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by cindilola
SAMOSA OR SAMBOSA
Spring roll wrappers, frozen spring roll pastry or you can buy samosa pastry strips or samosa wrappers, specially prepared for samosas and available from selected outlets.
Samosa fillings- Remember to cook the filling ingredients before filling.
Though samosa size and shape may vary, the ingredients are much the same, minced beef, lamb or chicken, tuna, potatoes, peas, lentils, onions, garlic, carrots, cauliflower, spinach, cheese, even leftovers, can all be used to make any kind of fried or baked stuffed small pastry. You can also used ground/minced meat and mixed vegetables seasoned with curry and seasoned salt as a filling.
You can put absolutely anything you want in your samosa, and spice it as you wish. Be careful not to overfill the samosa, that it is not too wet, and to ensure the ends are closed up well or the filling will leak out and it will absorb too much oil.
Creating a samosa
1. Take a spring roll wrap and cut into half, with each piece, put a tablespoon of your filling in the middle. Bring the edges together in a triangular shape or what ever shape you can attain. Brush the edges with beaten eggs and press lightly with your fingers or a folk.
2. Roll the wrap into a cone, overlapping the edges and pinching or wetting to seal. Stuff the cone with a big spoonful or two of filling, then pinch the open end closed (wetting if necessary), forming a puffy triangle.
3. Put a teaspoon of filling at one end and fold the wrap over diagonally, then fold again and again, still keeping a triangular shape and ensuring the folds overlap. Moisten the end of the strip with water or beaten egg and press lightly. Brush with egg yolk if you're going to bake them.
4. Fry your samosas until brown but not too dark. It is best to make this the day you plan to serve it, because heating it up looses the crunch and some of the taste.
BEANS STEW
3 tbsp vegetable oil
1 large onion, sliced
2-3 garlic cloves, crushed or diced
1 can chopped tomatoes or tomato sauce
2 cups black-eyed beans (cooked)
2 cans geisha fish (drained) – add a can of sardines (your choice)
2 bay leaves
1 tsp cayenne pepper
Curry, salt and red pepper or 1 habanero pepper (grounded)
1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan. Cook the onions, garlic and pepper over low
heat until soft.
2. Add the tomatoes and let cook for about 5 minutes.
3. Add the cooked beans, geisha (and or sardines), bay leaf and simmer for 20 minutes. Season with salt and curry.
4. Serve with fried plantains and rice.
FRIED PLANTAINS AND GINGER
10 ripe Plantains
Vegetable oil
½ cup of Ginger
½ teaspoon of salt
1. Pour oil into pan (for deep frying) and let it heat.
2. Peel the plantains and slice them diagonally or into cubes.
3. Sprinkle the salt on it and mix together.
4. Peel and blend ginger and mix with plantains.
5. Fry in hot oil until brown.
6. Serve itself or as a side dish.
GROUNDNUT (PEANUT) SOUP AND RICE BALLS
2 Lbs Chicken, or Goat, or Beef
Garlic, onion, salt and pepper (Habanero pepper)
Tomato puree or sauce enough to cover the meat
3-4 table spoons of Groundnut paste or Peanut butter
3-4 cups of Rice
GROUNDNUT SOUP
1. Prepare the meat for cooking.
2. Season the pieces of meat with garlic, onions, salt and pepper.
3. Add tomato puree or sauce. Add enough tomatoes to almost cover the meat, if puree, mix it first with water to almost cover the meat and let it cook until meat it almost ready.
(Cooking the meat in the tomato sauce makes it more tasty and juicy)
4. Add enough water to now cover the meat and let it cook another 2 minutes.
5. Take a cup of the hot stock from the meat in a separate bowl and mix in the groundnut paste or peanut butter until it’s all blended and pour the mixture back into the pot and bring it to a simmer for 20 minutes.
6. Serve with rice balls.
RICE BALLS
1. Boil the rice with a cup more water than normal to make it soft.
2. Let it overcook and when the rice is very soft, stir it with a wooden spoon as if you were preparing fufu to mash the rice even more.
3. Mould the rice into balls and place on a tray (please use a bowl because it will be very hot)
4. Serve hot with groundnut soup.
WEST AFRICAN SALAD
1 bag lettuce
1/2 head cabbage
2 fresh ripe tomatoes (do not used the seeds)
½ cup Heinz salad cream
6 – 8 boiled eggs
A few sticks of carrot
1 cucumber
1 can of corn beef (preferable the Exeter brand)
1. In a big mixing bowl, add your lettuce, sliced cabbage, 1 sliced tomatoes, diced carrots, sliced or diced cucumber, corn beef and 3 or 4 diced boiled eggs and mix together.
2. Add the Heinz salad cream and mix evenly.
3. Slice the other tomato and rest of eggs (with an egg slicer) and spread across your salad for decoration.
4. Take a 2 table spoons of Heinz salad cream, add 2 table spoons of milk, mix and brush it across your salad over the eggs and tomatoes.
5. Serve salad as a side. Keep refrigerated if not ready to serve.
PS: You can add cooked macaroni (preferably the smaller ones)
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