.: evil jungle prince :.

With hundreds of newly ripe lemons available on the two trees in my backyard, I began to contemplate how I might make imaginative use of at least one or two of them. This is how I decided on today's lunch, which was potato and pea samosas with fresh cilantro relish. Both dishes use fresh lemon juice.

After grabbing a samosa pastry recipe from Hooked on Heat blog, I prepared the samosa stuffing with another recipe I had on hand. It varied a little from Hooked's recipe in that it used fresh green chillies and amchur (dried mango powder). I opted for this recipe because yesterday saw the arrival of a shipment of spices from iShopIndian.com and I was subsequently anxious to try using amchur for the first time. After taste-testing the filling, I was so glad I did. In times past when I have tried making samosas, there has always been something missing. This was it -- joy! It tasted just like an Indian restaurant samosa. This could be dangerous.

I ate my samosas with a fresh cilantro relish, which totally made the dish complete with its zesty, tangy taste-spike of fresh herbs and lemon juice.

1. To make it, I first fried a dried red chili, 1/4 tsp cumin seeds, 4 curry leaves, a bit of dried coconut flakes (in place of fresh shredded coconut which I lacked), 1/4 tsp fennel seeds, 2 tsp sugar, and a little salt to taste in a few drops of oil until the coconut turned brown. This was removed and then placed in the food processor.

2. I next added a bowl of fresh cilantro leaves and a handful of fresh mint leaves. To this I added the juice of two fresh lemons and pureed. This mixture was then chilled.

These were wonderful to eat. Samosas are one of those classic memory foods for me; biting into one brings back a flood of past sensations. My mind always associates the subtly-spiced taste of samosas with England in particular, where they can be purchased at every corner store. Sure, they may be deep fried and terribly unhealthy, but we have allow ourselves an indulgence from time to time, don't we?