How to Make the Best Falafel

One of the favorite new food discoveries I made on our recent LA trip was falafel. Last week, we made it at home, and it wasn’t as complicated as I had anticipated. At first, it seemed time consuming, but when you break it down, it’s not too bad.

For example, You can make the tahini sauce ahead of time. (In case you didn’t know: Tahini is made of ground sesame seeds, is smooth and liquid, and has a slightly nutty flavor.) The night before you made this dish, just soak the beans, then for dinner that night you grind them up with the spices, make little balls, and fry them. Serve on pita bread with tomato, sprouts, and drizzle your tahini sauce over it, and bam- you’ve found Mediterranean bliss. Once again, this recipe is based on the version I tried in the Moishe’s stall at the LA Farmer’s Market.

Moishe’s Falafel

For the tahini sauce:

1/2 cup tahini

1/4 cup plain yogurt

1/4 cup water

Juice of 1 lemon

2 garlic cloves, minced

Pinch of kosher salt

For the falafel:

1 cup dried chickpeas, picked through and rinsed

1/2 cup peeled and split dried fava beans, picked through and rinsed

1 small onion, finely chopped

1/2 small green bell pepper, cored, seeded, and finely chopped

1/4 cup finely chopped fresh parsley

2 teaspoons garlic powder

2 teaspoons ground cumin

1 teaspoon ground coriander

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Canola or other vegetable oil for frying

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

6 whole wheat pita breads, warmed

Alfalfa sprouts and sliced tomatoes for serving

Make the tahini sauce:

1. Combine all the ingredients in a blender. Process on high speed to make a smooth and creamy sauce. If it gets too thick as it sits, mix in a little bit more water or lemon juice to thin it before serving.

Make the falafel:

1. Put the dried chickpeas and fava beans in separate bowls and add cool water to cover by 2 inches. Soak the beans in the refrigerator for at least 12 hours or up to 1 day; they will swell to double their original size. Drain and rinse separately.
2. Put the soaked chickpeas in a food processor and process until well ground (about the consistency of cornmeal). Scrape the chickpeas into a large bowl. Process the fava beans in the same way and add them to the bowl with the chickpeas.
3. Add the onion, bell pepper, parsley, garlic powder, cumin, coriander, salt, and pepper to the bowl. Mix thoroughly by hand until the ingredients are well combined. Refrigerate while heating the oil; this should take about 15 minutes.
4. Pour oil into a cast-iron skillet, or deep, heavy-bottomed pot to a depth of about 3 inches and heat to medium high heat.
5. Add the baking powder to the falafel mixture and toss with your hands to blend. Roll the falafel mixture into 16 balls (about the size of Ping-Pong balls), then press and pat each ball with your fingers to flatten them slightly. Carefully slip a few falafel at a time into the hot oil, using a slotted spoon to make sure they don’t stick to the bottom. Fry, turning as needed, until the falafel are crisp and golden on all sides, about 2 minutes per batch. As they are finished, transfer the falafel to a platter lined with paper towels to drain.
6. To serve, cut your pita bread in half and open one half, filling it with a couple of falafel, sprouts, tomato slices, and drizzling all liberally with tahini sauce.

Save Your Pennies

Do you see the ancient pirate medallion in this picture?

Sometime last year, my husband started collecting all of his spare change in a jar. Apparently, most men consider it undignified to jingle-jangle when they walk; at least, that was my father’s opinion. He usually just gave his loose change to me, his thrifty child. I was also the one who would go on money-earning expeditions throughout the house, scouring underneath the cushions of our couch and other hidden places for coins.

But back to Paul’s story: For Christmas, I bought him a coin counting machine and encouraged him to keep saving. Just before our last vacation, he took his full jar to a coin-counting machine and found that he had saved over $70! It was nice to have extra spending money on our vacation. I also learned that saving little by little really can amount to something! Who says piggy banks don’t add up over time?

