This Month’s Film: Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India
Cuisine: Indian

Why has no one ever told me about samosas? And how could I have lived this long and been to so many Indian restaurants without ever tasting them? And why doesn’t all the food in the world taste this delicious?

Not knowing what they were supposed to look like, or even what they were, I chose them partly because they were the first recipe in the cookbook, and also because they sounded so tasty. And insolent girl that I am, I even dared to modify the recipe, albeit just the lamb filling, which is pretty basic: minced lamb, finely diced onions, ginger, garlic, corriander, cumin and saffron. The modification of the recipe was in the leaving out of the garam masala, which has alot of cinnamon and cloves which I wasn’t in the mood for, and the cayenne pepper, since I didn’t want them too spicy.

The making of the dough was the fun part, and the recipe perfectly described the shaping and filling of the little meat pies. After about the third or fourth one, I was turning them out like a pro.

I got lucky on the deep-frying step too. I think I’m finally getting the hang of it. For years, my deep-fried dishes frequently turned out soggy and greasy. But over the course of the year and a half that I’ve been cooking Asian food for my Chopstick Cinema blog, I have learned that it really is a control issue in both temperature and quantity. You gotta heat the oil up just right and keep it there, and don’t crowd the pan. It’s as simple as that.

My samosas were crisp and flaky without a hint of grease, and the filling inside was tender and savory with the seasonings right on the mark. And now that I know about this well-kept little samosa secret, I’ll be looking for them on the menu in every Indian restaurant.

The recipes for my ‘Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India’ menu will be posted at the end of the month along with my film review.

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