And we're back!

It's been a while since I've posted, but I got busy, and then I forgot, and then I felt it had been so long.

However, I have been thinking about it, and making really good food, so I thought I should share. Yesterday, after several days of ripping our patio to shreds, digging it up and moving all the cement and dirt away from our house, my parents in law and we had a delightful dinner. I had thought about this before hand and realized that I might be tired. I made a simple repast of sesame green beans, a garden salad with homemade cilantro dressing and burgers.

Two things about this meal 1: the peas I've grown this year are amazing. They are so crispy sweet and good I can't imagine growing a different variety. I've been growing Super Sugar Snap peas, I get mine from Territorial Seeds. 2: I made up the recipe for the beans out of my own little brain and I cannot think of a better thing to do with them. It's so mind blowingly good that I have been eating them for lunch with rice and calling it a meal. I can snack on them and I know they're super healthy for me. When you hear of people serving beans, or you go out to eat and order beans, it seems like everyone forgets that green beans already taste good. They're all trying to drown them in butter or canned soup (mmm ... gross) and mask the taste of beans, and I'm not really sure why! The big secret is to get a refillable mister. I got one and I love it. I've got some really good olive oil in mine, and I 'enhanced' it with a little sesame oil, because I love the taste of sesame. So, it's too much .... art... and no actual measurements to actually give you a recipe. Here's what you do: blanch a bunch of beans (a minute or two, depending on how thick your beans are) the main thing is they should be bright green. When they are done and still nice and crisp and plunge into an ice water bath. Spray a large pan with your sesame oil concoction, just like a tsp is plenty of oil, I use 1/4 tsp. throw in some salt, pepper, sesame seeds and fresh garlic into the pan. Turn the heat off and toss the beans in this until you can see the pepper coating the beans. I use lots of pepper, fresh cracked of course. I think this dish is perfect, especially for cook outs because it's really good cold or room temperature, I don't have to worry about those beans being hot or cold, they're just good.

When you make beans like this, you'll need a lot of beans per person as I think you'll find people will eat more of them like this. It's because they're like crack.

Other events: I recently purchased a quarter of a beef. Fans of the blog will remember that I started out trying to purchase a lamb, and there was much woe. I am now super pleased, and we have tons of beef. When you buy around 175 pounds of beef at once, the total bill seems quite high. However I've never had such good beef, and we like to go out to nice restaurants that 'hang their own beef' and all sorts of other things. My cow, lived on a field with access to a barn, ate grass and lived a happy life until it was humanly killed on the farm (no stress from being transported) and then butched by a master butcher.

Is that a verb? Butch, to butch a cow. Well if it's a verb, it can be passed tense. Never mind! The result: THE BEST BEEF EVER! And I know where my meat came from, however I'm not telling you, you might buy up all the home grown beef.

Find your own farmer!

Pictures in this blog are of random foods I won't tell you about!

Samosas, not Samoas.

I often get asked to bring appetizers to my in-law type gatherings. I think it all started when I was put randomly in charge and as I looked for a good holiday type appetizer I came across a recipe in like Good Housekeeping or Family World or something like that and it was a huge hit.

The recipe was for a shallot, fig and goat cheese thing on crustini, so everyone, except my husband's youngest sister loved it, and ever since then I'm often designated to something to keep the kids out of the main meals.

My father in law, my husband, his brother, his oldest sister and his younger sister to an extent are all ingredient pickers. They march into the kitchen, hang out and grab things off the cutting board or straight out of the pan. It can be aggravating as you cut enough of something and they all march through and take one or two, and then you need to cut more!

They also eat pasta. Dry, hard, raw, uncooked pasta. And dough. I'm making bread, muffins, cookies, doesn't matter, everyone needs a scoop of dough. To make matters worse my brother in law's girlfriend is also a dough eater, another person, just munchin' down my dough.

Over the years I have tried to come up with the perfect samosa recipe. I love these little fried dumplings, and while I know, yes fried things are delicious, I really like these. They're salty and spicy and you dip them in sweet chutney. So marvelous. I've tried everything for the wrapper from philo dough to strudel dough and tortillas. I worked with a gal for a while who was from India, or nearby and she made the best samosas, and she said she just used tortillas, but they never work for me. They don't fold, they don't work right. I have decided that the thing to do is to make your own tortillas and then instead of dry frying them, deep fry them.

