Falafel

Falafel has been on my to-make list for the longest. I don’t like deep frying-being calorie conscious is one reason, but the other important reason is I don’t like to deal with all that used oil. If I ever make a deep fried dish, I make sure that I use the oil only once for deep frying and the leftover oil gets used in everyday dishes 1tsp at a time. I also make sure that I transfer the leftover oil from the frying pan to a smaller container to make sure that the pan doesn't form an oil stain and for easy handling.

Nice little tip I learnt from Martha Stewart for disposing used oil is to use lots of paper towels to soak up the oil before washing. Never ever drain oil directly in the sink; this will adversely affect your drainage system.

Ok since the housekeeping is taken care of; let me move onto the falafel now. The recipe is from Vegetarian Times magazine and I had it bookmarked forever now. Finally got to make it this past weekend when we had friends over for a “Middle-Eastern” themed dinner party.

The recipe uses canned chickpeas and shallow fries the patties, which is probably not authentic, but the end result was just as yummy as the fried ones. I doubled the recipe and was able to make 30 patties, enough for 8-10 servings.

Recipe from Vegetarian Times Magazine.
Ingredients (makes 15-16 medium sized patties):
Chickpeas – 1 16oz. can, rinsed and drained
Tahini – 3tbsp
Garlic clove – 1, minced
Egg – 1
Lemon zest – 2tbsp, finely grated
Lemon juice – 1tsp
Ground Coriander – 1 tsp
Ground Cumin – 1½ tsp
Chili powder – ½ tsp
Salt – to taste
All-purpose flour – ¼ cup
Onion – 2tbsp, finely chopped
Parsley – 2tbsp, finely chopped
Baking powder – ½ tsp

Method:

• In a food processor, pulse chickpeas, garlic, tahini, egg, lemon zest & juice, salt and spices until mostly smooth, but still a little chunky.
• Transfer to a bowl and add flour, onions and parsley. Mix well to combine. Make ¼” thick patties with about ¼ cup of chickpea mixture.
• I lined the patties up on a foil covered baking sheet, wrapped them in plastic wrap and refrigerated them the night before I was going to make the falafel. I took them out of the fridge an hour before frying to take the chill off.
• Pour olive oil into a shallow pan to cover about ¼” in the bottom. Add the patties in batches and fry on medium-high flame and fry for about 3 mins per side or until golden brown. Make sure that the patties don’t touch while frying.
• Drain the patties on paper towel lined platter. Repeat with remaining patties.

I served them with Pita bread, quick tahini sauce (½ cup each of tahini & yogurt mixed with ground cumin, salt & pepper, lemon juice), store-bought hot falafel chutney and cucumber & tomato salad. Enjoy!!

Gujarati Dal for ICC January

For this month’s Indian Cooking Challenge (ICC), Valli chose Gujarati Dal from Sukham Ayu cookbook. I own a copy of the book, but never made this dish, so thank you valli for picking this nutritious and delicious dish for ICC. This post also is the last in our 7 day mini marathon. As I said earlier the marathon has been great experience and an opportunity to get to know so many talented bloggers that I didn’t know before. I’ve bookmarked quite a few recipes and I hope to try them pretty soon. Coming to the Gujarati dal recipe.

I substituted some of the ingredients due to lack of availability. I cook with yam very frequently, but didn’t have any on hand when making the dish; I’m going to make this dish strictly per the recipe again when I have all the ingredients on hand.

Ingredients:
Toor dal – ½ cup
Tamarind: 2tbsp
Cluster beans (Goru chikkudu kaya) – ¼ cup, thawed if frozen
Green chilies – 2, slit
Ginger – 1” piece, finely chopped
Peanuts – 1tbsp (I used unsalted roasted peanuts)
Ground Coriander – 2tsp
Ground Cumin – 1tsp
Jaggery – 1tsp
Turmeric – ½ tsp
Garam masala – ½ tsp
Coriander leaves – ½ cup, chopped
Salt – to taste

For tempering:
Mustard seeds (Aavalu)– 1/2 tsp
Fenugreek seeds (Menthulu) – 1/4 tsp

Cumin Seeds - 1/2 tsp
Dry red chili – 2
Curry leaves – 5-6
Asafoetida – pinch

Method:

• Pressure cook toor dal with 2 cups until very soft. When cool enough to handle, mash dal smooth.
• Add all ingredients except for garam masala, coriander leaves and tempering ingredients to the smooth dal along with 1 cup of water. Bring to a simmer on medium-low flame and cook for 15-20 minutes until all the flavors are mingle.
• In a small sauce pan, heat 2tsp ghee for the tempering; add mustard seeds and once they start sputtering, lower the heat and add fenugreek seeds. Next add the dry red chili, hing and curry leaves.
• Once everything starts to sputter and smell aromatic, add it quickly to the dal.
• Add garam masala, salt and coriander leaves to the dal; bring to a boil and simmer for another 5 minutes before turning off the heat.

Serve hot with steamed rice or roti.


Don't forget to check out what the other Marathoners are cooking up in their kitchens.

Azeema, Bhagi, Champa, Sowmya, Gayathri Anand, Gayathri Kumar, Harini, Jay, Kamalika, Mina, Meena, Padma, PJ, Priya Mahadevan, PriyaSuresh, PriyaVaasu, Rujuta, Saraswathi, Savitha, Shanavi, Smitha, Srivalli, Suma,Usha,Veena.

Deconstructed Vegetarian S’mores

6th day of Blogging Marathon, I can’t believe I posted continuously for the past 6 days. Yay.. for me. I’m so happy to be a part of this marathon as there is a certain sense of camaraderie among the marathoners and the kind of constructive feedback we have been getting from each other has been really helpful. All thanks to Valli for starting and organizing this event and hopefully I can be a part of your future marathons too.

So for today’s Kid-friendly recipe and to celebrate Valentine’s Day, I made these super simple and easy deconstructed s’mores that happen to be vegetarian too. I used Marshmallow fluff that uses egg whites instead of gelatin making this a vegetarian dessert. Also since I was making this at home and not on a camp fire, I wanted the dish to be eatable with a spoon. Google search led me to this recipe and the end result was equally exquisite.

Here’s the recipe:

Ingredients:
Graham cracker crumbs – 6 tsp, divided
Instant Chocolate pudding mix – ½ of 1 package
Marshmallow fluff – ½ cup
Pure vanilla extract – ½ tsp

Method:

• Sprinkle 1½ tsp of graham cracker crumbs in the bottom of four 7 oz. ramekins. Gently spread the crumbs so that they cover the base.
• Follow package instructions and prepare the instant chocolate pudding. Divide the pudding evenly between the ramekins. Pour the mixture slowly to avoid the crumbs being disturbed; pouring along the side of the ramekin helps a lot.
• Place the marshmallow fluff in a small ziplock bag. Squish to one corner, tightly twist the top to make a piping bag. Snip the corner and gently pipe the fluff onto the pudding.
• Let sit for about an hour in the fridge to allow marshmallow to set. Use a crème brulee torch if you have one or broil in the oven with the oven door open until the tops are golden brown. Serve immediately topped with some fresh blueberries.

The top gets stiff and crackly and the combination of the crisp marshmallow layer with the smooth chocolate layer and the sweet and tart blueberries..... mmmmm... this definitley made our Valentine's day special. Hope all of you enjoyed your Valentine's day.

Don't forget to check out what the other Marathoners are cooking up in their kitchens.

Azeema, Bhagi, Champa, Sowmya, Gayathri Anand, Gayathri Kumar, Harini, Jay, Kamalika, Mina, Meena, Padma, PJ, Priya Mahadevan, PriyaSuresh, PriyaVaasu, Rujuta, Saraswathi, Savitha, Shanavi, Smitha, Srivalli, Suma,Usha,Veena.

Jelly Filled Donuts

5th day of our Blogging Marathon and today I made some Jelly filled donuts for the little one (and for the adults too, of course). My son loves donuts from Dunkin Donuts (a very famous donut chain in the US), but we don't buy from there very often which is why my son craves for donuts once in a while. He'll ask me when I drop him off at daycare, "Are you going to bring me some donuts when you pick me up in the evening?". I usually end up giving him some excuses for not bring anything in the evening, but this time I promised him that I'll make some at home.

Recipe is from Vegetarian Times magazine and I had it bookmarked for quite sometime now. They are a little time consuming to make (takes about 3-4 hours including the rising time), but the end product is well worth the effort. These little muchkins are so cute that I couldn't help but pop at least 2 at every stage of making. They are quite addictive.

To make a little nutritious, I used 1 cup of whole-wheat pastry flour and no sugar added jelly to fill them.

Recipe adapted from Vegetarian Times Magazine.

Ingredients:

All purpose flour - 1½ cups
Whole-wheat pastry flour - 1 cup (or just use 2½cups All-purpose flour)

Yeast - 2¼ tsp (or 0.25oz sachet)

Sugar - ¼ cup plus 1 tsp, divided

Salt - 1 tsp

Baking powder - ½tsp

Nutmeg - ½tsp

Vegan margarine - 3tbsp, melted (I used Earth Balance vegan butter)

Superfine Sugar - ½cup (I ground regular sugar in the blender to get the superfine sugar)

Jelly/ Jam - ½ cup (I used seedless blackberry jam, but you can use any seedless jam/jelly, raspberry would be awesome too)

Method:

• Mix yeast, 1tsp sugar with 1 cup of warm water (110°F) in a measuring cup. Let stand for 5 minutes or until the mixture is frothy and smells yeasty.
• Whisk together flours, remaining sugar, salt, baking powder and nutmeg in a large bowl. Grease separate bowl with oil.
• Stir yeast mixture into flour mixture with a wooden spoon until sticky dough forms. Add up to ¼ cup warm water to make smooth dough.
  
• Stir in the melted margarine.
• Dough is very soft and sticky at this stage. Turn it onto a well floured surface and knead for 6-8 minutes using extra flour as kneaded, until the dough is soft, smooth and pliable.
• Transfer to the oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap or towel and let rise in a warm place for 1½ hours.
  
• Flour a baking sheet. Roll the dough into ¼" thick round on a well-floured surface. Cut into circles using 2" round cutter and place them on the floured baking sheet. (I used the lid of a Bru bottle as my cutter.) Loosely cover with plastic wrap and let rest for 15 minutes.

• Heat oil until hot but not smoking. Fry donuts in oil for 3-5 minutes, or until deep golden brown on all sides, flipping 2-3 times. Drain on paper-towel lined baking sheet.

• Roll the donuts while still warm in superfine sugar. Cool.

• Poke small hole in side of each donut with a toothpick or a skewer. Using a pastry bag fitted with small round tip, fill each donut with 1tsp of jam/jelly.

Don't forget to check out what the other Marathoners are cooking up in their kitchens.

Azeema, Bhagi, Champa, Sowmya, Gayathri Anand, Gayathri Kumar, Harini, Jay, Kamalika, Mina, Meena, Padma, PJ, Priya Mahadevan, PriyaSuresh, PriyaVaasu, Rujuta, Saraswathi, Savitha, Shanavi, Smitha, Srivalli, Suma,Usha,Veena.