The Darjeeling Limited

Okay, so the more times I see this movie the more I like it. It was on tonight! And, coincidentally, tonight was Indian food night!

On the menu? Chicken Makhani, Potato Samosas and Naan.

This afternoon, while Miss B. was napping, I watched "The Golden Compass" while making the filling for my Potato Samosas. I based my samosa filling on the filling portion of the "Potato Samosa Tartlets" recipe from the June 1990 Gourmet Magazine, which can be found at Epicurious.com.

I had to modify the recipe a bit as I didn't have quite all of the same ingredients.

I started by sauteing half of a diced Mayan sweet onion in olive oil with a little bit of crushed garlic. I also added to this some garam masala. While the onion was sauteing I cut up four yukon gold potatoes into large chunks and began boiling them in salted water.

Once the onions were soft and translucent I added half a can of petite diced tomatoes (with juices). Once the potatoes were soft I drained them and added them to the saute pan where the onions and tomatoes were cooking. I then proceeded to further break up the potatoes into smaller bits with my wooden spoon. I then added in two large tablespoons of plain yogurt. Then I added in more seasoning including dried cilantro, more garam masala, some fresh cracked black pepper, coriander, cinnamon and ground chili pepper. Finally, I added in some frozen sweet baby peas and a touch of lime juice as well.

Once cooked, I let the mixture cool. I got out one pillsbury pre-made pie crust and cut it into four segments. I then took each segment of pie crust and filled it with a heaping tablespoon of samosa filling. I closed the pie crust around the filling, pinching four edges so that the samosas formed little pie-crust pockets. I put the four samosas onto a piece of tin foil on a baking sheet (but probably could have used parchment, just as well).

I put the samosas in the fridge for later and then reserved the rest of the samosa filling to be added to the chicken makhani.

Meanwhile, The Golden Compass wasn't bad. Though I have to admit I was very preoccupied with the main character's knitwear. I swear her winter hat was made with Rowan Biggy Print yarn. Apparently, I'm not the only one who was mesmerized by the knitwear. You can see other knitter's comments at unravelingsophia, iknit.org.uk, and ParallaxKnitting.

Once the Husband got home and brought the rest of our supplies I started on the Makhani, basing my recipe on that shown in "Complete Indian Cooking". I sauteed half of an onion and a whole jalapeno in olive oil. While the onion and jalapeno were cooking I cubed a pound of boneless, skinless chicken breast and marinated the chicken plain yogurt (one large container) with garam masala. Once the onions and pepper were soft I added in the chicken and yogurt and put the heat on medium. I added in the reserved samosa potatoes, half a can of petite cut diced tomatoes and one small can of tomato paste.

Meanwhile, I put Kasmati rice in the ye old rice cooker (cheating, I know, but that darned thing is really great!) Also, the samosas were in the oven.... noting that I made a little egg wash for the samosas before putting them in the oven.

As the chicken makhani cooked, I added more spices including more chili powder and more dried cilantro.

The Makhani was good, but I have to say that the Samosas were really good-- a very true authentic Indian taste. I'm wondering if making them in advance and letting the flavor settle in before baking helped to do the trick.

I also made some Naan from Whole Foods.