As it turns out, whether or not this is correct, it IS delicious. I tried a couple variations on my dough, and I've come to the conclusion that you do need some masa, and really you should head for pie dough, and not for a mixed dough.

I normally don't fry anything. I fry maybe once every two years. This year is special as I've had things fried in my house twice now. I don't like to fry mostly because of the smell and the mess. I like my subway tile pristine, and the top of my stove to be gleaming white. I strongly dislike all the tiny droplets of oil that get all over everything, including the floor. However once in a while you have to fry, but it's really not a regular option in my kitchen, what with the lingering smell and all. Oh, another point of contention. It's not healthy. I don't give a rat's batooskie what the article in Cooking Light said. I've read them all and they all say 'if properly done, deep fried food's really not that bad for you.' WRONG! No, you've taken that item and submerged it in hot oil. There is NO WAY that food is now good for you. You notice the choice of words "not that bad". That's right, it's still not good for you, just less bad. If you have a fry daddy at home, perhaps you should reevaluate your cooking methods to something that doesn't involve you 'saving your frying oil.'

I was watching Paula Dean, who I love, and she spent a long time about how to care for your frying oil. I was kind of confused, because oil goes rancid after a few months, and with the infrequency of my frying, well why am I saving it? No, I just buy new oil every time. Another thing I dislike about frying: what do I do with the oil when I'm done? How do I get rid of that? I feel like it should go into compost, or I should contact someone who makes bio-diesel. "Hello, I have two cups of used cooking oil, would you like it?"


Normally when you make samosas you also make mint and tamarind chutney. I love these two chutneys, they are amazing. Tamarind chutney is also really easy to make, however on this day I did not have tamarind hanging about. I did remember that my mom had given me a chutney (peach and mango) that she had made a few years ago, and she told me it would 'be good with chicken'. I don't think she thought it was very good. Or she doesn't know how to properly apply the deliciousness contained within the jar. I opened it up, tested it, and was like hooray! Winner! It was sweet, yet had lots of cinnamon and strong spices in it. Not spicy hot, so the proper application for samosas. I apologize for not being able to tell you what she did, I can only tell you that it was great.

You might have to make the dough mixture more than once. Also you are going to need a tortilla press for this. I know you can magically pat out tortillas by hand, but I am not a magical Hispanic lady who's been doing it all my life. I am in fact a gringo, and need tortilla press help. One hint for your press, get a ziplock bag and cut it open, then press the dough into that. It works really well, and makes the whole process totally painless.

Patty's Samosas

Ingredients:

3-4 russet potatoes
3 Tbs garham masala
1 tsp. turmeric
2 green Thai chilies
1 sweet onion, finely chopped
2 Tbs. butter
2 Tbs. grapeseed oil
1/2 C. organic green peas
1 Tbs. kosher salt

3 C. King Arthur All purpose flour
1 C. tortilla masa
1 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. kosher salt
1/4 C. grapeseed oil

Oil for frying

Method:

Get your oil ready, it should bubble when you drop a pinch of dough in it.

In a large pot of water put your peeled and diced potatoes and turmeric to boil until the potatoes are soft and tender. Drain and set aside. In a pan bring the oil and butter to melt, and when the butter is no longer foaming add the garham masala, chili, onion and salt. Cook for a minute then add the potatoes and lightly mash. Stir in the peas. Remove from heat and set aside.

In a bowl combine the flour, masa and baking powder. Stir well and add the salt and oil. Then add just enough water to bring the dough together. Be careful not to over mix, think pie dough. Knead the dough maybe once or twice to ensure it's mixed well.

Pinch off a bit of dough about the size of a golf ball. Place this in the tortilla press and press flat. Peel off and set on a floured surface. Place a Tbs of potato mixture in the middle of your dough and shape to a triangle. Pinch up two sides to halfway down, then pinch up the remaining side to form a triangle.

Repeat.

When you have six or so triangles place into your hot oil, over medium high heat, think like placing pieces of pie, so you can fit six or so pieces in your pan at once. Cook for 5-7 minutes on the first side, or until they are crispy and golden brown. Turn over and cook for a further five minutes. Drain on towels and serve warm with chutney.