Samosas

Another take-out classic. I used to order multiple batches of samosas from the Indian place down the street in Brooklyn and call that dinner whenever I had an Indian food craving. But now that I'm no longer in an Indian food delivery zone (boo), I had to learn how to satisfy my samosa craving myself.

They're surprisingly easy. Granted, I cheated and used puff pastry, instead of making my own dough. But whatever. They were really good--so good I was forced to eat one right out of the oven and consequently burned my mouth.

These are a great way to use up leftover mashed potatoes and peas--which, providentially, I had left over from V-Day. Mix the mashed potatoes and peas together, and add ginger, coriander, garam masala, a little chili powder, a little salt, and between half and one grated jalapeno. Cut the (thawed) puff pastry sheets into 9 squares each. Fill the center of each square with a little spoonful of the mix, press the edges together diagonally, and bake at 400 for around 15 minutes.

For the green sauce, puree one bunch of cilantro along with the juice from half a big lemon, the same spices, and a little more jalapeno. As you are whizzing it in the food processor, add a little peanut oil. Now you have samosas and green sauce, for essentially the cost of two puff pastry sheets ($4-5) plus one bunch of cilantro ($1), since everything else you already had in your pantry. For $6 from the Indian place, I got two big samosas plus three sauces, although I only ever ate the green sauce. This way, I get 18 samosas plus all the green sauce I can handle. And it only took about 20-25 minutes total--I would have had to wait 45 minutes for the delivery guy.