Potato and Pea Curry - tempered

This is a curry without any gravy. In Sri Lanka we call it a tempered curry. It's not 100% authentic because peas don't grow in  Sri Lanka. Nowadays you can get frozen ones in the major supermarkets in Sri Lanka, but they are terribly expensive. I've seen dried peas as well, although I have never used them I am sure they would work fine if you soaked them and boiled them for hours! Of course if you don't have access to peas then you can just omit them.

Made with "normal" potatoes

Preparation time: 35 minutes ; serves 4 - 8 (depending on how many other curries you have)

Ingredients:

1.2 kg	Potatoes (or a combination of sweet potato and regular)
4 tbsp.	Oil
1 tsp.	Salt
2 tsp.	Coriander powder
1 tsp.	Cumin powder
1/2 tsp.	Tumeric
2	Green chilies, sliced
1/4 cup	French fried onions (Röstzwiebel)
1/2 cup	Peas (frozen or fresh)

Method:
If you live in Germany this is a very simple recipe! The Röstzwiebel are readily available in the store. In the USA they are called "French fried onions" and you can probably find a recipe to make them somewhere. Basically they are deep fried onions. The preparation time for this recipe does not take making the Röstzwiebel from scratch into account.

Peel the potatoes and cut them into bite sized chunks. Then boil them. My general experience is that if you put the potatoes in cold water and then bring them to the boil, that after boiling they take around 8 minutes to cook. However, this is highly dependent on  what type of potatoes you use. If you use a mixture of potatoes then boil each type separately to avoid over boiling. When your potatoes are done you should be able to poke a fork through them.

Drain the water and rinse under cold water.

Put the oil in a large wok and heat it. You can also use a frying pan. Keep in mind that you will not get a nice brown crisp on your potatoes if you use a non-stick. The best pan to use is a cast iron or aluminium one. Make sure it is well seasoned though, else the potatoes will stick.

Once the oil is hot add the potatoes and  toss until they are all covered with oil. Then add all the other ingredients and fry. Stir constantly until golden brown. And that is it!

Made with a mixture of "normal" and sweet potatoes

Sri Lankan Pumpkin Curry (Wattakka)

Today I need to boost up some curries that I made yesterday. There is not quite enough for two more meals but too much for one. Oh I'm just realizing that us adults don't need lunch tomorrow because we have to go for an on site review at the university. With a bit of luck they will provide us with lunch. Actually I'm pretty sure that hubby will get lunch (he's higher up on the ladder). But I've started cooking my pumpkin so there is no going back now.

As you have probably read by now, I am not 100% Sri Lankan. So my mum never cooked traditional Sri Lankan food. Yes, she cooked curry but there were some things she would just not do. Either because they were too time consuming or because she didn't have the correct implements. Because of this we never had traditional pumpkin curry at home. I absolutely adored it and would stuff myself whenever I got it at my aunts homes. Generally pumpkin is not considered a fancy dish, so you don't get it when there is a celebration. It's more the type of food you get when you go home with your cousins and share whatever has been cooked. Even better if you were not expected!

Now I think I have finally found a way to cook the pumpkin somewhat like my aunts. I hope that you enjoy it as much as I do. The secret ingredient is ground brown mustard seeds!

Preparation time: 45 minutes ; serves 4 - 8 (depending on how many other curries you have)

Ingredients:

750 g	Pumpkin (any type, cooking  time may vary)
1/2 cup	Diced onions
1 tbsp.	Finely diced garlic
1/4 tsp.	Tumeric
1/2 tsp.	Chili powder (or to taste)
2	Green chilies, sliced
10	Black pepper seeds
	Water to cover
1 tsp.	Salt
1 sprig	Curry leaves
1/4 tsp.	Dill seeds
2 tsp.	Brown mustard seeds
1 cup	Thick coconut milk

Method:
Before you start note that the mustard seeds are NOT optional. You can leave out many things but not the mustard. You will also need a good grinder and a stone mortar and pestle. 

You can use any pumpkin you like to make this. The cooking time will of course vary according to which type you use. You can cook it with or without the skin, also depending on the type. In these pictures I used hokkaido pumpkin. You need to cut the pumpkin into cubes around 1 inch cube. The pumpkin will disintegrate if you cut it too small, which is also a reason why you might want to keep the skin on. In my case I removed the skin.

