The Way Rice Should Be: April 2016

Monday, April 11, 2016

Samosas

For the past few weeks, I have been experimenting with cooking meatless dishes to try a healthier diet, but also as a personal challenge. If you have been following my recipes for a while, then you know that I rarely cook with the giant pieces of meat often used in Western cooking. However, meat is also essential in providing texture and flavoring for many of the dishes in my recipes. I’ve often joked that I’ll eat anything that has a face or a mom. And we Asians don’t waste any parts of the meat. From the feet and head to the eyeballs and intestines, we eat it all.

I have to admit, cooking without meat has been a lot more challenging for me than I thought it would be. It was almost like learning how to cook all over again. But I have also realized that by using herbs and spices to bring out the vegetable’s natural flavor you can get amazing results. Too often in vegetarian cooking, we try to make vegetables taste like meat. So what started out as a challenge has actually become a really fun experience as I play with spices and vegetables. These samosas are proof that you really don’t need to be on a vegetarian diet to enjoy vegetarian cooking!

Ingredients: (Makes 12-16 samosas)

For the dough:

1½ cups all-purpose flour

½ tsp. salt

2 Tbsp. ghee or melted butter

1 tsp. Ajwain seeds or dried thyme

1 tsp. turmeric powder

1/2 cup water

For the filling:

¾ cup mashed potatoes

¾ cup mashed sweet potatoes

½ cup frozen peas

2½ Tbsp. minced shallots

2 tsp. ginger paste

1 tsp. garlic paste

¼ tsp. ground coriander seed

¹⁄₈ tsp. ground cumin seed

¹⁄₈ tsp. chili powder

¼ tsp. curry powder

¼ tsp. garam masala

¹⁄₈ tsp. ground mustard seed

¹⁄₈ tsp. white pepper

dash of black pepper

1¼ tsp. salt

2 Tbsp. olive oil

¼ cup cilantro

Around 2 to 3 cups vegetable or canola oil for frying

Directions:

Boil potatoes and sweet potatoes until soft, mash them together. I’m using Japanese sweet potatoes in the mix, which is why the mixture is white. But regular orange sweet potatoes work just fine.

Mince shallots, garlic and ginger into a fine paste.

On medium high heat, heat 2 Tbsp. olive oil in a non-stick skillet. Cook the shallots for one minute until soft and translucent. Toss in garlic and ginger paste. (photo 2) Cook for 30 seconds and mix in all of the spices, salt and pepper and the mashed potato mix. Cook until all combined. Mix in peas and cilantro, remove from heat and set it aside while you prepare the dough.

Note: If the potato mixture gets too dry while cooking, add a few tablespoons of water to loosen it up.

To make the dough, mix the flour, salt, turmeric powder and Ajwain seed together. Ajwain seeds are an Indian spice which is actually related to bishop’s weed. You can get them in the Asian grocery store or online. You may also substitute it with dried thyme, which tastes very similar. Add in ghee (clarified butter), which may be substituted with unsalted melted butter. Mix in water and kneed until the dough is smooth. This is a fairly stiff dough. Cover the dough up and let it rest for 10 minutes.

Cut dough into eight pieces or six if you wish to make bigger samosas.

Roll the dough out individually into an oval shape.

Cut the dough in half.

Brush the top (flat edge) with a little water and take corners and fold them into triangles on top of each other.

Now you have a cone to fill in the fillings.

Bush around the edges with some water and seal it tightly. This will make a pyramid shape that is able to sit by itself.

Deep fry the samosas in a large skillet on medium low heat. Fry them slowly as this is how you get the classic samosa texture. Cook for about 5 minutes.

Let them cool down for five minutes before serving. These are perfect as an appetizer or a side dish!

