Falafel

My falafel recipe has developed over a number of years. 

Influenced by my neighbour Dara, mainly because she taught me that no recipe, no matter how ensconced by a cookbook is actually written in stone.  You are allowed to substitute ingredients and put your own take on it.  It was a invaluable lesson to learn.

My falafel is slightly more simple, I think, than a lot of recipes out there.  I don't have as many ingredients and once you get past the overnight soaking stage, the actual prep time can be less than 30 minutes and cooking time, depending on how many people you are making these for, can be anything from 10 minutes (including the heating of the oil) for one person, to under half an hour for four.

Ingredients:

• 7-8oz of dried chickpeas (soaked overnight)
• 5 tablespoons of chopped parsley
• 1 medium onion, roughly chopped
• 4 tablespoons of olive, argon or rapeseed oil
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 2 tablespoons of capers
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 2 tablespoons of corn flour (or regular plain flour)
• 2 teaspoons of Ras El Hanout
• 1 teaspoon of Sumac
• 3-5 tablespoons of water

Also add, if you feel the urge:

• 1 teaspoon of smoked paprika
• 2 teaspoons of dried marjoram or thyme
• 2 teaspoons of ground cumin

If you do, add a further tablespoon of oil.

The process is in two stages

Stage one:  Grind up the chickpeas, uncooked, with half the oil and water, separate and do this in batches.  For this amount, probably three or four batches are necessary.  The paste should be quite dry and you will need to do this a couple of times.  Depending on your method (a food processor is obviously the quickest and less arduous - but pulse the mixture rather than grind it continuously), the paste should be relatively smooth but with some granular quality.  If the processor is making hard work of this, add more of the oil and water, but be patient as initially it does take a few minutes for the results to show.  Some recipes stipulate to add some of the onion and parsley at this stage as well, but I normally wait until the second period of grinding.  In this case I add the onion, parsley and capers for this second stage.

Stage two:  Once this is done and you've checked that there are no whole chickpeas remaining, I then thoroughly stir in the dry ingredients, and if necessary, add a little more oil.  The resulting paste should be pretty stiff and you should be able to mould  small patties in the palm of your hand.  Now set aside in a clean bowl and cover and put in the fridge.  Ideally, the mixture should be left for a few hours and can be kept in the fridge in this way for about 3 or 4 days,  So, if you're on a falafel-fest, and are cooking these for lunches the following day, this is ideal.

When you are ready to fry these, have two pairs of spoons at the ready and a plate with kitchen paper sheets to one side.

If using a saucepan for your oil, fill to half way up and put on a medium heat.  As a general pointer, my hob goes up to "6" and I set the large ring to "4".

To test if the oil is hot enough just pinch a little of the paste and roll into a small ball and lower it on one of the spoons into the oil. If it doesn't bubble immediately, take it out of the oil and re-test a couple of minutes later.

For the falafel themselves, I normally use two spoons to mould them and place them in the oil and a further two, to take them out.  Not sure why, but it seems to keep the amount of free floating paste to a minimum if cooking a large batch.     In this way, I normally allow 4 falafel to each person, but five is good for hungry people and I normally cook an extra few for the fridge the following day for snacks.

Serve with lemon wedges, salads and hummus.