Falafel Sandwich



I met Priyanka on my first day in school in Bombay and for 3 decades after that we have remained soul mates. In the last five yrs her daughter and son have added so much delight to my life. I’ll have to teach myself to live again when they move to the USA the coming weekend.

Most of her life my friend has survived on PCM – potatoes, chocolate and milk. It has been a project to introduce her taste buds to anything besides that and I can assure you if it was not from my kitchen Dr. Priyanka would never have tried out the falafel. She now relishes it.

Over the weekend I had to cook for my friend, something she likes, so besides a chocolate pudding, we had a falafel lunch.

This blog is for you my dearest friend when you miss me try making a meal for your new friends and family.

When I miss you, I’ll just fly over, it will be more like move in xxxxx.

I have listed and shared recipes of everything besides pita bread that is needed to make a delicious Falafel sandwich, these are my treasured recipes that have evolved with many trials and errors, nothing would make me more happy then my readers trying them out in their kitchen !!! 


Falafel Sandwich

Ingredients
  • ·      1 Pita Bread (I buy whole wheat pita bread from Moche CafĂ© in Mumbai)
  • ·      2 tbsp Yogurt Dip
  • ·      1 tbsp Hummus
  • ·      ½ tsp Chili Dip
  • ·      1 tsp Tahina Dip
  • ·      3 falafels
Method
  • ·      Slit open the pita bread and lightly toast it in the oven
  • ·      Put the yogurt dip, chili dip, and tahina dip on 1 slice side, and hummus on the other slice
  • ·      Crumble the falafel on the top of one slice
  • ·      Cover with the other slice, divide into 2 and serve with tabouleh and fattoush salads as sides. 
Falafel

Ingredients
  • ·    600 gms chickpea soaked overnight - do not boil
  • ·      55 gms spring onion/regular onions/ coarsely chopped
  • ·      50 gms of spring onion greens or chives coarsely chopped
  • ·      25 gms fresh parsley washed and cleaned
  • ·      15 grams of fresh coriander washed and cleaned
  • ·      15 gms of ginger coarsely chopped
  • ·      6 – 7 small red chilies (adjust to taste, I use chili padi)
  • ·      2 heaped tsp dhania powder
  • ·      salt to taste

          Method
  • ·      Put the chickpea, spring onion, spring onion greens, parsley, coriander, ginger, chilies, dhania powder and salt in a kitchen grinder and grind into a fine mix.
  • ·      Make small round patties using your hands and deep fry them
  • ·      Serve hot with various dips.
  • ·      The above ingredients should make 30 small patties
  • ·      Make sure you fine grind the mix, or else it will not hold well together when frying
Hummus
Ingredients
  • ·      400 gms chickpea soaked overnight and then boiled with salt. (Weigh after boiling)
  • ·      100 ml of curd
  • ·      6 small cloves of garlic
  • ·     75 ml of tahina paste (I use a ready paste)
  • ·     2 tbsp juice of lemon
  • ·      100 ml luke warm water 

Method 
  • ·      Put the boiled chickpea, curd, garlic, tahina paste, water and  lime in a food processor and grind into a fine paste.
  • ·      Ready to serve
  • ·      I do not add any oil in my hummus, so it should be consumed within 24 hrs
  • ·      The chickpea is already boiled with salt, so be careful when adding more salt.
Chili Paste
Ingredients
  • ·      1 medium size raw tomatoes
  • ·      30 small fresh red chili (adjust according to taste, I use bird's eye chilli)
  • ·      20 very big cloves of garlic
  • ·      1 + ½ juice of green lime
  • ·      salt to taste
Method
  • ·      Put the tomatoes, red chili, garlic, lime and salt into a kitchen grinder and grind into a liquid paste.

Hung Curd Dip
Ingredients
  • ·      1200 ml of yogurt (1 use 3 boxes of Gokul or Amul Yogurt)
  • ·      50 gms of fine chopped green onion leaves
  • ·      20 gms of chopped mint leaves (optional)
  • ·      salt to taste 

Method
  • ·      Ties the yogurt in a muslin cloth and hang for 2 hrs
  • ·      Then empty the yogurt in a bowl and stir well using an electric paddle attachment until a smooth mix
  • ·      Add the green onion leaves, mint (optional) and mix again
  • ·      Chill it for 10 – 15 minutes
  • ·      Add salt just before serving
Tahina dip
Ingredients
  • ·      100 ml of yogurt
  • ·      100 ml of tahina paste ( I use a ready made one)
  • ·      3 small chilli padi
  • ·      4 small cloves of garlic
  • ·      salt to taste 
Method
  • ·      In a kitchen mixer, blend the yogurt, tahina, chilli, garlic and salt together
  • ·      Chill for 10 – 15 minutes before serving.

