Afghan Samosas! (via Zaki's Mom)

This is a level of difficulty higher than the previous dishes mentioned (and more time consuming), but as we've graduated past many of the easier dishes, it's time we get to some of the truly delicious stuff!

Ingredients:

• 2 large potatoes (boiled)
• 1 onion 
• 2 green onions (optional)
• 4 sprigs cilantro
• 1 Serrano pepper
• 3 cloves garlic
• 4 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon chili powder (or crushed pepper will work)
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• 1 teaspoon sesame seeds
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1 cup corn oil
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 1 bag of thin fresh smaller sized Mexican flour tortillas (there is a longer way to make the pastry part of this dish yourself from scratch, for the sake of ease, they use tortillas for this step).

- Begin by boiling your potatoes, then peel and mash them into small pieces put into a large bowl.

- Add 4 sprigs finely chopped cilantro.

- Add 3/4 of your 1 finely chopped onion (leaving remaining bits for frying in pan later).

- Add 2 sprigs of finely chopped green onion.

- Add 1 teaspoon chili powder (or crushed peppers) and 1/2 teaspoon black pepper, 1 teaspoon salt to bowl and mix.

- (we use food processor for this next step) - Add 3 cloves garlic, 4 table spoons lemon juice, and 1 Serrano pepper and a 'dash' of salt into processor (as salt can help breakdown the mix better), mix until very fine.

- Pour 1/2 cup olive oil into a frying pan, turn on high heat.

- Once pan is hot, add your remaining onion and begin to brown.

- Once onions are beginning to brown, add your lemon, garlic, pepper mix

- During this process you can add your 1 teaspoon of turmeric and 1 teaspoon sesame seeds to pan.

- When mixture is completely browned, pour over your bowl of potatoes and mix, using hands is preferred as it mashes ingredients together more evenly.

Adding filling to the pastry (tortilla):

- Put 3 tablespoons of flour into a small bowl, mix a little water in until consistency is gooey and thick (but still moves as a wet liquid, not a paste).  Mix this very well.

    our filling is ready to be added to the tortillas.  Now, there are two ways to do this depending mainly on your skill with folding and or the quality of the tortillas used (make sure to use the smaller size tortillas, the large flour ones won't really work).  Some tortillas can be too dry and may break when folding (which is why fresh tortillas is best), and some tortillas are too thick.  If this is the case, there is an easy way to fold your samosas and they will still turn out tasty.  It is considered a "cheating way," but it gets the job done.  Basically, cut your tortillas in half down the middle, fill one half with 2 tablespoons or so of filling.  Use the flour/water mix and dribble a little bit of it on the opposing edges of your tortilla.  Then fold it completely over your filling, and begin to press the edges together.  The goal being that the flour/water mixture acts as a glue, so keep pressing firmly until you see no open edges (you do not want the hot oil you fry them in later to leak inside the pocket).  They will be in a soft rounded looking triangle shape.  Set aside and continue until mixture is finished.

To learn how to fold the samosas the traditional way, here is a wikipedia link that shows you step by step how to fold and fill the samosa pastry.

Now that all your samosas are filled and closed up, you're ready to fry.  Fill a pot with a 2 inches of corn oil (or as you see fit).  Turn onto high heat.  Place 2-3 samosas at a time once oil is hot, the will begin frying right away.  Keep an eye on them once they're in the pot, if they're browning too quickly, turn heat down, if they're taking to long turn heat up.  They should brown within 30 seconds or so of being in the oil, make sure to flip them over and brown both sides.

Set aside on plate with paper towel down to capture remaining oil.

They're now ready to eat, we made a homemade spicy chutney sauce to go with it, but this is something you can definitely buy at an local ethnic grocery store.

Below are my attempts made later on by myself, though I know I'm not folding it 100% accurately, they turned out pretty cute to me!  (and VERY yummy!)

Lobya (pinto bean dish or 'Lubya')

  Afghans love pressure cookers.  In fact, probably most people do, it's just that Zaki and I are so inexperienced in cooking that it seems quite foreign to us.  For me especially, my parents never owned one.  So this is a new experience for me.

  His parents came for another visit last weekend.  They always bring goods, and this time it was a new pressure cooker!  Zaki's Mom decided to teach us how to make Lobya.  I'd never had it, but Zaki says it's delicious.

Prep work! --- Soak beans at least 1 day before (or minimum 8 hours)

Ingredients: (for 2 people)
- 2 cups pinto beans (sometimes kidney beans are used)
- 1 onion
- 1 serrano pepper
- 5 cloves of garlic
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 1 can small tomato sauce
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon turmeric
- 1 teaspoon salt

Garlic/Yogurt mix for extra tang! (mix beforehand)
- Plain yogurt

- Byblos pasteurized kefir cheese (see pic to right --->)
- 3 garlic cloves

•  Take 4 large spoonfuls of standard plain yogurt put in bowl
• Mix 1 large spoon of pasteurized kefir cheese
• Add 3-4 cloves of crushed (or finely chopped garlic)
• Mix well and set aside in fridge to use later

Lobya

• Chop 1 onion into medium/small pieces set aside
• Add 4-5 cloves of garlic and 1 serrano pepper into food processor with 1 teaspoon lemon juice and mix until finely chopped, set aside
• Put 1/2 cup olive oil into pressure cooker, turn heat on high -- wait a little for oil to get hot
• Add onions -- let onions cook for awhile (until it looks like they're boiling in the oil), they start to change color a little bit
• Add garlic/serrano/lemon juice mix, mix well
• Drain beans, add to pot
• Add warm water from faucet -- enough to cover the mix in pot (bring to same level as beans)
• Add 1 teaspoon salt 
• Attach and seal pressure cooker lid

     This is the part where you need to kind of watch what happens and change things accordingly.  So, Zaki's Mom's instructions were that this should take roughly 25 minutes to cook.  That is however, 25 minutes after the button in the middle of t he pressure cooker starts flailing around crazily.  When that thing is spinning like nuts and making noise, that's when set the timer for 25 minutes.

ALSO -- when you see the middle button spinning like crazy, it means the heat is too high, we turned our heat from high to medium during this time to slow down it's speed, then set our timer.

  When 25 minutes was up, Zaki's Mom released some pressure -- but to speed up it's natural depressurization process, she put the entire pot outside on our balcony.  After roughly 5-10 minutes she picked it back up and tested it's pressure, it was good to open (or just depressurize yourself).

  The end product should be thick looking, if it seems still too watery, put on your stove on medium and let some more water cook off.  Also, this is where you add 1/2 small can of tomato sauce.

  When it's ready, put into a long 2-3 inch deep server (we used a rectangular glass dish).  Now is the time to grab the yogurt mix you made earlier from the fridge.  Take spoonfuls of it and drizzle over the lobya.  It makes it look more interesting but also adds a delicious tang to the lobya while eating.

(I apologize we have no pics of the finished lobya, it was a hectic cooking day and lots of family arrived, didn't have time to stop and take a photo but hopefully when Zaki and I make it ourselves again in the future I'll post a picture)

Lobya has become one of my favorite dishes, it's thick and hearty and very delicious.  Best served with some Afghan or Arab bread toasted from the oven and of course Palau (rice).