Making Falafel for Meatless Monday

One of the advantages of Meatless Mondays that I've written about previously is the ongoing pressure/desire to stray out of our comfort zone and into less than familiar home cooking territory. This week, I suggested we try making falafel, the ubiquitous Middle Eastern street food that is now commonly found in most major US metropolitan areas. Why not? After all, we love chickpeas -- and they're deep fried -- what a deal!

Wading into the internet for a workable home recipe, we ended up in a familiar place. Seems that lately all roads lead to Mark Bittman, our "go to" New York Times food guy. Here is his recipe for falafel.

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cups of dried chickpeas
• 2 cloves of garlic, lightly crushed
• 1 small onion, quartered
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tbsp ground cumin
• scant tsp of cayenne (or to taste)
• i cup chopped parsley (or cilantro)
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• Neutral oil (grapeseed or corn for frying)

Preparation

• Put the beans in a large bowl and cover with water by 4 to 4 inches. Soak overnight. Expect the beans to triple in volume.
• Drain beans and reserve the soaking water. Transfer to a food processor. (Note: we are fortunate to have a VitaMix blender. To get the proper consistency, a strong blender is needed). Add the remaining ingredients except the oil. Pulse until minced but not pureed. Add small amounts (no more than a tablespoon at a time) of the soaking water if needed to allow your blender to work. Adding too much water will make blending easier but will insure that your falafel falls apart during cooking. Taste, adding salt, pepper, cayenne or lemon juice to taste.
• Add oil to a deep sauce pan. Set heat to medium high and heat to 350 F (if you have thermometer, use it).
• Scoop heaping tablespoons of the batter and shape into balls or small patties. Fry in batches, without crowding, until golden brown, turning as needed. Total cooking time will be less than 5 minutes. Serve hot or at room temp.

Traditionally, falafel is served in a kind of sandwich made with pita bread, a salad made from cucumber, green pepper and tomato all diced and lightly dressed with oil and lemon (we used white balsamic in place of the lemon juice). It is typically finished with a tahini sauce. The sandwiches can either be in the pita pocket or in an open face style, eaten with a knife and fork. Either way, they are delicious, and have a heartiness that makes you forget there is no meat involved. If you've had falafel on the street and liked it, try making it at home. If you haven't had it before, I highly recommend you try it!

Are You Keen For Quinoa?

Hard to pronounce (it's keen-wa), this pseudo-cereal is not, as many believe, a grain. In fact, it is a crop grown mostly for its edible seeds. It is more related to beets, spinach and tumbleweeds than to a typical grass family grain.Quinoa is a highly nutritious, complete protein source, due to its balanced amino acids. It's high in dietary fiber and magnesium and is gluten free.

I'll admit that I was pretty unfamiliar with quinoa before I started my Meatless Monday quest back in November. Since then, I have been reading about it and have seen quite a few delicious recipes around the internet. When we talked about what to have for Meatless Monday dinner, Cyn suggested quinoa. She dove into her vast collection of cookbooks and found a recipe from one of our favorites, Mark Bittman's, The Food That Matters. Here is his recipe for Spicy Chipotle Quinoa with Corn and Black Beans. As always, Cyn put her personal touches on the dish. I'll note them in italics. The rest is from Mr. Bittman.

Ingredients
3 tbsp olive oil
1 onion chopped
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 tbsp chopped fresh oregano or 1 tsp dried
1/4 cup quinoa rinsed and drained
salt and black pepper
2 (or more) canned chipotle chilies, minced, with some of their adobe sauce
1 cup cooked or canned black beans drained
1/2 cup corn kernels, frozen is OK
1 1/2 cups vegetable stock, beer or water
lime wedges

Preparation

• Put the oil in a large skillet over medium heat
• When hot, add onion and garlic, cooking until onion is soft (about 5 mins)
•  Add the chipotles and some of the adobo (this is pretty hot stuff, so use it carefully) and the oregano continuing to stir for about 1 minute
• Increase heat to medium high, add the quinoa and the salt and pepper. Continue to cook stirring frequently, for 3-5 minutes
• Add the beans, corn and stock and bring the mixture to a boil.
• Cover and lower the heat to low. Cook undisturbed for 15 minutes.
• Uncover and test the quinoa for doneness. If still crunchy, make sure there is enough liquid to keep the bottom of the pan moist, recover and cook until tender. Salt and pepper to taste. Serve warm with lime wedges.
• Cynthia added the following to the plates dish - sliced green onion, sliced avocado, a dollop of sour cream and a bit more of the adobo sauce since we like the heat.

We loved the combination of hot and spicy and cool and refreshing. The quinoa was a revelation to me and I can assure you we will have it again soon.

Best Homemade Bread, Ever

We love good bread, and why not, it's really just solid beer, right? OK, maybe the alcohol content isn't there in bread, but I digress.

We don't bake a lot of bread at home. When we do though, we have a favorite recipe. It makes a loaf that is super crunchy on the outside and almost creamy in the middle. We first stumbled upon the recipe  in Mark Bittman's Dining and Wine column  in the New York Times. He attributes it to Jim Lahey of the Sullivan Street Bakery in NYC. Here is the best part - there is no kneading required!

Nothing better on a Sunday morning than warm bread right out of the oven. The biggest challenge is usually giving it enough time to adequately cool before attacking it. Here is what you can expect

Seriously, it will look exactly like the picture. One note: after two or three tries we changed one thing in the recipe - we tripled the salt. The flavor of the bread improved dramatically and the texture, both in and out, remained the same. You can find the recipe here

If you try it, I'd love to know what you think..