But now they look like this:
We like our falafel full of flavour, crunchy on the outside and moist on the inside. It turns out that the moist on the inside is what was killing me. I experimented a bit with a few different shapes and the shape didn't seem to make a difference. The girls really loved the bite sized falafel, ideal for an appetizer served up with a bit of hummus.
Preparation time: 2 hours. Serves 4
Ingredients:
| 4 | Scallions (or 1 onion) |
| 2 Cloves | Garlic |
| 1/2 Cup | Cilantro leaves |
| 1/4 Cup | Mint leaves |
| 14 oz can | Chickpeas, rinsed and drained |
| 3/4 Cup | Bread crumbs |
| 1/4 Cup | Flour |
| 1 heaped tsp. | Ground cumin |
| 1 tsp. | Baking powder |
| 1 tsp. | Salt |
| 2 | Green Chillies, optional |
| 1 l | Oil, for frying |
Method:
First of all let me tell you why I was getting falafel crumbs instead of proper falafel. There were two reasons:
1. The balls were too moist.
2. The oil was not the correct temperature.
The moisture problem occurs whatever you try to deep fry. If you are Sri Lankan, you will know the trouble of trying to keep your cutlets together. Well guess what? It's the same problem. There is too much moisture inside the ball and when it's put into hot oil something happens (I haven't yet figured out what!) and BOOM your lovely ball explodes, or slowly starts shedding!! "But...", you say, "I want my balls to be juicy!". Well, as I have learnt you can't have everything and you have to sacrifice a little to get what you want i.e. a perfect falafel.
To avoid the crumbs I have added flour to my recipe. This binds together the moisture that comes from the chickpeas. To get rid of excess moisture take your chick peas out of the can, rinse them and then let them drain in a colander until you are done with the rest of the ingredients. You can also use dried chickpeas. Of course this takes a lot of time. Soak them over night, boil them well and then drain. Some places advise you to squeeze the moisture out of the chickpeas by putting them in muslin cloth and squeezing them. You can do this, but your falafel will be super dry.
Once your chickpeas are draining roughly chop the scallions (red onions if you are in SL), garlic, cilantro and mint leaves (and green Chillies, if using). Put them in a food processor and finely mince.
Next add the chick peas and mince until it looks like bread crumbs. Finally add everything else, except the oil, and pulse.
How much you pulp it depends on your taste. We personally like our falafel to have texture so we go for a grainy look.
Now you are wondering why it takes so long to make the falafel because up to now things have been pretty easy, right? Well now you have to make the balls and unless you have some helpers to help form them it's going to take a while. For the cocktail sized balls I used one tablespoon of mixture, for the regular balls I used a small handful (once I made the ball it comfortably fit inside a quarter cup). You need to press them together really hard so that there are no cracks. Don't try rolling them, they will just crumble. So squeeze your balls into shape!!
Now here comes another trick: leave your balls on the counter top for an hour or more and they will dry out, making them less likely to crack when frying. Don't put them in the fridge.
Fry them in oil between 175 and 180 Celsius. And make sure that there is enough oil in your saucepan so that the falafel are not touching the bottom of the pan. This will cause them to fry unevenly. I fry 2-3 at a time and keep an eye on the oil temperature. Every time you put falafel into the oil the temperature drops so be careful. Drain on absorbent paper.
We like to put our falafel in a wrap with hummus, cucumber raita and tabouli. But you can just as well eat it without wrapping it up. Make sure you have something moist to eat it with hummus is good but some type of yogurt dip is even better.
Enjoy!
