Falafels.

Has there been any dish you have put off making, thinking the process to be too cumbersome? And when you finally decided to make it..you cannot stop kicking your hiney for not making it for so many years and wasting precious eating hours ;)...I have. The first time i baked bread..i realised how simple it was...i vowed then and there i would never put off trying to make anything new. Yes, i am quite dramatic....i usually have visions of doing push-ups and reverse crunches when i hear pumping music and being totally jiggle free..oops...too much personal info.

Anyway, coming back to the post... I have always loved falafels, when i was in Mi...i would often get carry-out from Lashish, which was a middle eastern restaurant, just a 5 mts drive from home and embarrassingly enough the take out guy reserved a huge smile for me, coz i was a regular customer ;). Now there is a falafel place near my home here in NY, but nowhere close to what i was getting there...and when i saw this delicious post from one of the sweetest blogger i know... i had give in.

I did take in a lot of inspiration from her, in the sense i made it to suit my Indian palette and use the spices i had in hand rather than shop for things, which usually is the way i go about. I urge all of you to try the dish you have been putting off making lazy excuses, coz you will be amazed on how little work there is actually involved. My next mission is to make home-made ice-cream...perhaps next summer :D


Ingredients:

Chickpeas - ? cups (soak 2 cups of dry chickpeas overnight)
Onions - 1 large,sliced
Garlic - 3 to 4 pods, crushed
Green Chillies - 1 or 2
Chana masala - 1 tbls
Red chilly powder - 1 tsp.
Cumin seeds- 1 tsp.
Salt to taste
Cilantro - 1 small bunch, chopped
Oil - to deep fry.

Method:

1. In a pan, add 1 tbls of oil, then add the jeera, onions and garlic and cook till softened.

2. Drain the chickpeas and wash well and keep aside.

3. Add the sauteed onion-garlic mixture to the above drained chickpeas and pulse in ur food processor or blender till it is all well combined. Do not add too much of water, 1 or 2 tbls will help if you are using a blender. I have Kitchen Aid and i was able to make it to a rough paste - used the pulse function.

4. Now put the above in a bowl, then add salt, red chilly powder, chana masala and cilantro and combine well.

5. Now refrigerate the above mixture for 3-4 hours, to let the flavors combine well.

To fry the falafels:

1. Take the mixture out of the refrigertor about half an hour before.

2. Heat the oil, but make sure the oil does not smoke.

3. Make small falafel balls, and deep fry this in medium flame.

Note: Do make the falafel balls small, resist to make them big, trust me the small ones fry evenly and taste better. Also, fry them in medium flame, this ensures the inside gets cooked well.

These taste great straight-up. We had our's with yogurt dip.