Friday, 8 January 2016

Sambusa recipe #2

 VEGETABLE SAMOSAS


This version of the sambusa/samosa is more or less prepared for supper(savoury) and is eaten oretty frequently. This version of the sambusa/samosa is an Indian dish and is called Samosa. 

Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 cup ghee or clarified butter or oil
Cold water as needed, usually about 10 tablespoons
3 medium baking potatoes, boiled until tender, drained and cooled
1/4 cup ghee or clarified butter or oil
1 cup minced onion
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
1 hot green chile, such as Serrano, finely minced
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon garam masala
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 cup frozen green peas, thawed
1/4 cup chopped cilantro leaves
1 cup plain yogurt
1 tablespoon chopped fresh mint leaves
1 tablespoon chopped green onion
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Chutney, for serving

Vegetable Samosas

Directions
Make the pastry by combining the flour and 1/4 teaspoon of the salt and then rubbing 1/4 cup of the ghee into the flour until well combined and mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add the water, a tablespoon at a time, until the pastry comes together to form a ball, about 10 tablespoons. Knead the dough lightly and then form into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap and transfer to the refrigerator to rest for at least 1 hour.

While the dough is resting, make the filling. Peel the potatoes and cut into small dice. Heat 1/4 cup of ghee in a medium skillet and add the onion. Cook until the onion is lightly caramelized, about 6 minutes. Add the ginger, chile, coriander, garam masala, and cumin seeds and cook until the spices are fragrant, about 2 minutes. Add the potatoes, 1 teaspoon of the remaining salt, and 1/8 teaspoon of the pepper and cook, stirring, until well combined, about 6 minutes. Add the peas and 3 tablespoons of the cilantro and set aside to cool completely.


While the filling is cooking, make the yogurt dipping sauce by combining the yogurt, remaining tablespoon of cilantro, mint, green onion, lemon juice, remaining 1/4 teaspoon of salt and remaining 1/8 teaspoon of pepper and stir to combine. Set aside, refrigerated, until ready to serve the samosas.


Divide the samosa dough into 10 portions and roll each piece of dough into a circle about 5 inches in diameter. Cut each circle in half. Lightly moisten the straight edge of each half circle and press together to seal; you should now have a cone-shaped portion of dough. Carefully spoon about 2 heaping tablespoons of the filling into the dough cone and then moisten the remaining edges with a bit of water and press together to seal. Repeat with the remaining portions of dough and filling.


When you are ready to fry the samosas, heat a large saucepan filled at least 2 inches with oil to about 340 degrees F. Fry the samosas, a few at a time and stirring to promote even cooking, until golden brown, about 4 minutes. (Note: these will float to the surface of the oil long before they are ready to be removed; make certain to cook them until the pastry is crispy and golden brown.) Remove using a slotted spoon and transfer to a paper-lined plate to drain. Repeat until all samosas have been fried. Serve immediately, with the yogurt dipping sauce and your favorite chutney.


Recipe courtesy of Emeril Lagasse, 2006

Read more at: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/vegetable-samosas-recipe.html?oc=linkback

Lagasse, Emirel. "Vegetable samosas." Vegetable Samosas. N.p., 11 July 2007. 
     Web. 7 Jan. 2016. <http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/ 
     vegetable-samosas-recipe.html>. 

Sambusa Recipe #1

                                           SAMBUSA


I found this on all recipes. It is a Somali recipe that is a lovely appetizer. It is often served during Ramadan(Dessert). Shredded beef may be substituted for ground beef.


Vegetable Samosas



INGREDIENTSNutrition

  • 1(14 ounce) package spring roll wrappers
  • 2tablespoons olive oil
  • 2lbs ground beef
  • 1leek, chopped
  • 2teaspoons ground cumin
  • 2teaspoons ground cardamom
  • 1teaspoon salt
  • 1teaspoon pepper
  • 1small onion, finely chopped
  • 1garlic clove, minced
  • 1tablespoon all-purpose flour
  • 1tablespoon water
  • oil (for frying)
  • DIRECTIONS

    1. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onions, leek and garlic, and cook, until the onions are tender.
    2. Add ground beef, and cook until about halfway done. Season with cumin, cardamom, salt and pepper.
    3. Mix well, and continue cooking until beef has browned.
    4. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour and water to make a thin paste.
    5. Using one wrapper at a time, fold into the shape of a cone.
    6. Fill the cone with the meat mixture, close the top, and seal with the paste. Repeat until wraps or filling are used up.
    7. Pour oil into a deep heavy pot to a depth of two to three inches.
    8. Heat to 365-375 degrees.
    9. There should be enough oil to submerge the wraps.
    10. Fry the sambusas a few at a time until golden brown.
    11. Drain on paper towels.
    12. Serve while hot.
    13. J, Mama. "Sambusa." sambusa. N.p., 22 June 2008. Web. 7 Jan. 2016. 
           <http://www.food.com/recipe/sambusa-310116>. 

