Felafel

After the tabouleh, I've gone a bit burghul mad. I love felafel, but the premix in the health food aisle at Woolies just isnt very nice. After making and eating my own this time, even the ones from the shop(this being Sipan Kebab in the nearest Centro plaza) are dry and remind me of chewing on minced up cork. Probably sat in the shop a while waiting for me come along and hand over my money.

The recipe is again out of 'The history of Australian cooking', the kitchen edition. Apparently there is a fancier collectors edition,  that comes with historical facts and stunning photography, which is advised that is 'best kept as a coffee table or library edition'. I have the one that is meant to be slopped on and referred to with hands covered in food stuffs, which suits me fine. I have many cook books with certain pages that are splattered and marked with cake mix and whatever else.

I used a can of chick peas, theres no soaking and mucking around with dry chickpeas in this chooks kitchen!! I still haven't gotten any lemons, haven't really tried! But what I did realise is I had an unopened Citric acid container, the powdered stuff, and it says on the side, can be used as a lemon juice substitute...cooool! I put some on my finger and licked it, yep!, that's pretty sour. So I put about quarter of a teaspoon in, that'll do!

I made them last night, before our proper tea, and had them with tabouleh, and they were bloody beautiful! The only thing missing was yogurt or garlic sauce. I had some ricotta cheese whipped up with a bit of parmesan for some pasta, so I dipped them in a bit of that, ..it...was...choice!!

Chick Pea Rissoles(Syria)

(Felafel)

1 cup chick peas                                                     1 tsp ground cumin

1/2 cup burghul                                                       1/4 tsp hot chilli powder

2 cloves garlic, crushed                                           3 tsp lemon juice

2 Tbsp chopped parsley                                          2 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder                                               ground black pepper

1/4 cup flour                                                           oil for deep frying

1 tsp ground coriander

Wash chick peas and soak for 24 hours. 

Soak burghul for 10 minutes in 1 cup boiling water. Drain, press with back of spoon to extract all moisture.

Drain chick peas and put in a food processor with garlic and parsley. Add burghul and mix again. Blend in remaining ingredients and mix thoroughly.

Shape into balls the size of a walnut and leave to rest for 30 minutes. Heat oil and fry felafel for about 5 minutes, turn to brown evenly.

Felafel and Tabouleh :)