What about special ingredients? Day 2 of Eating Around the World

 Join us as I share how we travel the world, passport-free, right from our kitchen.  Recipes will be shared each day as well as some of the why’s and how-to’s.

As you travel the globe, you will find many exotic foods.  Many of the flavors common across the globe are not so common here on our continent of North America.  Sometimes this can be a challenge when searching for the ingredients to make a recipe.

If you live in or near a large city, there will be special markets selling those strange and exotic ingredients.  If you live near a college town with international students there will probably be specialty shops catering to their various homelands.  We live somewhat close to a big university and have found many of the “secret ingredients” in that city.  But what if you do not have a large city nearby?  

I can drive close to an hour to get to one of those specialty stores, but often, I don’t have to.  Our local Meijer grocery store has a whole aisle devoted to international foods.  This just might be my favorite aisle in the whole store!

There have been very few ingredients I could not find down this aisle.  From rose water to coriander powder; tahini to sesame oil, this aisle has it all.  If some of the ingredients don’t seem that exotic to you, still check this aisle out.  I have been buying some of the spices in a much larger quantity for the same price as the little jar found on the baking aisle.  

When I cannot find something in my regular store and I don’t have a trip to the “big city” planned, I turn to Amazon.  I used to overlook this great source, but not anymore.  They have just about everything: dry goods, can goods and spices from around the world.  When it comes from “your country” the packaging can be fun to look at (and try to decipher) – a bonus to your lessons!

The latest “special ingredient” I ordered from Amazon was green tea powder.  I was surprised not to have found it locally. The powder is different from the green tea you would find with regular loose leaf or bagged teas.  It is something specific to Japanese cuisine and I really needed this particular thing for the recipe.  

Often, we may think we can substitute a similar ingredient.  I caution you against this unless you do much study of the ingredient and its function in the recipe.  If it is only added for flavor, how authentic do you want your taste to be?  If it does more than add flavor, a specific flour (glutinous rice flour is a recent one I’ve encountered) for instance, you will have a potential problem on your hands.  It might make a great science experiment, but not a very good ‘taste’.

The recipe I am sharing today comes from India.  We are blessed to know a family that are missionaries to India.  When they were coming to a visit to our church, I knew I wanted something that would remind them of their “other home”.  I definitely felt some pressure to make sure it tasted “right”.  The sesame oil was the “special ingredient” to give it just the right flavor.

20 wonton wrappers (available in produce section)
sesame oil for brushing on samosas prior to baking.  The darker oil has the flavor you are looking for–not the light colored oil.


Cook the sweet potato using your favorite method (peel then boil; microwave then peel).  Once cooked and peeled, place in mixing bowl and mash with fork.


Meanwhile, heat oil.  When the oil is hot, add cumin seeds to toast.  Then add chopped onion.  When onion is turning translucent, add garlic and ginger.  Be sure you are stirring well.  You want this to cook and get toasty, but not burnt.  About 1 minute after adding the ginger and garlic, add the spices.  Stir to distribute and release flavors, then remove from heat.  Add this mixture to the mashed sweet potato.  At this point, you can set aside the filling, keeping well covered and refrigerated for a few days.


When ready to assemble and cook, set out filling, wonton wrappers, small dish of water (used to seal the wrappers), dish and brush for sesame oil and baking sheet.  Preheat oven to 375º.  This can be time consuming to assemble, but each step is easy enough that little hands can help.


Place approx. 1 teaspoon of filling in center of wrapper.  Using a finger or little brush, moisten two adjacent sides of the wrapper with the water.  Fold opposite corner over.  Press and seal.  Brush with layer of sesame oil.  Repeat until all of wrappers or filling are used.


Bake for 10 minutes, then turn and bake 5 minutes for second side.  Remove to a cooling rack to cool.
These are great served warm or room temperature.

Samosas can be made on a stick (insert stick prior to sealing); be sure to use a stick that is safe for baking.  Everything is fun to eat on a stick, right?  Samosas are often served with various dips – raitas and chutneys.  Mango chutney is a popular one.  If you don’t want to tackle making it, you could order mango chutney from Amazon. It is also probably available down that beautiful aisle in the grocery store.


Here is a quick, simple recipe I found for POMEGRANATE AND MINT RAITA – mix a 250g pot Greek style yogurt with 3 tbsp chopped fresh mint, 100g pomegranate seeds. Season to taste with salt and pepper before serving.
The samosas recipe is actually a combination of a few recipes I found doing quick SwagSearches.  I like the filling to be spicy, but you could easily substitute a good curry powder.  Brushing with the sesame oil and baking rather than frying made it easier and able to have my little helpers involved.  The ease of using wonton wrappers was a bonus.  Some of the recipes also featured frozen puff pastry sheets.

One of the other things we have noticed, many parts of the recipes are easily adaptable.  I often saw frozen green peas (thawed) stirred into the sweet potato mixture.  Instead of sweet potatoes, you could use pumpkin or butternut squash.  This may not be as authentic, but the taste is pretty much the same.  You just need to get in the kitchen and experiment!

Be sure to follow the “hop” and check out some of the other posts from my fellow Crew mates.  We will all be posting something new each day in keeping with our own themes.  One of my favorite ones to read yesterday was about Living History, check it out here.  You can find our main post, the starting point, right here.