Mung Dal Paneer Samosa/Lentil and Paneer Stuffed Pastries

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amosa or Singhada (as we call them where I come from) always makes me nostalgic. I remember buying and treating on hot samosa from school and college canteen (which to me still is the best I have eaten till date) almost every other day. For the time when I was enjoying these crispy goodies - atleast for sometime - it would help me forget the dread of science and math classes! When at home, I remember when guests would visit during evening tea, serving samosa with tea was almost a given. My brother (a well known samosa fanatic) would keep waiting and dropping hints on what a great idea it would be to get some hot samosas. Papa, pretending to catch the hint, would hand him a ten rupee note. He would run over to the halwai shop at the corner of the street and get a dozen fresh out of the fryer for everyone ~ ahh! Can you believe samosas were 75 paise each back then!

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Daal- baati

This is one of my mom's most amazing dishes and is the most sought after by family and friends alike. She has made this dish for as long as I can remember. She has even gotten compliments from some guests who were even the natives of that state to which this dish belongs.
Daal baati is a very popular dish from the state of Rajasthan, a wholesome power packed delicious meal. Dal, or lentil curry, is made of several kind of lentils which are cooked along with the masalas to make a tasty dal or curry. Baati, a rounded ball of dough that's baked in a charcoal fire or oven. Baati is made out of wheat, gram flour, millet or a mix of maize flour served dunked in the delicious daal with loads of ghee, tastes heavenly mouthwatering!
Mom did tweak the original recipe a little. The original recipe does not have veggies in the daal and the baati is made with plain flour. The addition of veggies, I believe, makes an already great daal even better. Addition of spices in the baati flour makes it even tastier. Mom used to make it on a gas grill. My touch to this is just to make it in a regular oven. It is not as high on the list of favorites on hubby's list so I do not come around to make this dish very often. Guess I could not wait any more :)
I got a few recipes from my mom written down in a notebook that I brought with me to the US after I got married. It is hands-down the best cookbook among tons of others that I own. I had this one bookmarked in the notebook for a real long time and only finally got around to it. From hubby's reaction it appears it climbed up a few steps in his charts :)
Don't be deterred by the long list of ingredients. You find most in a typical indian spice rack. Once you have them together, the method is really simple.
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