My Menu for Next Week

Monday: Meatless Monday strikes again with a new recipe from a vegetarian blog I recently started following, Seattle's own Herbivoracious. I love the blog because the pictures are amazing and the recipes are intriguing and much more creative than your typical vegetarian fare. When I prepare this vegetarian chili, I am going to try a new ingredient, chipotle peppers in adobo sauce. This stuff seem to be everywhere lately, and this will be my first time cooking with it!

Tuesday: Cooking Light, my favorite magazine, published a budget-oriented section in this month’s edition which featured a recipe for Chicken Enchiladas with homemade red sauce. It uses chicken thighs to keep costs down. Don’t worry - they will be free-range. :-)

Wednesday: Now that spring has fully sprung in California, it is time to celebrate with a rite of passage - our first trip to the Wednesday night Davis Farmer’s Market, complete with a trip to the Hotdogger. They serve the best hot dogs that snap when you bite into them (a sure sign of a quality wiener), with the freshest, fluffiest buns you’ll ever taste. With a refreshing lemonade, it’s the best warm weather meal around!

Thursday: We try to eat fish every now and then, as it’s so darn good for you. I found a recipe that sounds delicious in the Family Circle magazine at work: Salmon (gotta be wild-caught; I can’t stand that pale flabby farmed stuff) coated with bread crumbs, Dijon mustard and dill. Sounds delicious! Can’t wait to try it.

Friday: Date night! I can heard the Thai food calling my name now...

Saturday: Attending a charity spaghetti feed! It’s always spaghetti they serve, isn’t it?

How Strong is Your Vocabulary?

I will be the first to admit that since graduating from college, my once respectable vocabulary seems to be diminishing. I'm sure that living in another country and trying to learn Cantonese for 18 months subsequent to my graduation didn't help me retain those cultivated English language skills.

However, I recently found a cool web site that I wanted to share because it helps you sharpen your vocabulary skills and contribute to a charity at the same time, in a very low key way. Visit freerice.com and for every word you correctly define, sponsors will donate 10 grains of rice to the World Food Programme to help reduce hunger. Give it a try!

The words do get increasingly hard as you go along - I usually have to put on my thinking cap after the first few. My best lovel so far has been 31, and I have certainly learned a lot. Good luck and in case you were wondering, a tuffet is a footstool.

How I Ate My Way Through LA - Day 2

Day 2: We hit the LA Farmer's Market to hunt down some lunch. It's an amazing collection of ethnic foods and little shops. After much deliberation, I decide on Singapore's Banana Leaf because I haven't had real Indonesian food before. (Although I do find the packaged Mi Goreng noodles to be curiously addictive. Could be the MSG...) I order the Chicken Rendang, a gingery red curry concoction. It was pretty good, but the best was yet to come...

My husband went to Moishe's, a famously popular stall selling Mediterranean food. He ordered the falafel and it was the most incredibly flavorful, addictive thing I've tried in a while: spiced garbanzo and fava beans formed into delectable balls and fried, then wrapped in a warm pita next to a ripe tomato slice and drizzled with creamy tahini/yogurt sauce. As soon as I got home, I got online and found their recipe and I plan on making it for dinner one night this week. It was that good! (Maybe I will post that later this week....)

My dad stopped at the Gumbo Pit and ordered alligator, fried like chicken. It was a little rubbery but novel (for us).
Last stop was Du-pars, where we sampled pie. I went for the gooseberry pie (pictured before). The gooseberry turned out to be like a small tart grape; I enjoyed it! Du-pars makes their pies without preservatives behind a window where you can watch them assembling them.

While walking along the Walk of Fame, we got some lemonade at Skooby's, which was voted the best in town. It really was quite tasty.
While walking down the street, we spotted a Beard Papa's store and had to stop for a chocolate cream puff. This is an Osaka-based chain that sells the above irresistible treats. So good!


For dinner, we ventured to the predominantly African-American territory of Roscoe's, home of the chicken and waffles. It's greasy Southern food, but a must try. Paul got the classic chicken and waffles; I went for a combo with collard greens, cornbread, candied yams and fried chicken. Then we shared. It was an experience to remember!