Tabouleh
Ingredients
  • ·      ½ cup cracked wheat (dalia)
  • ·      2 cups of chopped parsley
  • ·      2 tbsp chopped mint
  • ·      2 medium size tomatoes chopped
  • ·      1 medium onion (prefer white onion) finely chopped
  • ·      150 ml lime juice
  • ·      3 tbsp of virgin olive oil
  • ·      salt to taste
Method
  • ·      Soak wheat in lime juice for 1 to 2 hrs
  • ·      Combine rest of the  ingredients in a bowl along with the soaked wheat
  • ·      Add salt just before serving 

Fattoush Salad
Ingredients
  • ·      4 medium size cubed tomato
  • ·      2 medium size cucumber, sliced
  • ·      3 - 4 spring onions or 1 medium size white onion, fine sliced
  • ·      3 – 4 medium size cloves of garlic minced
  • ·      handful of plucked mint leaves ( don’t chop)
  • ·      2 tbsp of lime juice
  • ·      1 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil (optional)
  • ·      10 – 15 green olives
  • ·      3 – 4 fresh jalapeno sliced
  • ·      salt to taste
Method
  • ·      Soak the onion in lime juice for 15 minutes
  • ·      Combine all the ingredients together
  • ·      Chill for 30 minutes
  • ·      Add salt just before serving












Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Lemon Rice with Cucumber Raita

Image
When I was a baby, I was particularly fond my cousin (Shrutika didi) I idealized her, followed her everywhere and wanted to do everything she did. Didi, cooked very well. Chocolate balls, macaroni hot pot, strawberry gelatin these are treats from my childhood all lovingly introduced by her. My initial desire to cook was inspired by her. I was in my teens and too busy in my own life, so I missed the early growing years of my niece (Shrutika didi’s daughter Siddhika). But then one day I met this little girl (she may have been 8-9 yrs old) at a party, she was sitting with her arms around my dad (her nana) on a very crowded banquet table. She was half his height and 1/5 his size, but she had him twirled around her little finger. The twinkle in her eye, her beautiful smile, and very mischievous expressions was magnetic. We started our relationship on that day.  Together we did endless trips in the middle of the night to ‘Mannat’. You guessed it right, it’s the actor Shah Ru
Read more

Bhatti ka paneer : Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, Bombay..

Image
Bhatti ka paneer : Taj Mahal Hotel We all headed to Masala Craft/ Taj Mahal Palace Bombay for a family dinner a couple of weeks back. Chef Hemant Oberoi’s masterpiece. Happens to be my favorite fine dinning for Indian cuisine. The the langarwali dal, lasooni palak, peepaywale chole and the bhatti ka paneer, yum !! The paneer so soft it melts in your mouth, spiced up with the perfect masala. Curiously I asked the attendant if I could have a word with the chef and try my luck getting the recipe from him. True to Taj’s hospitality and warmth what I was presented in return was something I’ll cherish on my bookshelf, a collection of recipes from the Taj. The hotel by all means lives up to its founder’s values. The warmth, hospitality and generosity are impeccable and it does make a happy difference to our lives. I have tried the recipe several times at home since, shared them over my kitchen counter with friends and family and believe me its perfect!!! The pane
Read more

Chocolate Brownie

Image
Celebrating siblings & more..... It is the day after, the day after Diwali, Bhai Dhooj   ! 3 Decades and pluses years ago incidentally or accidently I was born on this day, so dramatically if I may so say my brothers are my world, and what I assume is understood it is my most favorite day on the calendar. Bhaiya, Harsh Bhaiya, Saket, Ankit, Monu, Varun and Niket, each one of you mean the world to me. The chocolate brownie recipe that I am sharing today is a favorite with most of them, I served it today with my homemade Strawberry Ice cream (the recipe of which I’ll share someday later), and packed some Diwali hampers for the others. I must confess the recipe is a borrowed one from a Nigella Lawson’s show I saw on TV, it is always and always a super hit. Preheat oven at 225 degrees C Ingredients 375 g of Amul Butter 375 g of dark or medium dark cooking chocolate 350 g of castor sugar 6 eggs 250 g of all purpose flour 1 tsp of Vanilla essen
Read more