Friday, December 31, 2010

Samo-Tons (or Won-Mosas)

This dish was spawned from my love of fried Chinese items and Indian food. Mix the two words Wonton and Samosa and here is what you get.

Start with potatoes, plums, two hot peppers, frozen peas and wonton paper. I really wanted to make my own wonton paper but was pressed for time as these are hors d' oeuvres for a New Years party.
Peel and quarter a grip of potatoes and boil them in lightly salted water.
Then while your potatoes are boiling away prepare your chutney.



Start with three plums, about 6 small, cherry sized red peppers, 1/4 cup of sugar and two hot peppers, I used a yellow chili and a long green jalapeno.

Pit the plums.


Mix it all in a blender or food processor and...
puree the hell out of it.

This is one of my favorite sauces... it's sweet and spicy and has a complex range of flavors.


Check your potatoes, if you stab one and it sticks to your knife it's not done... keep on boilin'. I tried to get a photo with a potato not sticking to the knife but realized it'd just be a boring picture of a kitchen knife.


Drain the potatoes and keep them in the pot.

I spice these now before I mash them. Add salt, pepper and garlic powder to taste.

Add 2 tablespoons of yellow curry and a half a tablespoon of turmeric... or more or less if you choose.  The Savory spice shop on Tejon is quickly becoming a staple for me; their spices are ground so fresh they're still moist. That's pretty cool considering how dry our climate is at this elevation.



Mash everything until it's smooth and homogeneous. Don't use any liquid as you want this dry as possible for frying later.

Keep mashing until blended and kind of fluffy.

fold in frozen peas. I use frozen peas because they hold their shape while you mix them in and they cool the mixture so you can start handling it right away.


Get your wonton wraps, water and oil ready.

Spoon on some filling.


Wet two adjacent sides of the wrapper.


fold in half at opposite corners.
Seal the seams.

Roll the opposite corner under and connect.

Repeat. This took for-ever.... seriously.

Get ready to drop these into your hot oil. Be careful, really. It's easy to start a large grease fire. Let your Sama-Tons air dry until they are stiff to the touch. If you don't let them dry the moisture can make the oil boil over and pop everywhere. Add one Samo-Ton and have a grease screen ready to cover. Use the first one make sure your oil is the proper temp if you don't have a thermometer.

Once you have the oil properly managed add enough to make one layer floating in the oil.
As they cool the oil settles down, be attentive, they only cook for about 2 to 3 minutes.

Pull them out when they get the golden brown that you like.
I did a few darker, a few lighter and some in the middle.

Garnish with wasabi and soy sauce (or Maggis seasoning which I used because my wife has a soy allergy as seen on her Blog) and black sesame seeds and the plum chutney.


The sweet and spicy flavors of this dish are complemented so well with Bristol's Beehive beer because it is sweet and slightly hoppy. With all these flavors, textures and cultures colliding eat these and drink too many Beehives while listening to anything by Thug Murder.

2 comments: