LOW SODIUM SAMOSAS W/ MANGO CHUTNEY

I love deep fried finger foods, I used to maul all the won tons my sisters would fry up during family dinners, I just couldn't wait for it to come out of the frying pan, we weren't sophisticated in having an electric deep fryer all we had was deep stainless steel pans or heavy cast iron woks. No matter, my sisters rocked when it came to making won tons, however the purists would claim that they didn't make it 100% from scratch because won tons are a Chinese staple and there are those foodies that'll claim, "Yeah but she didn't make those won ton wrappers she bought them from Foodland." Okay true that, but still it was delicious and I couldn't give a rat's ___ about that, to me if a store sold an excellent product why not use it to your time consuming life as leverage?

As time went on, I was introduced to Indian cooking by some talented chefs in a health food store I worked in, and one dish I loved was similar to the Chinese won tons, and that was the Indian Samosa, and it is relatively easy to make. It's hard to find a samosa wrapper on the market, some chefs will cheat and use a Thai spring roll wrapper, that was a "Nay" vote by the house. "Ron make em from scratch," one of the chefs instructed me, it's easy.

So here is the ingredients to make a Samosa dough for the wrappings.

SAMOSA WRAPPER
3 cups of AP Flour
1 tsp. sea salt
1 tsp. curry powder
1 stick unsalted butter clarified
1 cup of very iced cold water, more if needed

1. Add clarified butter, sea salt to flour, and mix it well like any dough mix. Add the iced water very slowly and mix with a ladle, or your hands or a standing mixer, just keep on going until a nice soft dough is formed and workable.

2. Knead dough for about 5-10 minutes, let it rest in a stainless steel bowl, that has some olive oil wiped inside, cover it with a large plate or plastic wrap until you are ready to deep fry them.

3. When you are ready to start to make the filling, roll out about a golf ball size of dough into a circle about 5-6 inches in diameter (possibly smaller depending on the structure of your finished dough). Slice this in half forming a half circle, continue with the rest of the dough until all is done.

SAMOSA FILLING
1 large organic potato, peeled, cubed and cooked until softened
1 cup of black organic beans from a can
7 oz. of firm organic tofu, grounded drained of all water content
1 small green organic bell chopped
1 small sweet round organic onion chopped
1 red chili chopped
1/2 tsp. mustard seeds
1/2 tsp. fennel seeds
1/2 tsp. cumin seeds
1 tsp. minced ginger
1 tsp. minced garlic
1/2 tsp. turmeric
3/4 tsp. chili powder
2 tbsp. lemon juice
1/4 cup cilantro rough chopped
1 tbsp. apple cider vinegar (Bragg)
Sea salt and fresh black pepper to taste

Directions

1. Heat up 2 tbsp. of vegetable oil in a nonstick pan over medium heat, add the mustard, fennel, and cumin seeds, once you see them pop, then add in the garlic and ginger cook a few seconds until you smell it, add in the chopped onion cook it until softened.

2. Now add in the potatoes, black beans, and tofu, bell pepper, red chili, turmeric, chili powder, the sea salt and pepper. Cook it until the potatoes and tofu and beans have been coated by all the spices.

3. Add in the lemon juice and cook it until the juice dissolves. Mix in the chopped cilantro and vinegar, cook 1 minute and let rest. Then using a masher, mash all of the ingredients together let it rest.

TO MAKE SAMOSAS

Take a half circle of the dough, spoon filling in the lower center, and begin to fold into triangles, or heck whatever shape you want, it doesn't matter.

TO COOK

Heat up a deep fry pan with about 3 inches of oil, over high heat when oil is sizzling, add in a few Samosas at a time, and fry until golden. Because this dish is without animal meats (Vegetarian) because we did use butter, it can cook rather quickly.

MANGO CHUTNEY (I buy mines)  PATAK'S SWEET MANGO CHUTNEY get em in most health food stores or online like Amazon.com this product does have sodium 310 Mg per 1 tbsp, but if you just dip the samosas in it in a small ramekin, you should be fine. If you treat yourself once in a while, it isn't going to really do you harm, however please ask your doctor or dietician for advice before trying this recipe.