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| Vegetable Samosas with a variety of condiments: Tamarind Sauce, Tamarind-Date Chutney, Mint Chutney and Mango Chutney |
During a recent trip to Maria Groceries, I saw something really interesting in one of their freezer cases: boxes of big, tasty-looking samosas. But they not only looked tasty... they looked familiar. In fact, they looked identical to the samosas served at our favorite Indian restaurant, India Star. With that in mind, I had to buy some.
The samosas are made in India and imported and distributed by Deep Foods, Inc. They distribute a lot of Indian foods, including a Tamarind-Date Sauce we really like. The box is marked "Institutional Punjabi Samosa." Each box includes 15 samosas, and the back of the box gives directions for preparing them (thaw, then deep fry). They're very reasonably priced, especially when you consider that they are restaurant-quality appetizers.
These turned out to be really, really great samosas, and it also turns out they taste as much like the ones at India Star as they look like the ones at India Star. In other words, they're identical.
Now, that said, I don't know with absolute certainty that India Star serves up mass-produced samosas rather than making their own. I just consider this extremely likely. I also don't really care. These are really, really good samosas, and I know from experience that making samosas can be pretty time-consuming, so I'm not going to begrudge a restaurant taking a short-cut so long as they serve up quality stuff.
I'm just glad I found a reliable source of really good, fast-to-prepare samosas. I cook a lot of Indian dishes, and having a quick, easy and reliably good appetizer to go with them is a good idea. These samosas give me yet another reason to shop at Maria Groceries.
I've a silly question about "Deep Foods" Tamarind-Date chutney. The jar says KEEP REFRIGERATED, but we bought it unrefrigerated. I'm hoping this is just an error on the jar and it should say keep refrigerated after opening. Do you know?
ReplyDeleteThanks!
Chutney is kind of like jam, in that you can buy it unrefrigerated, but after the jar is open, it's better to store in the fridge. Once open, the contents are much more likely to mold when left unrefrigerated, because the vacuum seal is broken when you open up the jar.
ReplyDeleteSometimes labels from different countries aren't translated very well into English, and I'm guessing that's why the jar's label wasn't as complete as you might have expected.
Hope that helps!
Juli
how much was the box of samosas? do you know where else they can be purchased?
ReplyDeleteSorry, I honestly can't remember how much per box. I know it seemed reasonable, though, especially compared to restaurant pricing. To find them in your area, you could check ethnic groceries. You may even find them in a Super-Walmart if there is enough of an Indian population to support stocking them.
ReplyDelete-Juli
Ok, so we were just at the store. The price was $8.99 for a box of 15. Hope that helps!
ReplyDelete-Juli