Falafels

August 21, 2001

Each New Year I would start having vague thoughts of doing mind-improving things. When our first son was a baby I decided my brain had taken an intellectual dive so I enrolled in a couple of distance-learning university courses. That certainly kept me occupied between tending the needs of a one-year-old, keeping the house running and dealing with the seemingly interminable morning sickness of my second pregnancy.

By the time my academic results came out (I did brilliantly, of course) I had two small people at home and so the studies went on the back-burner, fairly permanently as it turned out.

I was doing the usual New Year survey of night classes at local colleges about four years back when I spied a Middle Eastern cooking class. That seemed a whole lot more interesting than career-enhancing studies, so I enrolled.

The man who ran the course turned out to be an Iraq engineer who had settled in New Zealand and opened a restaurant. And so, for several weeks, he led us through some of his favourite recipes. It was a fun class and there was always something good to eat at the end. Occasionally our tutor's English would fail him on ingredients like spices and we would have to play a guessing game until we hit on the right name.

The other day I bought some frozen broad beans to have with a meal and my son recalled having to sit and peel broad beans for some dish a chef was working on. It reminded me of doing the same at one of the cooking classes for today's Falafel recipe. Falafels are tasty little patties that go well with a salad, some sauces and khoubiz - flat rounds of yeast dough cooked in a little oil in a frying pan. They're great finger food for parties and are also ideal if you are entertaining vegetarian friends.

Falafel

1 cup chickpeas
broad beans (1 cup dried or 2 cups frozen)
water
1 medium onion
2 cloves garlic
1/2 cup finely chopped parsley
pinch hot chilli
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
salt
freshly ground black pepper
oil for deep frying

Soak the chickpeas in three cups of cold water overnight. Defrost the broad beans and remove the skins. If using dried beans, soak in three cups cold water and leave overnight. If using dried beans and peas at least 15 hours' soaking is recommended.

Wash the soaked beans and peas in clean water, combine with roughly chopped onion and garlic and process in food processor. The mixture may need to be processed in two lots.

Combine with the parsley, spices, soda and add salt and pepper to taste. Knead well and leave to rest for 30 minutes.

Shape a tablespoon of the mixture at a time into balls then flatten into thick patties 4cm in diameter. Place on a tray and leave at 30 minutes at room temperature.

Deep-fry in hot oil and cook for about 5 minutes, turning to brown evenly. When well browned, remove and drain on paper towels.

Serve hot with tahini sauce, salsa and khoubiz.

Salsa

1 small can peeled tomato
1 medium onion
1 clove garlic
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 teaspoon chilli
1/2 teaspoon cumin

Fry onion until golden. Add spices and cook then add tomato and garlic. Leave over low heat until it thickens. Taste and make sure the tomatoes as well cooked and reduced.

Tahini sauce

2 cloves garlic
salt
1/2 cup tahini (sesame seed paste)
1/4 to 1/2 cup cold water
1/2 cup lemon juice

Mix well together.