Falafel Recipe

These are our friends and their 6-month-old daughter about to enjoy the spread. We made everything from scratch, including the flatbread and baba ghanoush, Israeli salad, sweet potato fries and of course the falafel...

This is adapted from Mark Bittman's "How to Cook Everything Vegetarian"

Note: Do NOT make the mistake I made on my first attempt, which was to substitute canned chick peas for dry. They dissolved disastrously in the oil. You don't cook the dry chick peas. You just soak them in plenty of water for 24 hours. Really. I was just being THAT lazy.

Also, Bittman goes light on the seasonings. I about doubled mine (reflected in the ingredient list) and that was good.

Ingredients

1 3/4 cup dried chickpeas
2+ cloves garlic, lightly crushed
1 small onion, quartered
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1-2 tablespoon ground cumin
Scant teaspoon cayenne or more to taste (I added much more than this)
1 cup chopped parsley or cilantro leaves
1 teaspoon salt
1/2-1 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Neutral oil, like grapeseed or corn, for frying

Method

Put the beans in a large bowl and cover with water by 3 or 4 inches; they will triple in volume. Soak for 24 hours, adding water if needed to keep beans submerged. Drain beans well (reserve soaking water) and transfer to a food processor. Add remaining ingredients except oil; pulse until minced but not pureed, scraping sides of bowl down as necessary; add soaking water 1 teaspoon at a time if necessary to allow machine to do its work, but no more than 1 or 2 tablespoons. Keep pulsing until mixture comes together. You are going for a gritty texture almost like dry couscous or quinoa, not a paste. You want plenty on texture for the optimum knobbliness in the crust when deep-fried. Taste, adding salt, pepper, cayenne or lemon juice to taste.
Put the oil in a large, deep saucepan to a depth of at least 2 inches; more is better. The narrower the saucepan the less oil you need, but the more oil you use the more patties you can cook at a time. Turn heat to medium-high and heat oil to about 350 degrees (a pinch of batter will sizzle immediately). I use an instant-read thermometer to monitor that the oil doesn't get too hot or cold in the cooking process.
Scoop heaping tablespoons of batter and shape into balls or small patties. Fry in batches, without crowding, until nicely browned, turning as necessary; total cooking time will be less than 5 minutes. Serve hot or at room temperature.



Two points: keep the amount of water you use when grinding the beans to an absolute minimum. More water makes grinding easier, but it also virtually guarantees that the batter will fall apart when it hits the hot oil.

Two: get the oil hot enough--350 yo 375 degrees. If you don't have a thermometer, just wait until the oil shimmers and then add a pinch of the batter. When it sizzles immediately, sinks about halfway to the bottom, then rises to the top, the oil is ready. If it sinks and stays down, the oil is too cold; if it doesn't sink at all, the oil is too hot.

Next week: The traditional Passover jap chae I will make for seder with friends.

Today is 3dpo. I have sore nips (starting yesterday, before I started progesterone). I went to acupuncture and fell into a deep sleep for over an hour. Could mean something, could mean nothing.