The first step is easy enough. Put all the ingredients except the mustard seeds and coconut in a pot. Do not put too much water. If you have too much water at the end this can be saved by using coconut cream or coconut milk powder. Cover and bring to the boil and then reduce the heat and simmer (12 - 20).

While this is going on you can prepare the mustard. This is how I did it. I first put my seeds into the grinder attachment of my Sumeet (which is a really good, heavy duty Indian liquidizer/grinder) and ground until I had a kind of fine powder. You can probably do this in any spice grinder, or if you don't have one you can use a mortar and pestle or a 'miris gala'. Sadly to release the flavour that you need for this curry this powder is not enough. I put my powder into a granite mortar, added about a teaspoon of water (water is really important), and ground until I had a smooth paste.

You need 1 teaspoon of this paste. Save any extra paste that you may have, you can put it in sandwiches or any where else that you would use mustard. You must have a granite/stone mortar. It won't work with a wooden one. Believe me, I have tried!

Once your pumpkin is just about (al dente) cooked mix the mustard into the coconut milk and then into the pumpkin curry. If you use coconut cream from a can use about 1/2 cup adding some water, if necessary. If you use coconut milk powder it is best to pour out extra water that you might have in the pot and mix the milk powder with this water. Pumpkin is very watery, so the curry tends to become too liquidy very quickly. If you use fresh coconut milk then it will probably be a bit liquid, but on the other hand you've gained on the taste. Do not cover the curry. Bring to the boil and it is ready to serve.

Seeni Sambol - Sri Lankan sweet onion sambol

To make your new year table complete here is my seeni sambol recipe. The longer you cook it, the better it gets. It also freezes well so it makes sense to make more than you need to heat up later. In fact it sometimes tastes better when you reheat it! I bet it can also be canned or put in a jar. It's best to make it at least the day before you need it so that the flavours can intensify.

Preparation time: Minimum 2 hours (up to 4 hours); makes 4 cups 

Ingredients:

1 kg	Red onions, Big onions or Bombay onions (depending on where you live and how old you are!)
250 g	Shallots (Rathu lunu, small red onions)
1/4 cup	Oil
3 sprigs	Curry leaves
2 inches	Rampe leaves (pandan leaves)
200 g	Tomatoes, diced
1 tbsp.	Garlic pulp
1 tbsp.	Ginger pulp
1 bulb	Lemon grass (sera)
3	Chilies
2 tsp.	Chili powder (you can put more or less depending on your taste)
2 tsp.	Salt
10	Cardamoms, bruised
10	Cloves
4 inches	Cinnamon (Sri Lankan)
2 tbsp.	Tamarind pulp
1 tbsp.	Lemon or lime juice
1/4 cup	Sugar
250 g	Maldive fish (makes it non-vegetarian but more traditional)

Method:
This is quite easy to make. The most trouble you will have is with getting the ingredients (if you don't usually cook Sri Lankan food and don't live in Sri Lanka) and cutting the onions. The part I hate the most is peeling and cutting the onions. I cry, my nose runs, my glasses get sticky, and the kitchen stinks!! To reduce the pain I use a kitchen machine to do the actual cutting. The difference between a refined seeni sambol and a regular one is how fine your onions are cut. The finer the better.

Above you can see what I mean by red onions and shallots. European shallots are much larger than Sri Lankan ones and thus easier to cut and clean. If you want to make your life easy you can just use the bigger onions (so 1.25 kg). If you want more taste you can use a ratio of 1:1. 

Make sure you have prepared all your spices before you continue. Bruise the lemon grass and the cardamoms (i.e. hit them with a rolling pin so that they release their flavour). 

Cinnamon, ginger, green chilies, garlic, lemon grass

Cinnamon (again!), cloves, chili powder, cardamom

The amount of chili you use will depend on your taste. (I cut my green chilies into large pieces so that they can be picked out). The best cinnamon to use is Sri Lankan. It is still rolled by hand and gives the best flavour. As you might notice some of my spices are frozen i.e. lemon grass, chilies, rampe and curry leaves. 

Red onions, rampe, curry leaves

I find that they keep best frozen. Curry leaves are okay dried but freezing really retains the flavour of the leaves much better. I don't like using pre-pulped garlic and ginger. It tastes weird, so I grate mine fresh each time.

