FALAFEL: THE MIDDLE EAST ON THE TABLE
Creativity, history and taste of a vegball
In recent years, following the arrival in the city of a large number of migrants from the Near East, Istanbul has seen the spread of this street food, that for several centuries has been really popular in the region but was almost unknown to Turkish palates. As always, wary of imitations is especially important in the most touristy places, paying attention to the ingredients used.
Creativity in the kitchen not only refers to the creation of a new dish but consists above all in reproducing a recipe with its own sensitivity and fantasy. Creativity in the kitchen is generous with those who exercise it, widely linked to the pleasure of ideating, designing, improvising and experimenting. Cooking is a real art that can not be confined to the act of faithfully performing a recipe but rather in learning techniques and imagining combinations between ingredients. When you have a reference recipe you need to try to customize it by finding the right balance of flavors in dishes with pleasantly unusual combinations.
Since the first culinary experiments of humanity, it has been the most sensitive individuals who have been able to process incredibly tasty dishes even with extremely simple and poor raw material. Leafing through the recipes of different traditional culinary cultures, you will find that there are traits common to multiple regions of the world. This means that such dishes are both recognized as delicious and are appreciated by the public but also that they are easily reproducible because they are made with ingredients that are easy to find and low cost. One of these dishes is falafel, spicy and fried legume balls.
Falafel (arabic: فلافل,fal-fil; in Hebrew: פלאפל, falafel) are round croquettes, elongated or pierced in the center as if to form a donut (the latter form is particularly widespread in large distribution, currently synonymous of low product quality) consisting mainly of pulses, among which the most used are the broad beans, chickpeas and beans. The pulses are rehydrated , drained and ground to obtain a more or less dense paste. The latter is seasoned with fresh herbs and spices such as sumak, onion, garlic, cumin and coriander. Falafel exist in many regional variants (Egypt; Yemen; Jerusalem; Israel; Syria) and their origin and attribution are still widely discussed.
Falafel are a food belonging to the traditional cuisine of the wide region that goes from the Eastern Mediterranean to Egypt and are currently consumed worldwide as part of vegetarian cuisine or in the form of street food. Their versatility, cheapness and unique taste have played a fundamental role in the diffusion and affirmment of this dish that perfectly represents the union between tradition and innovation. Falafel, in addition to being a source of nutrients of high biological value, with its taste has conquered the global market. Among the many companies of the GDO, McDonalds also offers McFalafel to patrons in Egypt.
One of the most accredited theories about the origin of falafel refers to the communities of Coptic Christians in Egypt who consumed them as a substitute for meat in the days before Easter. The term consists of three words that in Coptic literally meant ‘with so many beans’. The etymology of the term falafel is also still under discussion. Falafel are particularly prevalent in Palestine, Israel, Syria, Jordan and Egypt (here known mainly in the broadbean-based version as طعمية, ta’amiyya).
Its older version probably contained ground beans, pressed into balls or discs, and fried. Chickpeas replaced them when the recipe spread throughout Levantine cuisine, becoming an integral part of the gastronomic tradition in Palestine. In Israel being a vegetarian dish, it allows you to reflect the dictates of kosher cuisine and accompany yourself alternately with meat or fish.
Often sold as street food, they are normally used to stuff a soft, flat Arabic bread (خبز عربي) which rolls up easily or opens as a pocket to hold the ingredients along with hummus, tahini, yogurt, or with vegetables typically tomatoes and cucumbers, both natural and pickled. Outside the Damascus Gate in East Jerusalem, the Arab market of the old cities produces larger falafel served in a paper cone and stuffed with chopped onion sesanoed with sumac known as Al-Quds Falafel, while in the Jaffa district in Tel Aviv they are served mainly with hummous and pickled vegetables in the numerous kiosks present in the antique market.
INGREDIENTS for about 40 pieces
1 kg good quality dried chickpeas
1 large white onion in pieces
50g fresh parsley
Baking soda
Salt
Frying oil
Optional:
Garlic
Green spring onion or leek
Chopped fresh coriander
Cumin
Sumak
Black pepper
Durum flour or chickpeas flour
Chili
INSTRUCTIONS
Hydrate the chickpeas in a bowl covered with cold water for 12 hours, rinse them in plenty of cold running water and let them drain. If you want to use canned chickpeas (not recommended) you need to use large chickpeas and let them drain some vegetation liquid for several hours; you would get a dough too soft and difficult to shape. You can replace dried chickpeas with fresh chickpeas, but they won’t be hydrated.
After draining the chickpeas, taking care to have eliminated any excess liquid to avoid getting a dough too soft, put them in the mixer along with the onion cut into small pieces, with the parsley chopped previously, salt and obtain a well-mixed and homogeneous dough. The dough should not be too soft, but if it does, it is possible to thicken it with a few tablespoons of hard wheat semoth flour or chickpea flour. Optional ingredients should be added to the mixer during the making of the dough.
Transfer the dough to a baking dish by compacting the surface with the palm of your hand. Cover with film and place in the fridge to firm for at least 1 hour. After this time, using the appropriate mold or with his hands, taking from time to time small balls of dough and crushing them lightly to get the typical shape of felafel, make the meatballs until the dough is finished. To form falafel I use an ice cream portioner; you can use one of the desired size according to the use that it will make or adequate according to your taste.
In a high-edge saucepan, heat plenty of seed oil at 170 degrees and fry a few at a time. Serve the falafel hot.
