Falafel for Everyone

Menu Note:

• I have found no better recipe for tahini sauce than the one in Madelain Farah's richly authentic cookbook Lebanese Cuisine. It is reproduced here with only two small changes.

The Ingredients (for 10 people):

• 6 to 8 cloves of garlic
• salt
• 2 to 3 lemons—to make 50 ml (or ½ cup plus 2 tbsp) of juice
• 120 ml (or ½ cup) of sesame tahini
• 1 medium cucumber
• 475 ml (or 1 pint) of yogurt, preferably full-cream, Greek style yogurt
• 30 cc (or 2 tbsp) of chopped fresh dill
• 30 ml (or 2 tbsp) of salad grade olive oil
• 1 medium zucchini
• 425 g (or 3 cups) of falafel mix
• Cooking grade olive oil
• 6 rounds of whole grain pita bread, cut into halves or thirds
• Tomatoes and lettuce

The Method:

1. First peel all the garlic cloves and force them through a garlic press, then mash them together with about 8 cc (or 1½ tsp) of salt until they look foamy or feel somewhat slimy. 
2. Divide the garlic mash into two equal portions.

The Tahini Sauce

1. Add the sesame tahini to one portion of the garlic mash and mix well until it has thickened somewhat.
2. Add 120 ml (or ½ cup) of lemon juice and stir until thoroughly blended.
3. Add 60 ml (or ¼ cup) of water and stir until thoroughly blended.
4. To change the consistency of the sauce, add small amounts of water (to thin) or sesame tahini (to thicken).

The Tzatziki

1. Add the yogurt to one portion of the garlic mash and stir to blend.
2. Grate the cucumber and squeeze out as much of the accumulating liquid as possible.
3. Add the cucumber, dill, olive oil, and 30 ml (or 2 tbsp) of lemon juice to the yogurt mixture and stir to blend thoroughly.

The Falafel

1. Grate the zucchini, squeeze out excess liquid, and place it in a bowl with the falafel mix.
2. Add the amount of water required by the falafel mix package instructions and stir until thoroughly blended.
3. Allow the mixture to rest according to the package instructions.
4. Shape the mixture into balls of the desired size, depending on which method you use to cook them.

     Frying falafel balls:

1. Pour cooking grade olive oil into a pot or pan to a depth of about 4 cm (or 1½ in) and heat on medium high setting until a small amount of falafel mixture dropped into the oil immediately sizzles and floats.
2. Lower ping-pong size balls into the oil. (I find it easiest to work in batches of four or five at a time, with about one minute between batches.)
3. Turn the balls over after one minute and take them out after 2 to 3 minutes of frying, and place them on paper towels to drain.

     Baking Falafel Balls:

1. Heat the oven to 230°C (or 450°F).
2. Pour oil into each cup of a mini-muffin pan to a depth of about 3 mm (or ⅛ in).
3. Place falafel balls approximately 2.5 cm (or 1 in) in diameter into the muffin cups and bake them for 10 minutes, then turn each ball over and bake for another 10 minutes.

 The Story:

Back in the day, I once made falafel from scratch, using one of the recipes in Lebanese Cuisine as a rough guide with respect to seasonings, which I usually add with a heavy hand. The recipe asked me to soak dried fava beans in water for 3 to 4 days, changing the water every day. Luckily, I found some frozen fresh fava beans in the local supermarket, and dispensed with half a week of time. However, the next step is to peel the fava beans. They are big beans, but peeling them with (even then) arthritic fingers and diminishing eyesight was a painstaking chore. The rest of the recipe was easy—grinding the beans with onion, garlic, and seasonings and forming them into balls. And the end result was the best falafel I have ever eaten (although surely not the best available!)
Falafel mix was a big disappointment after this. Some products were almost tasteless, and all of them were dry and gritty after frying. One day my sister-in-law served us falafel at her home, and she had some ready-to-cook, frozen falafel balls. They were of better consistency than the package mix. I checked the ingredients and pondered the item "zucchini" until I figured out that it was in there to provide moisture. Next time, and ever after, when I made falafel balls from a package mix, I added a liberal amount of zucchini. My hunch was right—the texture is more moist and almost creamy with the zucchini incorporated.

Falafel mixture with grated zucchini

Sequel...

While visiting my daughter and her family in Brooklyn, NY, I went shopping for falafel. They took me to a Middle-Eastern grocery store and I found the best falafel mix ever. It's made with fava beans and garbanzo beans—no flour. Of course it's not available on our island, but I can, and have, ordered it online.