Once you have everything ready heat the oil over moderately high heat and once the oil is hot fry the curry leaves, rampe and a handful of chopped onions. Once the onions are soft you can add the rest of the onions and then the tomatoes, garlic, ginger, lemon grass, chilies, chili powder, salt,  cardamoms, cloves, cinnamon and tamarind. 

In Sri Lanka this dish is not traditionally vegetarian. Usually people add a type of dried fish called Maldive fish. It is very hard and used to be only available as a hard block. I remember my mother chipping off pieces of the rock hard fish with a nut cracker while watching the sun go down over the hills. Knives couldn't get through it and electric grinders would break. Sri Lankan's usually pound it in this primitive pounder (Vangediya).  

Nowadays you can buy it pre-pounded in Sri Lanka. It's hard to get anywhere other than a Sri Lankan store and even they might not carry it. But if you like fish add this to your sambol now.

Stir everything together and cook over a low flame forever. 

I cooked mine for 1.5 hours. After which I put up the heat and cooked off all the moisture. Be careful to stir to prevent burning. For some reason this took around 30 minutes, but I was in the kitchen anyways! Now it's time to add the sugar and lemon juice. Stir them well. After that I let it cook on low heat for another 15 - 20 minutes, got bored, put the cooker off and went to bed. Of course you could cook it for less.

This morning I picked out all the inedible spices like the rampe, cinnamon, lemon grass, and put it in a bowl to serve with milk rice for new year. 

Actually looks darker than this!

You can eat seeni sambol with anything. It goes exceptionally well with milk rice. Another much loved way to eat it is in seeni sambol buns. Just make a regular bread dough and stuff this inside. We also use it to fill sandwiches with thickly spread butter. Plus you can eat it as a side with rice and curry. Try it, you'll love it!

Sri Lankan Milk Rice

The new year is almost upon us. As in many Sri Lankan households we celebrate new year with a traditional meal of milk rice, seeni sambol and pani (and untraditionally with red lentil curry!). Took me forever to figure out how to make milk rice correctly. It should be relatively simple, but I could never get it just right. One Sri Lankan new year my aunty Rosie was standing by and showed me how to make it properly. So it is for all of you who have been struggling and for those of you who want to try a new type of milk rice. For all you Germans out there, you can eat this with Zimtzucker just like normal German milk rice (note that it is not as liquid as the German variety).

Preparation time: 1 hour; serves 6 

Ingredients:

2 cups	Rice (raw rice)
3 cups	Water
1 tsp.	Sugar
2 tsp.	Salt
4	Cardamom pods
40 g	Butter (or 3 tbsp. ghee)
2 cups	Coconut milk

Method:
First of all, the cups above are American cups (around 240 ml). If you use a rice cooker cup then use 3 cups rice, 4.5 cups water and 2 cups coconut milk.

Wash the rice until the water runs clear. I usually wash it around 4 times. I cannot be bothered washing it more than that, so my water does not usually run clear! Drain the rice and put it in a pan so that it has enough room to expand. Go for at least 4 times the volume of the rice.

Bruise the cardamom pods (i.e. hit them with rolling pin or pound a couple of times in a mortar). You just want to make sure they are open. I have recollection of just biting them open many, many years ago! Add the water, sugar, salt, butter and cardamom pods to your pan. Put the lid on (very, very important that you have a lid that fits well so that no steam escapes) and cook on high until the water boils.

In the mean time prepare your coconut milk. I used coconut milk powder to produce my milk. 8 heaped tablespoons made up to 2 cups of liquid with warm water gave me the milkyness that I needed. If you use canned coconut milk you might want to water it down a bit. All depends on how creamy and coconuty you want your rice. The really thick one that I can get I would put half coconut cream and half water. The coconut milk in the brown can I would not dilute. Then heat up your coconut milk either in the microwave or in a pan. Bring it to the boil.

Once the water boils, stir, reduce the heat to the minimum, add the hot coconut milk and then close the lid. Allow the rice to cook for a further 20 minutes.

Once it is cooked turn it out onto a plate. The traditional thing to do would be to flatten it with a banana leaf, I just used a piece of foil and used a chopping board to flatten the top. Then cut the rice into diamond shapes (I'm not very good at this part!). You can only really do this shaping when the rice is hot. If you try to do it later it will not form into stable lumps. I've tried heating up the rice later and forming it but that does not work very well. You can serve it with a multiple of things. I'll post seeni sambol (onion sambol with a bit of sugar) soon but you can also eat it with hakuru, pol pani, or curry.

