I'm really enjoying this cookbook called Discovery of a Continent by Marcus Samuelsson featuring African cuisine. I loooooove Ethiopian food, but haven't gotten the courage to try some of the Ethiopian recipes. (If you know of any good Ethiopian restaurants in the Chicago 'burbs tell me in the comments!) Instead, I decided to try good ol' falafels, with mixed results.
The recipe calls for some amazing spices.
The recipe calls for some amazing spices.
yummmm
If only I could upload smells to this blog. This is a combo of crushed coriander, cumin, chili powder, salt and pepper (and baking powder but you can't smell that. I guess you can't really smell salt either.). Written down it doesn't sound that impressive, but man it smelled good. Coriander smells way better than it sounds, and it sounds pretty good! So anyway, I couldn't wait to eat my delicately fried, perfectly circular spice and chickpea concoction. I threw the spices, chickpeas, onion, garlic, parsley, and lemon juice into the food processor.
before
after
At this point, it was good enough to eat already. But I still had to fry them, and that can only make it way better, right?
dream
reality
Ha! They totally disintegrated in the oil! I have no idea why. Mr. Samuelsson warned me that this might happen, and suggested that I should add an egg to the mixture, so I did. Didn't help at all. So why couldn't I fry them? Let's solve this mystery together. Here are some possible reasons for the frying failure.
Eventually, I resorted to making patties of the chickpea mixture, and frying them on a pan. They still didn't stick together that well and they weren't that pretty. But they were very very tasty, and despite my troubles, I would still recommend it!
- That dinky thermometer you see there only goes up to 220 degrees, and I was supposed to heat the oil to 350, so I really have no idea how hot it was.
- I used baking powder instead of baking soda, even though my trusty substitution website tells me that is taboo, because I did not have baking soda.
- Shamefully, I used canned chickpeas! I know, I'm embarrassed to admit it, but I didn't feel like soaking dried chickpeas in water for 24 hours, even though Mr. Samuelsson required it.
Eventually, I resorted to making patties of the chickpea mixture, and frying them on a pan. They still didn't stick together that well and they weren't that pretty. But they were very very tasty, and despite my troubles, I would still recommend it!
Yes, those are tv trays. I am not ashamed!
Interesting closing remark: Did you know that the Latin word for chickpea is cicer? Cicero's, the famous Roman orator, name is related to that word. Funny, huh?
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