Falafel me…please
Peace through food, why not? Nothing else seems to work…so why not food.
Falafel is a favorite street food of both Arabs and Jews. But Arabs make it with Fava beans and Jews make it with Chickpeas because Jews have a propensity to Favism. Hmmm…so much for world peace through food.
We love Falafel and I must confess that I’ve never thought of making them any other way than via a falafel mix I bought in bulk at Willy Street Cooperative. But this time I thought about it and realized that if I won’t use Bisquik, I shouldn’t use a Falafel mix. So I went trolling on the web for a recipe and eventually settled on this one at epicurious (and then I made some changes to it).
Falafel isn’t a meal without Pita Bread, so that was the next recipe I acquired. I already have a trusty recipe for Tabbouleh, and while I would have loved some Tzatziki, I had no cucumber and I was unwilling to go out. The last piece in the puzzle that was dinner was Kofta. I’ve been making Kofta for years because when you buy beef in a quarter-side from the farmer you end up with a lot if ground beef, Kofta is a delicious way to use it. I added the zest of one orange after reading Elise’s recipe for Greek Meatballs…wow that was a great addition.
So here’s the menu and the recipes. It was all delicious, not quite perfect (but it rarely is), and while I wish I had more pictures everyone was hungry and the food was gone before I could shoot it. Never, and I mean never, try to shoot photos of food that a teenager wants to eat. It just isn’t safe. Everyone loved the Falafel. It was lighter and squished easier in the Pita Bread. The Pita Bread was a huge hit even though only 25% inflated to create pockets (I’ve got to work on that). The Tabbouleh was made as usual except instead of fresh tomatoes I used my special preserved tomatoes. That worked well. We grilled the Kofta outside on the Weber gas grill as always, but the fierce north wind made it take twice as long as usual…but still it was delicious.
Last but not least, as we cooked we ate my Beet Pickles..they were excellent.
Falafel
adapted from epicurious.com
1 can chickpeas
1 onion, roughly chunked for the food processor
1 large handful of parsley, rough chopped for the food processor
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
4 cloves of garlic
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon baking powder
6-8 tablespoons flour
Put the parsley, onions, and garlic in the bowl of the food processor and pulse until chopped. Add the chickpeas in a large bowl pulse some more. Add the seasonings, salt, baking powder, and flour and pulse until mixed. Mixture should be thick and almost not stick to your hands. Tranfer to a container, cover and refrigerate for at leat 2 hours.
Form the chickpea mixture into balls. I used a tablespoon scoop. Heat 2 inches of canola oil in a deep pan or pot. Fry the balls until they brown then turn them, cooking all sides until golden brown. Drain on paper towels.
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Tabbouleh
1 cup Bulgar
1 large handful parsley, chopped fine
2 cloves garlic, chopped fine
1 white onion, chopped fine and soaked in ice cold water for 2 minutes
4 Roma tomatoes, chopped fine
lemon juice
olive oil
salt / pepper
1 teaspoon ground cumin
Place the Bulgar in a large bowl. Cover it with boiling water and cover the bowl with a plate. Let it sit for 30 minutes.
After 30 minutes add the chopped vegetables. Add lemon juice and olive oil to taste. Season with salt, pepper, and cumin. Chill for 1 hour, serve.
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Pita Bread
Adapted from Tummy Treasure
2 teaspoons active dry yeast
3 cups unbleached flour (I used 1/3 white wheat and 2/3 white)
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons sugar
1 cup water
2 tablespoons olive oil
Throw it all into your mixer bowl and let it mix until its combined. Switch to the bread hook and work it for 5 minutes. Place it in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with saran wrap and let it rise for an hour or so.
Preheat oven to 500°. Shape it into 8 circles, let them rest, covered, for 10 minutes or so. Place them on a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake for 8 - 15 minutes. They should (may) puff up, then brown. Or they may just brown. Either way they are tasty. When you pull them out wrap them in a clean dishcloth and place them under a bowl, this will keep them soft.
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Kofta
with inspiration from Simply Recipes
2 cloves garlic, chopped fine
1 jalapeño, chopped fine
3 large shallots, chopped fine
1 pound ground beef
Zest of one orange
large handful of fresh mint, chopped finely
large handful of fresh parsley or cilantro, chopped finely
Salt and pepper
Mix this all together in a large bowl. Transfer it to a Ziploc bag and let it sit all day.
Soak the bamboo skewers for 30 minutes or so.
Form around skewers. Shape into long, flat logs. Grill over open flame. Serve with Fage Greek Yogurt. These are fabulous.
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4 Responses to “Falafel me…please”
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That looks like a fantastic meal to me! I’m excited to see that the pita bread was good with a little whole wheat thrown in. I need to work on the puffing as well… if all else fails, the pita breads make fantastic quick pizzas for my son for lunches.
I didn’t wait long enough between shaping and baking. I don’t think I allowed more than a 5 minute wait and I let it rise too much in the bowl. They were delicious and if I time it all right they may puff better the next time. I think they would be good for brown bag lunches too.
I love falafel and I’ve always made it from scratch. That was until we discovered King of Falafel. Their falafel sandwiches are excellent. We usually call ahead and order them as takeout along with their roasted red pepper hummus (M’hamara) and yogurt cheese (Labnee), which is served with pita triangles. http://www.kingoffalafel.com/Menu.htm Your pictures are mouth-watering though, so now I’m thinking I may need to try my hand at making these at home.
Oh, this brings me back to my early days at UW-Madison and all those lunches at Freddie’s Falafel cart on the library mall. I will always associate falafel with summer in Madison.