Falafel

Despite my crappy equipment, I decided to make falafel at home. I bought a bag of dried chickpeas and followed this recipe from Epicurious. I let the beans soak for the equivalent of about a day and a half and followed the rest of the recipe pretty much as written. Of course, I only have a crappy mini-chopper, so I had difficulty blending it all but I did it in batches and it seemed to have a nice sticky texture and the smell was right. You know how something just smells like it's supposed to? well the mix just *smelled* like falafel. So yay!



Per the recipe, I let the dough sit in the fridge all day and then I made my balls. I used a tablespoon measuring spoon and added a little bit more to it (so I guess one might say, an oversized tablespoon? ;)) for the balls, rolled and flattened out a bit because I prefer them to be more like little patties than full round falafel balls. The ones that weren't for dinner that night went on this pan lined with plastic wrap for freezing.




Then it was time to fry. I used my new IKEA pan because it has nice high sides but heats really well and evenly. I only fry in grapeseed oil (sometimes mixed with canola) because I prefer the crispy and non-greasiness it gives me. Instead of deep frying I did more shallow frying, it's just easier and wastes less oil (but with falafel, it doesn't dirty the oil so I cooled and stored it for future use anyway, yay for not wasting!).


I was careful not to cook at too high a temp because I've had problems before when making falafel from a mix where it cooks too fast on the outside but the inside is still raw and crumbly. didn't want that to happen! So once the balls were nice and golden brown all around I took them out and drained. As you can see I decided upon making 6 for dinner. They were small balls so I figured that was a good amount.



Add pita bread and brown rice, and voila, homemade falafel dinner!


But the important question is: was it any good? :p Answer: kinda. the inside was very creamy (I am used to crumbly falafel in restaurants) - I don't know if that's because I let the chick peas soak so long that they absorbed more water or what but next time I will try just the 24h/overnight that the recipe suggests. Or maybe it's supposed to be creamier, maybe that's an authentic Israeli falafel - but I doubt it ;) I wish the recipe gave a little more guidance as to what the texture of the beans should be so that you know when they have soaked enough. Despite how careful I was cooking them, and the fact that they were nice and brown on the outside, I wonder if I should've let them cook another minute or so anyway because I think they were still a bit underdone inside. They were nice and golden, but in restaurants and stands, a lot of the times the falafel is just short of burnt, so maybe they could've stood a bit more cooking.

Lastly, h0w was the flavor. I think the components were there but I was worried about over-seasoning them because I don't like really strong falafel, especially with the herbs that some places will put into their mix, so I cut down on the seasoning a bit and wonder if it was a little too much. Still all in all not bad for my first attempt and I only used about a third of the bag of beans so I can try a couple things differently next time (like soaking not as long, more salt and red pepper flakes in the dough, etc.) . Plus it's dirt cheap. With the prices of food going up, I made three meals' or so worth of falafel with a third of a bag of chick peas (that cost about a dollar at Fresh & Easy), herbs that cost about 50 cents from Jon's, garlic and onion and red pepper flakes that I always keep around, and you get the idea. Cheap homemade tasty healthy food. Can't really beat that.

I wasn't that hungry so I didn't eat all six, figured I could save a couple and see how they reheat in the toaster for lunch, I'll follow up and let you know what happened and if that's a good option