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!

A Vegetarian Sheperds Pie Even A Cattleman Can Love

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Most weeks I let Cynthia pick what we have for Meatless Monday dinner. I'm never disappointed, This week however, over the weekend I asked her to make a lentil Sheperds Pie. I had been bouncing around the internet and had seen a couple of different vegetarian recipes. We both love traditional Sheperds Pie, so it seemed a good idea to try a vegetarian version.

As she typically does, Cynthia decided to use the recipe as the only slightest of suggestions. What we ended up with was a lentil and mushroom Sheperds Pie that was richly satisfying and gave both a mouth feel and taste that was distinctively "meaty" but was completely vegetarian.

Here's what she came up with.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cup French green lentils
1 small onion

4 cloves

1 garlic clove

8 oz package of baby portobello mushrooms, diced
2 tsp grape seed oil
1 small shallot

1/2 tsp thyme

 1/4 cup Maderia
1 oz sweet butter

2 carrots, 1/4 inch diced

1 leek, white part in 1/2 inch dice, green part fine chopped

1 small turnip, 1/2 inch dice

1 stalk celery, 1/4 inch dice

1 tbsp butter

1 tbsp flour

1 tsp gravy master

1/2 cup mushroom stock, made from Better than Bullion

1/2 cup frozen peas

1/2 cup frozen corn

 4-5 medium Yukon Gold potatoes

Preparation (Lentils)

• Cook lentils in water with the garlic, thyme and the small onion studded with 4 cloves Bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer until tender, 30-45 minutes. Set aside.

Preparation (Vegetables)

• Fry mushrooms in a very hot pan with a small pat of butter and grape seed oil (for vegan, all grape seed oil)
• Add finely chopped shallot and then de-glaze pan with Madeira (Marsala, Port, Cognac, and even water will work if you prefer no alcohol)
• Add carrots, leeks, turnips and celery
• Add butter (for vegan, not dairy substitute), flour, Gravy Master and mushroom stock
• Salt and pepper to taste. Cook to a firmness you prefer
• Add frozen peas just long enough to defrost. (in season, fresh peas would be nice)
• Transfer to a mixing bowl and combine with lentils

  
Preparation (Potatoes)

• Simmer quartered potatoes in milk (we use milk to add a creaminess to our mashed potatoes, for vegan, use water). You can mix in turnip, parsnip, celeriac, apples, rutabaga, sauteed cabbage or onion or both, fresh herb pesto to make the potatoes as fancy as you want....you get the idea)

• When cooked mash the potatoes and fold the frozen corn into the mash.

Preparation (the final dish)

• Butter (or vegan substitute) a 10# casserole dish (it should be at least 2" deep)
  
• Add vegetable and lentil mix.

• Spoon, pipe or add anyway you like (be creative!) the potato and corn on top of the vegetables (we would also consider polenta in place of the potatoes)

• Bake in a 375 degree F oven until the potatoes began to brown and the vegetables are bubbling. Remove from oven and serve steaming hot. Enjoy!

Dairy Free Mexican Chocolate Pudding...

You've read it here before. I'm not much of a dessert guy. It's not that I don't like sweets, I just prefer savory foods and I have to put a lid on the calorie count somewhere. Last night however, as part of our weekly Meatless Monday dinner, Cyn made a dairy free, vegan, Mexican chocolate pudding that was pretty amazing. Once again she has managed to successfully sneak tofu into my diet - and get me to like it! If you love rich chocolaty desserts, you'll love this.

Ingredients
1 14 oz package of silken tofu
12 oz of semi sweet chocolate chips (she used Ghirardelli)
1/3 cup simple syrup (equal parts sugar and water brought to a boil)
2 tsp cocoa powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp chile powder

Preparation

• Melt chocolate in a double boiler, cool
• fold in the tofu, simple syrup, cocoa powder, cinnamon and chile powder
• blend on high speed for 1-1 1/2 minutes (using a hand mixer may take a little longer)
• refrigerate the mixture in a container until fully chilled and set

This recipe makes approximately 8 servings.

Really? Could it be easier?  The texture is wonderfully smooth. The taste has a chocolate depth from the cocoa powder and the cinnamon and chile (used in a lot of Mexican chocolate recipes) give just a noticeable back note of heat. One little hint: the better chocolate you use, the better this will taste.

Enjoy!

Farro - no, not the Egyptian King, the grain....

From Wikipedia: There is much confusion or disagreement about exactly what farro is. Emmer, spelt, and einkorn are called farro in Italy, sometimes (but not always) distinguished as farro medio, farro grande, and farro piccolo, respectively. Regional differences in what is grown locally and eaten as farro, as well as similarities between the three grains, may explain the confusion. Barley and farro may be used interchangeably because of their similar characteristics. Spelt is much more commonly grown in Germany and Switzerland and, though called dinkel there, is eaten and used in much the same way, and might therefore be considered farro. Common wheat may also be prepared and eaten much like farro, in which form it is often referred to as wheatberries.

So, we had farro for dinner last night and, according to the paragraph above, there isn't even a really good definition of what it is! I can tell you though, prepared this way, it was delicious. Cyn put the recipe together and asked that I share it here.


Farro with Mushrooms and Sun Dried Tomatoes
(Serves 4)


Ingredients
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)
1/2 cup chopped onion

1 1/4 cups sliced shitake mushrooms
1 1/4 cups whole white mushrooms (1" dice)






6 oz farro (pearled if possible)

 

1 tbsp soy sauce

2 cups vegetable stock (water may be substituted)

1/4 cup sun dried tomatoes, sliced into strips

1/4 cup marsala or sherry

1 tbsp chopped Italian parsley

rosemary sprigs for garnish

Preparartion
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F


1. In a braising pan on medium high heat add the olive oil and onion. Stir about 2 mins until soft. Add the mushrooms and farro, cooking 2-3 mins to toast the farro. At this point there should be some noticeable caramelization on the bottom of the pan. 

 Add the soy sauce and stock. Stir to de-glaze the pan. Bring the mixture to a simmer and cover.

2. Transfer covered braising pan to the 400 degree oven; cook for 35 minutes.


3. Remove from oven and let rest for 10 minutes (this is important!)


4. Stir in sliced sun dried tomatoes and parsley. Garnish with rosemary. 


As a side dish we made broccoli rabe which was added to a fry pan with slow roasted red onion, fresh garlic, roated garlic and Thai red pepper and a tablespoon of EVOO. Just add the broccoli rabe and a couple of ounces of water, cover and sweat it down until cooked!


The farro had an almost nutty flavor and the cooked consistency reminded me of wild rice. Somehow the flavor profile was both sweet and salty. The dish turned out to be surprisingly filling.

Our beverage of choice for this meal was a Sam Adams offering that I had not seen before. This small batch run of Tasman Red IPA was really good. I found it in a small liquor store when we visited Connecticut over the holidays. Too bad I didn't buy more of it.

P.S. Check out the new "About Me" and "Favorite Photo" Pages I've added!