Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Samosa - Indian Snack


Well I've tried a few Indian foods thus far and I've come to the conclusion that I don't care for it.

I like the hot spiciness of it - but the mix of spices I'm not crazy about. And the smell - it has a very distinct smell and I don't like it.

Samosa are like little fried dumplings. They are a popular snack in South Asia.

The package said, "Spicy Indian Snack with Green Gram, Cashew Nuts & Raisins". It sounded quite tasty - a nice combination of spicy and sweet (so I thought). Ingredients are: refined wheat flour, peanut oil, split green gram pulse, cashew nuts, raisins, sugar, salt, red chili, aniseed, black pepper, coriander powder, cardamom, mango powder and cumin powder.

Inside crumbly mixture of spices and cashews

Incidentally, it seems like so many of these foreign packages have the tiniest print ever - especially the ingredients.

The outside of the samosa is a flaky, crisp pastry like pie dough...inside there is a dried mixture of nuts/raisins and spices. It was not sweet at all - which was a disappointment - I was thinking the cashew nuts & raisins combo would be kind of trail mixish. But it wasn't. I actually could not taste any raisins in there at all. Actually I just cracked open another one and I did not see any raisins in there.


If you'd like to try making your own - here is a recipe.

Neither of the kids liked the samosa "too spicy".

Now speaking of India...growing up there were a lot of "East Indians" living in our city. When I got to the USA - I was told they were not referred to as "East Indians" but just Indians. To me Indians meant "Native Americans" or "Aboriginals" (as called in Canada in these politically correct days).

So my question is - are Indians (from India) just referred to as Indians? Is the term "East Indian" just something people around us made up in order to distinguish them from the large Aboriginal Indian population? Just curious...

1 comments:

FrazzMom said...

Here in the Silicon Valley we have a large Indian (from India!) population. Generally we refer to them (and they refer to themselves) as "Indian" or sometimes "Southeast Asian".

It doesn't tend to be at all confusing since we don't really have a "Native American" Indian population at all...

BTW- samosas are wonderful if freshly made! We usually get them filled with veggies- peas, carrots, potatoes and then deep fried. A good restaurant can make them with a milder spice... We eat them frequently when we are in Africa on short term mission trips.

I would be worth trying to make them at home and could be a fun activity with your kids ;-)