Southwestern Samosas

I'm a terrible procrastinator. Or, an excellent one, if putting off doing everything until the last possible moment makes one an excellent procrastinator. It was the threat of deadlines that enabled me to get through college. Without them, I'd probably still be struggling through introduction to linguistics. I'm the clown driving through the drive-through lane at midnight on April 15th to file. Not my taxes, my extension.

As part of the Foodbuzz Tastemaker Program, I received a bottle of Pace salsa some weeks ago to try to incorporate into a recipe. I thought I should do something more than simply top a bunch of tortilla chips and sprinkle on some cheese. I decided I would get to that later; there was plenty of time.

Recently I got a post from the Foodbuzz Editorial Team reminding me to submit my Pace recipe by January 15th. Huh? Oh yeah, that jar of salsa that I got. I had totally forgotten about it! But I like salsa, and I've bought Pace before; it's actually a decent salsa, and especially in winter when fresh tomatoes (and I don't mean the tasteless supermarket variety) aren't available. But I had to post my Daring Cooks challenge by the 14th. Oh, f....!



One of my Christmas presents was Andrea Nguyen's Asian Dumplings. It looks to have a lot of recipes that I'll enjoy, and one that immediately appealed to me was the recipe for samosas. I've always enjoyed samosas, but sometimes they're greasy. To make my southwestern samosas I used the recipe for flaky pastry from Nguyen's book and it was wonderful, as well as quick and easy.

You could take the southwestern samosas in different directions depending on your diet and tastes. If I had some Spanish cured chorizo on hand, I would have included that with the potatoes and beans. You could also use fresh, Mexican style chorizo. You could also add avocado.

I went meatless, and didn't regret it. I made a half-dozen samosas without cheese, and another half-dozen with cheese. Both tasted great. I probably wouldn't make them with cheese unless they were to be eaten while still warm, but both tasted good cold. It's just that the cheese didn't add that much extra to the cold samosas to justify the extra fat and calories.



Southwestern Samosas

2 TBS olive oil
1/2 onion, chopped
2 yukon gold potatoes, boiled, skinned, and cut into 1/4 inch cubes
2 tsp cumin, ground
1 cup Pace™ salsa
1 cup canned black beans, drained
3 ounces of pepper jack, cut into 1/4 inch cubes (optional)
salt, to taste

Heat a skillet over medium heat. Fry the onion until translucent. Add the potatoes and cumin. Fry for a minute or so and then add the salsa and black beans. Fry until somewhat dry. Salt to taste. Allow to cool and add cheese if you want.

Stuff the wrappers, moisten edges with water and seal. Fry for approximately 10 minutes at around 350º. Drain and allow to cool for at least five minutes before eating.

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