Breadfruit Curry - Sri Lankan Style

On the weekend I had to drop off my eldest at a lazer tag establishment. We were surprised to find that it was right down town! Since we were the first there and had a few minutes to spare I dropped into an Asian store that was a few doors down. I was happily surprised to find that they had breadfruit in their vegetable section, and one good one too! As I picked it up one of the people working in the store, who was of South Asian decent, asked me what I would do with it. It always surprises me that the people selling these things don't know what they are! Sometimes in the Sri Lankan store in Dortmund I have people ask me what I do with the vegetables I buy. They are usually rather embarrassed by the question since I look German and they look Sri Lankan!! Maybe I should have a little card with my blog address on it and tell them to check up in a few days to see what was done with it :)

Breadfruit is one of my favourite vegetables. Unfortunately it is never in season when I visit Sri Lanka so I have not had it for years. I also love kiri kos (jak fruit in a milky curry) and have no recollection when I last ate it. A very sad state indeed. I have hope though. Maybe eventually I will be able to get unripe jak fruit here in Germany. I can already get ripe jak fruit, although it does not taste as good as the stuff in SL.

If you happen to find a breadfruit, buy it and cook it. It is really easy to prepare and delicious to eat.

Preparation time: 1 hour; serves 4 if served alone with rice 

Ingredients:

600g	Breadfruit
1 sprig	Curry leaves
3	Green chilies, roughly chopped
1 tsp.	Salt
1/2 tsp.	Tumeric
1 cup	Water
1	Onion, diced
12	Black pepper seeds
4 tbsp. (heaped)	Coconut milk powder
2 tsp.	Roasted curry powder

Method:

The hardest part about making breadfruit is the cutting and cleaning of it. As you can see above I cut mine into quarters and then cut the middle piece out (kind of like I would take the core out of an apple). It is possible that white milk will leak out of your fruit. This did not happen to me but I think it is because the fruit was probably not very fresh (as it had not been picked just yesterday!). The best way to deal with this white milk is to wipe it off with newspaper. If you get it on your hands or knife clean with oil and newspaper. If you try to wash it off everything will just get stickier.

Peel the fruit with a potato peeler and then cut it into cubes. You don't want small cubes else it will disintegrate. So nice big cubes about 1.5 inches wide. Then I sprinkled mine with tumeric and salt and rubbed it well. It's kind of like using a scrub on your vegetable. This 'scrub' will take off anymore milky stuff that is on your fruit.

Wash the fruit and put it in a saucepan. Now add all the ingredients except the 1/2 the water, the coconut milk powder and roasted curry powder.

Cover the pan and bring to the boil. Then reduce the heat and cook until the water has been absorbed (about 15 minutes). Mix the remaining water with the coconut milk powder. It helps if the water is luke warm. You can also use thick fresh coconut milk or coconut milk from a can. The canned milk tends to be quite  thick so you may have to dilute it a bit. Add this to the pan and bring back to the boil. Allow to simmer for another 15 minutes.

Once the fruit is cooked it will be soft, like over boiled potatoes. Remove it from the heat and add the roasted coconut powder. It is now ready to serve.

The method is relatively simple and I'm guessing if you are not being neat and pretty and taking photographs that you can probably put this together in less than an hour. The big time consumer is letting it simmer at the end for 30 minutes, but this gives you time to make other delicious things (and if nothing else at least your rice).

NOTE: I have found that breadfruit curry tends to turn very quickly. It's best to eat it within 24 hours.

Deliciously Simple Home-made Croutons

When I first moved to Germany from the USA I could not find croutons in the store so when our good friends from San Francisco came to visit I had to figure out how to make some, and quick! A few years ago I found some in the supermarket, but they are nothing compared to my homemade, fresh, crunchy ones.

Preparation time: 30-40 minutes; Makes 2 bowls full (see above) 

Ingredients:

6 slices	White bread
1/4 cup	Olive oil
2 tbsp.	Oil (canola, sunflower, etc.)
1 tsp.	Salt
1 clove	Garlic, small (optional)
1 tbsp	Rosemary, finely chopped (optional)

Method:

Unlike many other recipes this one you really need to put the oven on before you start preparing stuff. It's that quick to prepare. I used a fan oven at 180 C, so 200 C for a regular oven (400 F). 

