Falafel with Tzatziki Sauce

Menu: Falafel with Tzatziki Sauce; Lemon Bulgur Pilaf with Almonds; Caesar Salad

Lessons learned:

1. Read new recipes through at least once before starting to cook.
2. While I cannot even remotely do falafel in balls, falafel patties work really well!  But next time I'll make them smaller.

Looking back through the blog after advertising it among my friends, I realized that my last several dinners have been Asian meals with seafood.  Oops.  Fortunately I changed it up tonight.  In my efforts to overcome my aversion to all beans other than the jelly variety, I tried to make falafel a month or so ago.  The filling was mouth-watering, but when I tried to deep fry the balls like I've had in restaurants, they completely fell apart.  So this time I took a chance by trying again with my in-laws, pan-frying them in hamburger shapes. And, yum!

This meal did trip me up a few times.  First of all, I needed dry chickpeas and the store where I happened to do my shopping for this weekend didn't have them.  I'm so very disappointed in you, Fresh Market.  Or I would be if not for your perfect croissants.  Of which I bought eight.  So, you are excused.  (Why did I go to Fresh Market?  Because I was taking Ben to a birthday party right next door on Saturday morning and it was, for once, the most convenient place to go.)

Then I almost forgot to start soaking the chickpeas yesterday.  As will probably become clear as this blog progresses, I don't do well with advance prep, but I'd like to get better.  Anyway, I used a recipe from Ina Garten (the Barefoot Contessa) for the tzatziki, and she recommended starting the sauce 6-8 hours before serving.  Um, no.  In my world, that just doesn't happen for a condiment.  I did make it during the kids' naptime and decided that would be good enough.

Finally, when I started making the pilaf I had in my mind that it was a quick recipe that would somehow cook brown rice in about 20 minutes.  I just wasn't thinking.  I didn't noticed that the recipe called for brown rice that was already cooked until I got to the part where I needed it!  BUT I thought fast and subbed in bulgur, which cooks very quickly.  And it turned out fabulous.  But I'd like to play around with it a little more, so I won't post the recipe quite yet.

Not really a meal that goes over well with the kids, but I feel like they aren't giving it a chance.  I'm going to keep making it.

Falafel Patties (from HTCEV by Mark Bittman)

1 3/4 cups dry chickpeas
2 cloves of garlic (actually I used four!)
1 small onion, quartered
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 scant teaspoon cayenne
1 cup chopped parsley
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
Neutral oil for frying (I used safflower)

In the afternoon of the day before you plan to cook falafel, put the beans in a large bowl or pot, cover them with water by 3-4 inches, and let them soak until you start cooking the next night's dinner.

Drain the beans and put them in a food processor with the rest of the ingredients, except the oil.  Let the machine run until the mixture is smooth.

Heat a generous amount of oil in a pan over medium/medium-high heat -- definitely more than enough to just cover the bottom of the pan.  When the oil is hot, put tablespoon-sized patties in the pan and fry each side until nicely browned -- it won't take long.  (In the picture above, you see I made hamburger-sized patties.  But the browned part is the best part, of course, so making smaller patties maximizes that.  It also might make the entree seem more appetizer-like, though, so I suppose that's something to consider.)

You can probably get about 40 small patties, and they're filling.  A serving would be about 5-6.  This is vegan, until you add the sauce below.  If you want to stay vegan, I'm sure there is an alternative to yogurt sauce that would work well.

Tzatziki Sauce (adapted from Ina Garten on Food Network)

1 pound plain yogurt
1 cucumber, peeled and seeded if necessary (unpeeled in the original recipe)
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1/2 cup sour cream
1 tablespoon champagne vinegar
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 teaspoons garlic (I increased this from the original recipe)
1 1/2 teaspoons dill
Ground black pepper to taste

OK, Ina says to drain the yogurt and cucumber, separately, for several hours.  That wasn't happening, so I drained the yogurt briefly in a mesh strainer, just to get some of the liquid out.  I poured that yogurt into my serving bowl, then grated the cucumber into the strainer and squeezed the liquid out through the strainer using paper towels.  I added the drier cucumber to the yogurt, then mixed in everything else and let the sauce sit in the fridge for three or four hours, where the flavors blended and the texture thickened nicely.  It was the perfect amount for the falafel.  But Ben enjoyed it on its own.