Anne McAlpine: February 28, 2019

I recently attended a cooking class about samosas at the Cypres Support Centre in Caledonia. Our teacher was Rabiya Azeez. Samosas are deep fried, spicy or not, pastry snacks that originated from India and East Asia. Rabiya showed us how to make the fillings and how to pack and fold the fillings into the pastry strips. We fried them and patted them dry from the oil before enjoying them with some of her date chutney.

Rabiya showed us how to make the chicken and vegetable samosas, but she explained that they could also be filled with nuts and dried fruits. She likes to use bone-in chicken breasts when she makes the chicken ones. She cuts the breast horizontally into 3 pieces, cooks it in a small amount of water, then shreds it using two forks. The fillings can be prepared a day ahead of time and kept in the refrigerator. You can buy the pastry strips at an Asian food market, but I used pie dough cut into 3-4” wide and 10” long strips.

When I called Rabiya to ask for more information about samosas she invited me to her home. We enjoyed some Indian tea and then she served puttu, which is made with brown rice flour and steamed with coconut. It was accompanied by what she called potato stew, which was an interesting sauce of coconut milk, potato pieces, and fresh curry leaves. Rabiya also introduced me to a very tasty dish of chopped plantain, egg, raisins, sugar, cardamom, walnuts, ghee, and spices. Thanks Rabiya for sharing with us.