LENTILS (NDENGU) SAMOSAS WITH IDAH CHEGE

Picture by parsleysoup.co.uk

Hi bloggers,
Its Thursday!Are you ready for todays recipe?You might not be aware of this but todays dish, the samosa or samoosa, originated from central Asia and is very popular in Kenya. The samosa varies and it can either be a meat samosa or a vegetable samosa. Today, we are going to make vegetable samosas...or you can say lentils samosas.They are time consuming but with proper planning you will get to see that they are pretty easy to make and very delicious and besides, when you have time, prepare them in advance and pop them in the freezer. Whenever you crave them or have visitors and you dont have much time, get them and deep fry them.Easy as that! They are usually accompanied by a sauce or kachumbari but can also be eaten without them all together.They are taken as a snack or appetizer. Get your aprons on and lets get cooking. Below are what you need to make your lentils samosas:

1. 21/2 cups all purpose flower (place the 1/2 cup of flower seperate, we wil use it later)

2. 1/2 tea spoon of baking powder

3. 1/2 cup of water

4. 1 cup of warm milk

5. 2 cups of boiled lentils (ndengu)

6. 1 litre of cooking oil

7. 2 medium onions chopped (preferably white)

8. Spices of your choice (pepper, red chilli powder, cinnamon and garam masala)

9. Salt to taste

10. Deep frying pan & Skimmer (metal preferably)

11. Paper napkins

12. Sufuria or cooking pot and also a pan


That is all you need. Like I said the process takes a little bit of time but its so worth it and also note that the spices listed above have no specific quantity, you can season according to your liking. Lets get started:

1. First we need to work on the dough so, put the three cups of all purpose flour in a bowl. Put in a teaspoon of cinnamon and a pinch of salt. Pour in your milk and with clean hands, mix it till the flour and the milk are completely incorporated into a semi sticky dough and shape it into a ball.

2. Coat the dough with a little oil and cover it with a clean kitchen cloth or cling film and put it aside. You should leave it alone in a warm area and what this will do is that it will rise because of the baking powder.

3. Now lets make the samosa filling. Put your chopped onions in a sufuria together with a little oil. Cook until slightly golden brown.

4. Put in the boiled lentils and mix it until the onions are evenly distributed all through. At this time you need to move fast because the lentils are dry and will suck in all the oil in the sururia and if you dont you risk burning the filling. No one wants to eat burnt anything.

5. Now sprinkle in all your spices including salt and mix continously. You must NOT dump all the spices at one area...this will clump up and someone will chew it and it wont be pretty. So sprinkle and stir continously. After about twenty seconds take it off the heat.

6. I know that the spices are not cooked but dont worry because when we deep fry they will cook with the dough.

7. Take the dough which by now is ready to work with. Seperate the dough in small balls. My dough will produce about ten balls.

8. Put the flat pan on the fire and let it be hot.

9. Roll out one of the balls into a thin circle (Use some of the 1/2 cup of flour to prevent it sticking on your work table).Be careful not to tear it and put it on the hot pan. Its important to note that you dont under any circumstances put oil and that the circle will be on the pan for five seconds on each side.Any time longer with crisp the pastry and it will tear when you fold it.You will have about 20 samosas,but this may vary with the size you have chosen for your pastry balls.

10. Do this with the rest of the balls and when you are done, cut the circles in half and put them in a closed dish to prevent drying. Now lets make the "glue" with the remaining flour.

11. Take the remaining flour and pour it bit by bit into the 1/2 cup of water.Remember that we want a paste and not a mini dough and when you have achieved the consistency, we are ready to put our samosas together.

12. To make the samosa pockets, I have put steps in picture form so that you can see...truthfully I dont know if I can really explain this part in words. So follow the steps in the pictures below.Once you have completed folding all the samosas, proceed to step 13. NB: the paste holds the pastry together, acts as a glue.







Picture by korasoi.com



13. Place your frying pan with the oil on the fire and until till hot.However, let it not be too hot because the pastry will burn and the spices will not cook, let the oil be hot enough ie when you drop a small piece of pastry it goes to the bottom and then to the surface while producing bubbles. Deep fry your samosas until golden brown.


You can enjoy them with a cup of tea or any another beverage of your choice. I like them warm and with a little kachumbari.

Please let me know your experiences and questions as well as the challenges you meet when making these. Leave your comments and suggestions of foods that you want me to show you how I make them.Have a nice day.See you on Saturday right here on Kenyan Recipies Galore.

FRIED GITHERI WITH IDAH CHEGE

picture by yummy.co.ke

Good afternoon bloggers. Today I have a recipe on how to prepare fried githeri the traditional way with very few ingredients and very little time.I appreciate your time to come along with me as I take this journey.So lets get started...todays dish is the staple food of the Gikuyu, Meru and also Embu people in Central Kenya, but it is also eaten in other parts of the country as well. It is a very easy to prepare dish where the maize and any type of beans are mixed and boiled together in a sufuria or pot, water is then added and the mixture boiled until the food is cooked and ready to eat. You can of course eat it as is but if you would like to give it a little pop...then this recipe is what you need to make it different. I, however, dont mean that this is the best way to prepare it, its just how I like to make it. You can experiment with different spices and vegetables also meat according to your preferences. I know am selling this on to you but if you taste it...you would be blabbering just as I am right now. Anyway lets go over the things you will need to prepare fried githeri...

Ingredients:
1. About 3 cups of boiled githeri
2. 2 medium onions chopped (white)
3. 1 table spoon of flour
4. 3 large carrots chopped
5. 2 cloves of garlic grated
6. 1 green bell pepper chopped finely
7. 2 table spoons of vegetable oil or any unflavored oil
8. 1 cup of water
9. salt and pepper to taste

Now agin I have to say that you dont necessarily have to use these ingredients. For example you can substitute the green bell pepper with the orange,purple or red peppers to make it sweet,or chilli peppers to make it spicy, I like the green bell peppers because they are neither sweet nor spicy, they are in between.

1. Put the 2 table spoons of vegetable oil or any unflavored oil in a frying pan or sufuria and pour in your garlic and onions. The reason why I dont use flavored oil is because I think that the vegetables,salt and pepper provide enough flavour as it is.
2. Let them cook until the onions are translucent. Dont let them become golden, the idea is to let them chewy...if that is a word.
3. Once they are all nice and translucent, you can now add in your carrots and green bell peppers and stir well. Its important at this point to note that you should not add in any water yet. The carrots may suck in all the oil but let them steam for a few minutes stirring constantly and then add half the water in your cup.
4. Once the water starts to simmer, take your salt and pepper and season to your liking.Then cover the pot and let it boil.
5. As the carrots and green peppers are boilng, take the remaining water and put in your flour. Stir until there are no lumps and then pour the mixture in the pot. What this does is that it ensures that the fluids in the now boiling sauce will have a nice thick consistency...no one wants a watery sauce.
6. Put in the boiled githeri and stir the whole mixture. Turn your heat to low and let is come to a gradual boil to allow the flour to cook and also the beans and maize to suck in all the flavors.

And you are done...you fried githeri is ready to eat. You can eat it with an avocado or some salad. I hope you enjoy this recipe. I would really love to hear your experiences. You can comment below on how you liked this recipe and also other ways that you ike to eat your githeri or even a new dish that you would like to know how i make it. You can aslo follow me and like this post for future recipes. I hope you enjoy the rest of your day. I will be posting a new recipe every tuesday, thursday and saturday so meet me here same time this coming thursday for a new recipe.