One human Interest Story

Me and My grandma

<-------That's my hand
   Personally, I chose to do the sambusa because I was tired of hearing people mix Sambusa(Somali dish) and Samosa(Indian dish).
Not only that but during the time of Rammadan (Where you don't eat during the day and then you eat when the sun sets) during the day, my grandma and I would make Sambusas together. Before that, my grandma and I weren't very close. When I as young, I lived in residential housing in Bayshore. In the apartment it was just me and my mom. My grandma only came to Canada from Djibouti in 2006 so I didn't really know her and I was kind of scared of her. I had pretty much continued to be scared of her until one summer my mom told me that I should go help my grandma make these weird triangle shaped things. when I got there she showed me how to make the Sambusas! You basically just fold the corners of the dough into a triangle and you keep moving upwards until you've folded all the dough.
After that day me and my grandma gradually started getting closer and closer and closer. Now almost every time of Rammadan I go and I help my grandmother make sambusas.
It's funny how much food can bring peoples together no?

One tourism story

EID FESTIVALS

                                            

Eid festivals happen annually(under normal conditions they happen twice a year). The first Eid( Eid al-Fitr) happens after Rammadan. The second Eid(Eid al-Adha) happens to commemorate Ibrahims willingness to sacrifice his own son for god.
On the day of Eid, the day basically becomes a Holiday and kids,teenagers and adults don't go to work or school and they celebrate. We also receive lots of gifts!!! 
You might think that if this huge population  of peoples are leaving work and school, where are they going???
The answer is that they're going to these Eid festivals! And when they're at the festival they're celebrating! but you know celebrating is tiring and get someone hungry real fast. Guess what these milions of peoples are going to eat? That's right! they're going to eat sambusas! just like how christians may drink eggnog and italians eat panetton. We muslims eat  sambusa and baklava and other stuff.

One cooking/lab experince

One day, chef decided to put us in partners of 4. In my group of 4 there were two peoples that actually knew what they were doing and two other peoples that didn't know what they were doing. I sadly was part of the peoples that didn't know what we were doing. But as long as he paired the knowing with the unknowing together we should be fine... Or so I thought... Cause he ended up accidentally putting the peoples that knew what they were doing together and the peoples that didn't know what they were doing together!! I quite frankly looked at our group and thought to myself
 "We are so f***ed" (<--- literally what I thought). And I was sort of right... I was getting screamed at(just like how I was getting screamed at every class but WORSE) and I was starting to lose my confidence. And when you lose your confidence, you ironically make more mistakes.. so I was making mistakes and getting screamed at and as everyone started to stare at me like I was very dumb, In my head, I would repeat "I wasn't supposed to be in this class! I was supposed to be in art!" over and over and over again to myself. But it couldn't change the fact that I had been stuck in this class. But you see, it's hard going from being one of smartest kids in the class to being someone who's so bad at a class that all he could do semi-efficiently was to clean dishes.

Back when I was art class I was one of the best students in the class. I was so good the teachers would come to me for reference. Kinda like how chef goes to Amber for reference.
Basically I was the Amber of art class... If that makes sense.


So right when I started to think that I was gonna be helpless in this class, I started to realize that I'm getting screamed at less and less.  Things finally looked like they were getting better for me. In fact this is so much so that sometimes the chef would scream at everyone  at my whole table except me! In fact he even started to defend me!! 
It seemed that things were finally starting to go my way. And before you know it, I started to love cooking class.

My journey to Sambuza village




I went to sambuza village at 2019 Bank street, Ottawa.
when I stepped in the restaurant, the owner of the restaurant immediately came to greet me! He also commented that i’m a lot taller than the last time I went. Already A+ level greeting bumps up my rating on the restaurant. This is very good! it makes me feel like I should go here more often.

 


I went to sambuza village at 2019 Bank street, Ottawa.
when I stepped in the restaurant, the owner of the restaurant immediately came to greet me! He also commented that i’m a lot taller than the last time I went. Already A+ level greeting bumps up my rating on the restaurant. This is very good! it makes me feel like I should go here more often.


After around 13 minutes of waiting, I received my order of 4 sambusas.
When I ate them i realised that they were slightly emptier that the sambusas of 2 years ago!

They’re getting greedy with how much beef they’re putting in the sambusas. But even though they’re emptier than before,  they still taste AMAZING!!
While eating I was looking around me and realised they also renovated the place.
they have painting on the walls and they also have these beautiful lights on the walls.
The tables now also have white sheets on them. The place has changed since the last time I  came. It brings back a lot of memories.


As for my critique, I would give the customer service a 10/10. For the quality of the food, i would give it an 7.5/10 simply because they're gradually decreasing the amount of beef inside of the sambusa. For the appearance of the restaurant, I would give it an 8.5/10 because when we in the restaurant, it felt sort of cramped due to the large population of customer in the restaurant.

The overall rating of the restaurant according to me is an 8.7/10.

website of sambuza village: http://sambuzavillage.com/
Open from tuesday to sunday from 11AM to 8PM