufacturer's instructions.


Serve immediately.
If stored in the freezer, let stand 15 minutes at room temperature before serving.



Carrot Cake/Muffin
Ingredients:
3/4 cup unrefined coconut oil (any other vegetable oil is also ok)
3/4 cup sugar ( I prefer a less refined granulated sugar, like Florida Crystals, but white or even brown sugar should be fine as well)
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/2 tbs molasses (if you use brown sugar, omit the molasses)
2 large eggs left at room temperature 30 minutes
2 tbs whole flax seeds (or 5 tbs pre-ground flax seeds)
6 tbs water
2 cups flour (I used whole-wheat pastry flour, but all purpose flour should be fine)
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 cups grated carrots (my original recipe called for 2.5 cups, but I didn't have enough carrots. If you try it out with 2.5 cups, let me know)
1.5 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
1/4 chocolate chips (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C). Grease a 9 x 13 baking pan.
2. Sift together flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, and cinnamon. Mix well. Set aside.
3. Grind the whole flax seeds in a blender or coffee grinder. (Skip this step if using pre-ground). In a bowl, whisk ground flax seeds and water until the mixture is gelatinous. Add the eggs to this mix and beat for about a minute. Set aside.
4. Beat together the coconut oil and sugar in a large bowl. (If using another vegetable oil, you can skip this step and just add them to the egg/flax mixture). Slowly pour in the egg/flax mixture and the maple syrup, beating thoroughly until well incorporated. If the coconut oil starts to solidify, your eggs are too cold!
5. To this, add the flour mixture and carrots, about 1/2 cup at a time, alternating between the two. After each addition, only mix enough to combine the ingredients. Do not overmix!
6. Spread the batter evenly into the pan, and bake 30 - 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
   
7. Let cool 15 minutes before serving. Serve with Chocolate Coconut Milk Ice Cream :)
   

Adri cooks....or does she? First post + raw apple pie

I needed some place to post my food experiments. I already had a blogger account and was too lazy to figure something else out, so here we are. I hope it works out.

Raw apple pie

I came up with this when I was living in Prague, trying to eat healthier while suffering from a terrible sweet tooth. It's very simple and I'm sure it's been done before, but whatever; here it is.

Ingredients:

1 apple
1 tsp ground cinnamon (or more/less to taste)
1 tbs honey (approximately)
2 tbs chopped walnuts

Core and slice the apple so that you have about a dozen or more slices. Lay them out flat on a plate, trying to avoid overlap. Dip a knife into the honey jar. Hover the honey-coated knife over the apple slices so that the honey drizzles down, making sure to get a little honey on every slice. Sprinkle the cinnamon evenly over the slices, then do the same with the walnuts.
Enjoy!