Hot Oil Noodles

Rice and noodles are the staple components in Chinese cooking. As we say in Chinese, “grain in the south, wheat in the north,” because the weather in southern Chinese provinces is conducive for growing rice and the climate up north is more suitable for growing wheat. Hot oil noodles originated in Xanxi Province and have been a common dish in the region for the past 3,000 years. Because of the cold climate, resources are limited in the winter, so it makes sense that this simple noodle dish would become such a local favorite in that part of the world. This week I’d like to share with you my own recipe for the hand-pulled hot oil noodles. (Serves 2-3 people)

Ingredients:

For the noodles:: 2 cups all-purpose flour; ¼ tsp. salt; 2/3 cup cold water

For the hot oil:: 3 scallions; 2 cloves garlic; 2 dried peppers; 2 Tbsp. ginger; 1 star anise; ¼ tsp. Szechuan peppercorns; 2 cups vegetable oil; 1 Tbsp. sesame seeds; 6 Tbsp. mixed dried pepper powder and pepper flakes

For the toppings:: ¼ cup peanuts; ¼ tsp. white pepper; ¼ tsp. coarse sea salt; 2 cloves garlic; 2 scallions; 1 tsp. ginger; 1 tsp. sesame seeds

For the sauce:: 2 Tbsp. soy sauce; 2 Tbsp. rice wine vinegar; ¾ tsp. sugar

Directions:

Ingredients:

For the noodles:: 2 cups all-purpose flour; ¼ tsp. salt; 2/3 cup cold water

For the hot oil:: 3 scallions; 2 cloves garlic; 2 dried peppers; 2 Tbsp. ginger; 1 star anise; ¼ tsp. Szechuan peppercorns; 2 cups vegetable oil; 1 Tbsp. sesame seeds; 6 Tbsp. mixed dried pepper powder and pepper flakes

For the toppings:: ¼ cup peanuts; ¼ tsp. white pepper; ¼ tsp. coarse sea salt; 2 cloves garlic; 2 scallions; 1 tsp. ginger; 1 tsp. sesame seeds

For the sauce:: 2 Tbsp. soy sauce; 2 Tbsp. rice wine vinegar; ¾ tsp. sugar

Directions:

Start by making the noodles. Mix all of the ingredients in a bowl and kneed for three to four minutes until the dough is smooth and elastic. Cover it up and let it rest for 15 minutes while you prepare the hot oil.

In a heat-proof bowl, mix up 6 Tbsp. dried pepper powder and pepper flakes. I’m using a mixture of Korean dried pepper flakes, regular dried pepper flakes and cayenne pepper. Also mix in 1 Tbsp. of sesame seeds. Set it aside.

Roughly chop up the scallion, ginger and garlic.

In a saucepan, place the scallions, ginger, garlic, star anise, dried peppers and Szechwan peppercorns along with 2 cups vegetable oil. On high heat, bring it up to a boil and immediately pour it over the dried pepper flakes and sesame seed mixture. Cover the bowl to allow all of the flavors to infuse while it cools down.

Once the oil has cooled down you will have the most beautiful red hot oil loaded with flavors. Keep it in a glass jar in the refrigerator with all of the garlic, scallions and spices. This will keep in the refrigerator for a long time and you can use this as a condiment over dumplings, rice, noodles and even sandwiches.

Now to shape the noodles. Cut the dough into eight pieces and shape them into an oval shape. Drizzle some vegetable oil on top, cover them up and let them rest for 10 minutes.

After the dough has rested, roll the noodles out flat individually, and make a dent in the center with your rolling pin.

Use the dent as a guide and slowly pull the dough on both ends. As the dough stretches, the center dent will start to tear apart. This is why it is called “hand-pulled hot oil noodles.”

To prepare the toppings, crush up the peanuts with white pepper and salt. (photo 11) I’ve also added some dried pepper flakes to give it extra heat, but that’s optional. In a separate bowl mix up soy sauce, rice wine vinegar and sugar for the sauce. Set the crushed peanuts and sauce aside.

To cook the noodles, you will only need to cook them for one minute in a pot of boiling water. While you cook the noodles, bring the hot oil back on the stove to heat up again. To prevent the spices from burning, I recommend straining them out first.

Once the noodles have been cooked, place them into a serving bowl, top the noodles with 1 to 2 Tbsp. of the soy sauce mixture we made earlier and sprinkle the crushed peanuts and some minced garlic, ginger, scallions, pepper flakes and sesame seeds on top.