{"id":4151,"date":"2011-09-05T07:34:06","date_gmt":"2011-09-05T14:34:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailywaffle.com\/stage1\/?p=4151"},"modified":"2018-02-09T07:42:52","modified_gmt":"2018-02-09T15:42:52","slug":"falafel-on-the-fly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailywaffle.com\/stage1\/falafel-on-the-fly\/","title":{"rendered":"Falafel on the Fly"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"falafel\"<\/p>\n

After a huge brekky Sunday morning at Skillet<\/a> (more on that later this week), lunch was pretty much out of the question and even the burgers I’d planned on for dinner seemed a stretch. Then I thought, what about a veggie burger…what about falafel?<\/p>\n

I leave the deep frying to the experts, mostly because I don’t want to deal with the clean-up or saving the oil, so I knew these would be shallow-fried in a deep skillet. As much as everyone swears by the various box mixes out there, I wanted to see how dried chickpeas would do. A poster on Chowhound pointed to Mark Bittman’s falafel recipe<\/a> as her fave (I should have known!), and it fit the bill. Dried, not canned chickpeas, and no fillers.<\/p>\n

Because this idea occurred to me around 2 pm, I did the quick-soak method on the chickpeas. Chickpeas go into a Dutch oven, covered by at least an inch of water, bring it to a boil, cook for 2 minutes. Cover and turn off the heat. Let sit for an hour or so. Bittman’s recipe isn’t skimpy on the spices, so you’re going to get flavorful falafel.<\/p>\n

In the comments section in the Times, a few people reported problems with the falafel falling apart in the pan while frying. When forming the patties, make sure they’re well packed together. I still got a couple that broke while frying, but it wasn’t a complete meltdown. I also used a stainless steel skillet, could have also gone cast iron, to help ensure good browning and crunchiness. And I gotta tell you, these guys still had some good crunchy bits, despite not being deep fried.<\/p>\n

\"falafel\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Serve with a little tzatziki and a cucumber-tomato salad dressed with a red wine vinaigrette and you’re in business. Or you can do them as little appetizer bites with a dollop of the yogurt sauce.<\/p>\n

Now, if you’ve got a great little falafel joint near your house, you don’t need to go to trouble, but we’re hundreds of miles from our favorite, Falafel’s Drive-In<\/a>, down in San Jose, CA. It’s an institution. If you’re ever in that neck of the woods, definitely get the falafel and banana shake combo. As I was making these falafel, all that was missing was their hot sauce.<\/p>\n

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Falafel<\/h2>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\r\n\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t
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Ingredients<\/h3>\r\n\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t