You could use any type of bread for this. I like to use white bread that is pre-cut. It is called "American Sandwich" here in Germany and "Sandwich bread" in Sri Lanka. The main thing is that it is pre-cut to save you some time and to make it nice and regular. I cut my bread so that cubes are formed.

Then put them in a big bowl and pour over the oil and mix quickly so that the oil gets evenly distributed. Crush the garlic and add it to the bread with the salt. I personally think that this recipe is a bit too salty but my family assure me that it is the perfect amount. So adjust according to your own taste. You will probably only know if there is too much or too little after you have finished making it! Given that you will be making this more often than you think this is not such a bad thing. Mix well. 

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and spread out the bread evenly. Put in the hot oven. Now finely chop the rosemary. If you put it in in the beginning the rosemary will burn so you have to wait. Every 5 minutes you should stir the bread so that all sides get evenly toasted. After 10 minutes or so sprinkle on the rosemary.

Bake until the bread is golden brown, 15 - 20 minutes in total. If you have a well disciplined family you can wait until it is cooled and then use it on your salad. We use ours immediately. What ever croutons are left over my kids have for dessert!

Don't forget to adjust your croutons to your taste. Pepper, chili of any other spice or herb will taste great. Just remember that more fragile herbs should be put on very near to the end and some probably after you have taken the croutons out of the oven. 

Homemade Tomato Pasta Sauce

I'm blogging today from Sri Lanka! And I am anxious to get this out as quickly as possible. Last year when I was here fresh tomatoes were so expensive that I could not afford to make any sauce. I used concentrated tomatoes from a can instead. It tasted okay but you can't beat fresh pasta sauce. So when I arrived this week and found that tomatoes were in season and rather cheap (for Sri Lanka that is) I had to make my mum some pasta sauce. I am sure that some of my friends out there will find this recipe rather useful. It is adapted from http://www.food.com/recipe/fresh-tomato-spaghetti-sauce-10837?photo=349134

Preparation time: 2 hours makes about 500 ml  

Ingredients:

1 kg	Tomatoes
100 g	Onions
3 cloves	Garlic
2 tbsp.	Oil
1/2 tsp.	Salt
1 tbsp.	Sugar
1 tsp.	Dried herbs

Method:

The riper/redder your tomatoes are the redder and tastier your sauce will be. Mine were a bit green and thus my end product was orange as opposed to red. It still tastes delicious.

The first project is to skin the tomatoes. To do this, put a large pot of water on the stove and bring it to a rolling boil. While the water is boiling score the bottom of the tomatoes. This will help you to peel them.

Carefully put the tomatoes into the water making sure that they are completely covered. Bring the water back to boiling point and after 1 minute remove the tomatoes with a slotted spoon and run under cold water. If you leave the tomatoes a bit longer it will not harm them after all they are going to be cooked later anyway. The tomatoes should be blistered and the skins loose. I think I left mine in a bit longer than 1 minute.

Carefully remove the skins and then coarsely chop the tomatoes. Finely chop the onions and crush the garlic. If you like a lot of garlic in your sauce, go ahead and add more. This is your sauce you can make sure that it is to your very own taste.

Heat the oil in a large, heavy bottomed saucepan. To get the most authentic taste use olive oil. My mum would not part with her last tablespoon of olive oil, which is totally understandable given the price of it. I used sunflower oil but I am pretty sure you could use any available oil. I would not use unrefined coconut oil because it will make the sauce taste anything but Italian.

Add the onions and the garlic to the oil and simmer for around 3 minutes until the onions are soft. Then add the tomatoes and remaining ingredients. Now as I just said, "this is your sauce". You can add what ever you like to it. My mother requested that the next batch be made with some chili in it. You can also add different types of herbs and spices. I made mine with dried herbs because no fresh ones were available, but any type of fresh herb would be great. Traditionally Italian would be basil and organo but I would love to try it with coriander leaves. So go ahead and put what ever you like in there.

Bring your sauce to the boil and then reduce the heat and allow it to simmer for 1.5 - 2 hours. Basically what you are doing is concentrating it so that it has the correct consistency. If you like your sauce chunky then you are done. If you want a smoother paste then you'll either need to cool it and then put it in a liquidizer or use a stick thingy. My mother opted for a smoother sauce.

