Samosa Puffs

Samosa inside, but phyllo outside. The puffs are made up of layers of phyllo dough, which are cut into squares and placed inside a muffin pan, filled with samosa stuffing, and then baked. Prepare the samosa stuffing first, and then the phyllo dough. It should take you about 2 hours from start to finish. Pre-boil the potatoes to reduce prep time.


You'll need a muffin pan, a pizza cutter, cooking spray or a pastry brush, and various pots and pans. Make sure the phyllo has been thawed in the fridge.

Ingredients:

Samosa stuffing:
4 baking potatoes, scrubbed, and cut into large chunks
1 liter water
1 T vegetable oil
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 white onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 inch ginger, peeled and chopped (about 2 T ginger)
1 jalapeno, chopped
1 cup frozen peas
2 tsp garam masala
1/2 tsp turmeric
few cracks black pepper (1/4 tsp)
3 T cumin
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup cashews, toasted
1/2 tsp chili pepper
juice from 1 lime (or lemon if you have)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 300.
2. Roast cashews for about 10 minutes, until golden.
   
3. Boil the potatoes and water, for about 30 minutes, or until soft. Drain all but 1/2 cup of the cooking water, and mash the potatoes while still hot. Add in small amounts of the cooking water if the potatoes are too dry.
   
4. Heat the oil in a large pot, and add the cumin seeds, fry until aromatic.
5. Add in onion, garlic, ginger, and jalapenos and cook 8 minutes. Add in salt, cumin, garam masala, turmeric, and chili pepper.
   
6. Add in peas and saute.
7. Add in mashed potatoes, cracked black pepper, lime juice and combine well. If the potatoes are too sticky add in a little water and mix.
   
8. Taste to adjust for seasoning, and add in cashews. Turn off the heat once combined and set aside if prepping the phyllo.

Phyllo ingredients:

1/2 cup butter
8 phyllo sheets

Directions:

1. Heat butter in a small saucepan, until melted.
2. 
3. Heat oven to 350.
   
4. Lightly grease a muffin pan and set aside.
   
5. Arrange phyllo on a large jelly roll pan and cover with a damp towel to avoid drying out. You will be arranging 4 layers on top of each other. Phyllo is gentle and can break easily, so just be gentle with the moving. As long as the phyllo stays damp it will not dry out and will be easy to work with.
6. On a clean kitchen counter, lay out a single sheet of phyllo dough, and with a pastry brush lightly coat the surface with butter. Repeat with remaining 3 sheets.
7. 
8. Next, take a pizza cutter and score lengthwise about 4 times, creating columns that are about 2-3" wide. Next score widthwise, about 3 times, creating rows that are 2-3" wide. This will leave you with about 12 squares.
9. 
10. Arrange squares in the muffin pan so that a nice mold is created, until all 12 are arranged.
    
11. 
12. 
13. Next fill each with about 2 T of stuffing.
14. 
15. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes, until golden.
    
16. Serve right from the oven with some cilantro chutney or mango chutney.
    

B-nut Cheese Pie and some Phyllo dough love too

I'm sharing a link here because I wish I could have been awesome enough to come up with this one, but Cooking Light did instead. It is one of my favorite recipes ever.

Butternut Cheese Pie
Serve with a big-ass salad.

I will add a bit on working with Phyllo dough. If you buy frozen, set it in the fridge overnight before working on it so it can thaw out. When ready to work with it, cut the package and set the phyllo dough in a clean long rectangular baking pan or on a clean countertop. Have a damp wet towel ready. Make sure the towel covers the phyllo dough. You want to make sure it covers the phyllo because it will dry out in about 1 minute or less if it sits there. So either work extremely fast, or work carefully, and have a towel at the ready. The towel just needs to be damp, not soaking. It if it soaking, it will make your phyllo a sticky mess.

Next - It shouldn't stick. Remember damp towel, not soaking. If working one sheet at time, pull off 1 sheet, cover, use, uncover, pull off, cover, use, then....yep.....cover, pull off, use, cover. Some of the edges may break, but the best thing about working with phyllo is that you are going to use more than one layer, so just move on.

You can spray sheets with cooking spray once they are at their destination, or wipe with butter or some other oil. This will keep it from breaking apart when cooking, and I think helps bring out the flavors of whatever you are cooking it with. So after laying down one sheet, spray, then continue layering. The oil also helps the phyllo from drying out once you have it in whatever recipe you are using.

If you don't go through all your phyllo, wrap well in plastic wrap and then cover with wax paper. It will stay in fridge about one week, or refreeze, if you aren't going to use it, and use up within 6 months. Wrap it really well (airtight) so that it won't get freezer burn.

Questions? Just ask, and I will repost.