Mushroom falafel with cucumber yoghurt
June 26, 2013
There is a fab Middle Eastern restaurant in Providence call
East Side Pockets (http://www.eastsidepocket.com/)
which has completely sparked my recent obsession with Middle Eastern style
dining.
Here’s my version of a complete Middle Eastern hero-
falafel.
Ingredients (I made 15 falafel from these ingredients)
Falafel-
1 cup diced white mushrooms
I small white onion
½ cup plain flour- plus a little
extra for dusting
1 can chickpeas (drained)
1 tsp sesame oil
1 egg
Zest of a lemon
1 tsp ground cumin
2 cloves garlic
Juice of half a lemon
A handful size bunch of fresh
coriander (cilantro)
Half a handful sized bunch of
fresh parsley
Oil for frying- I used corn oil
Salt and pepper
Cucumber yoghurt-
Half a cucumber (about 4 inches
long)
1 cup greek yoghurt
2 tsp dried mint
Salt
Method:
Finely dice your mushrooms, garlic
and onion and add to a frying pan with the cumin, gently fry in the sesame oil
until soft. Sesame oil does not have as high a smoking point as corn or
sunflower oil so be sure to fry on a gentle heat. Remove the mixture form the
pan and spread out onto a large plate then pop in the fridge to cool.
Drain the chickpeas well and pour
them into a large mixing bowl. Finely chop the parsley and coriander (cilantro)
then add them to the mixing bowl along with all the other falafel ingredients.
When the mushroom and onion mixture is cool add this as well.
A lot of falafel recipes call for
blending of the ingredients or mashing them to make a smooth paste, there is
nothing wrong with this and you will still get a beautiful flavour but I’m a
fan of texture. Using your hands, scrunch the ingredients together and mash
with your fist to create a well texture mix that have some whole chick peas,
some crushed ones and some smooth paste. This means that when you fry the
falafel the ingredients that have been reduced to paste will hold the shape of
the patties but you’ll still have some good bite from the whole ingredients.
Spread a little flour on a plate
and make your falafel, scoop a tablespoon sized portion on to your floured hand
and roll into a ball, then flatten so it’s about half an inch thick. If the
falafel gets a bit stick, dab you palm onto the floured plate. Repeat until all
your mixture has been made into patties, heat your frying oil in a large pan,
you are not deep frying these falafel but you do want a nice crisp shell so
glug in enough oil so that it will come about a quarter of the way up each
falafel.
Fry the falafel for about 2
minutes on each side until they are a beautiful golden brown, then set them
aside on a plate covered in kitchen towel for the excess oil to drain off so
they stay crisp.
You can serve these up straight
away or pop in the fridge to keep for a few days, they can be eaten hot or cold
and can be reheated in a dry pan by dry frying for about a minute on each side
on a medium heat.
To make the yoghurt sauce, peel
the cucumber and cut it in half lengthways. Use a teaspoon to scoop out the
watery seedy inside then chop into large chunks, pop in a mixing bowl (or
regular blender) with the yoghurt, salt and mint and blend away- I used my
trusty stick blender!
Serve the falafel up simply with
the yoghurt sauce or in an oven warmed pitta or with feta cheese and tomato
relish (see my relish recipe later in the week!) for an exciting vegetarian
alternative to a rather sad looking veggie burger!
0 comments