Once the sauce is thick enough you can either directly use it for your spaghetti, lasagna, pizza or whatever else calls for pasta sauce or you can jar it for later use.

To preserve your pasta sauce wash and dry enough glass jars to hold 500 ml of liquid, place a metal spoon in the glass jar and place it on a dry surface. The spoon apparently stops the jar from cracking when you pour in the boiling sauce. I always put my jars on the draining board of my sink just in case they crack. I have yet to have a jar crack. Now boil some water and fill the jars to the brim with the boiling water. Let it sit for a couple of minutes. While it is sitting, reboil your sauce then quickly empty the jars of boiling water and replace it with the boiling sauce. Place a piece of clean cling wrap on top of the jar and close immediately. The less bacteria you get in it the longer it will keep. My guess is that with this method the sauce can be kept for around 6 months. But please keep in mind that this is just a guess and you should check the sauce before you use it.

Rhubarb, Strawberry Crumble

This summer we spent a couple of weeks in England. While visiting good friends of ours in London we were introduced to their allotment. The English version of the German "Klein Garten". Among the vegetables there was a bed of Rhubarb. Our friend lamented that she didn't know what to do with them and wanted to uproot them and throw them away. My kids went a bit crazy and objected to throwing away rhubarb! They made me promise to make a rhubarb crumble for them and harvested some stalks.

The next morning I was bound to the kitchen to produce a rhubarb crumble. Now this would have been fine except I realized that I had not yet posted my crumble recipe and could not find anything even close on the internet. So I winged it!

This motivated me to write up the recipe so that next time my kids persuade me to bake while on vacation that at least I have a recipe!

Preparation time: 1.5 hours. Serves 8 

Ingredients:

750 - 1000g	Fruit (1/2 rhubarb, 1/2 strawberry)
3 tbsp.	Sugar
1	Lemon, zest
200 g	Butter (margarine if you are vegan)
200 g	Sugar
3 drops	Vanilla
200 g	Ground almonds
240 g	Flour
1-2 tbsp.	Powdered sugar/ icing sugar
1 tsp.	Ground cinnamon
2 tbsp.	Brown sugar

Method:

If you are using rhubarb, peel and cut it finely. Add the 3 tbsp. sugar and the lemon zest to it and set aside. Chop the strawberries coarsely, but do not add them to the rhubarb. The rhubarb needs to sit in the sugar. The time it needs to sit is the time that you need to make the mix for the pastry part of the crumble. You can use any other fruit with this recipe. If the fruit takes a long time to cook you might consider pre-cooking it.

Melt the butter at a very low heat. Take care not to get it too hot else it will cook the other ingredients and you don't want this. I suggest putting it in the microwave and heating it for 30 seconds. Take it out and stir it. If it is not completely melted put it back in for a further 10-20 seconds, take it out and then stir it again. By stirring it you are cooling it down and distributing the heat. The butter just needs to be liquid. If you happen to have over heated your butter wait until it has cooled to proceed.

Now mix everything together except the fruit, the brown sugar and the cinnamon. Mix it with a wooden spoon. Try not to smash it together. You are not forming a batter but crumbs. You could also use your fingers but be very gentle.

Press half of the crumbles on to the bottom of a 26 cm diameter round form. I use a tart case at home. You can also use a ceramic tart dish, it just takes a bit longer to bake. Also I can never get it out of the pan so I like to use a ceramic dish if I am taking it somewhere. If you are looking for something that looks good once served on a plate, this is not the recipe for you. This is if you want something that tastes amazing and is relatively easy to make.

Once the first half of the crumbles are in, distribute the fruit on top. Then put the rest of the crumbles on top of the fruit. Sprinkle the top with the brown sugar and the cinnamon.

Bake at 190 C (in a fan oven) for about 25 minutes.

Serve hot, warm or cold with ice cream, custard, whipped cream or clotted cream.

Falafel

Some recipes take a long time to perfect. For me, falafel was one of them. I say "was" because I finally got them just right. I don't usually make things over and over again until I get them right like some people do. After all I am the working mother of two and really don't have the time for all that. So over the last 6 years I've worked on my falafel recipe. I remember making it the first time in my fancy new deep fryer. I popped them in and when I opened the lid a few minutes later all I found were dark brown crumbs. I cleaned up the mess and put the second batch in and watched as layer by layer the falafel mixture separated from the ball. I finally made enough for dinner by pan frying them!
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!