We finished the night by sharing pina coladas with our friend Charlie on the 35th floor of the Bonaventure building. It's a restaurant that slowly revolves in a circle, giving you full view of the skyline of LA. A very nice spot to enjoy the city by night.


Day 3 still to come...

How I Ate My Way Through LA - Day 1

I have returned from our latest trip! My cousin Joel got married down in Southern California this weekend, so my husband and I took this opportunity to take a little tour of the area like we had never seen it before. We planned the little time we had around what I love best: food. Here are all of the sides a city I came to know through its cuisine.

Day 1: We have lunch at Clementine's, an adorable little cafe suggested to me by my friend Rachel. It's the kind of place where the menu is written in chalk and the upscale clientele isn't too intimidating, despite its location just minutes from the gates of Bel Air. Paul, ever the carnivore, ordered the grilled cheese with bacon and chili; I went for the grilled eggplant and tomato confit with goat cheese. Delish!



The Battle of the Cupcakes: Next, we hit our first iconic stop at Sprinkles. Prepared to wait an hour if needs be, we were relieved to obtain our 4-cupcakes sampler in under 15 minutes. We tried the coconut, red velvet, lemon, and dark chocolate marshmallow varieties. (By the way, did you know that they only prepare a handful of what's on their menu each day? It took us several tries at ordering to catch onto that. They put a little dot on the menu next to the cupcakes that are being freshly made that day.)

We compared the cupcakes at Sprinkles to those of the competition down the street at Crumbs, ordering a Key Lime cupcake there as well. Our conclusion? Crumbs is all about appearance, but were a bit stale. Sprinkles was the clear winner when it came to a quality, buttery taste and for freshness. However, the best cupcakes we have ever tried are still nearer to home in San Francisco. Kara's Cupcakes (located across from Ghirardelli's) are still the best we have ever had, hand's down. While I'm giving out cupcake advice, may I suggest that eating more than, say, two gourmet cupcakes on any one day is not a great idea. Thank goodness we had something light planned for dinner...


Celebrity Sighting: Finally, we conclude our day with dinner at Real Fresh Daily, a vegan restaurant. I tried tempeh for the first time (that's fermented bean curd) with my Asian stir fry. It was odd. Paul ordered the Mexican salad, pictured below, and really liked it. Like I said, this comes from a die-hard carnivore, so that really is significant.

Randomly, we ate our meal next to minor celebrity Mike White (aka Ned Schneibly from School of Rock). He was eating dinner there with an incredibly obnoxious blond companion, who kept debating whether or not to go to New Orleans with him and their friends this summer. As it turns out, IMDB reports that he is, in fact, a vegan. And Paul swears that Kevin Bacon was there too, but I doubt that one. The famous actor appeared to be sitting with two twenty-something thug-like young people. I simply cannot believe that Mr. Bacon would keep such company..... Or would he? Opinions? Conspiracy theories?


To be continued...

How I Ate My Way Through LA - Day 3

Day 3: Our trip to LA was busy, and I couldn't be bothered to track down the Kogi truck, no matter how much I wanted to try it or how hyped it was. Not to worry- it found us, as we were walking down the street by Venice Beach, looking for lunch.

It was fate that we found the Korean tacos. I know this because after I ordered a chicken, spicy pork, and short rib, the dude who took our order even gave the two of us free samples of their newest dessert - a chocolate concoction that you simply must try if you ever get the chance! It goes a little something like this: chocolate with crispies, topped with a layer of liquid chocolate and caramel, then hazelnuts, and dusted with a spiciness that lends warmth. To die for! The tacos (pictured below) were sensational too- juicy meat topped with fresh kim chee, sitting inside tender tortillas. This is fusion cooking at its best - and cheap, too! Just $2 per taco.



Gimme Some of Your Tots: Next to the Kogi truck, which is known for its persistently long lines, sat the Dogtown Dogs truck. Partly because we felt sorry for it and partly because we were still a lil hungry after sharing the 3 small tacos, we decided to show some love and order a couple of specialty dogs. Mine came with grainy mustard, fennel slaw, and roasted red peppers. Paul's was topped with chili, cheese, and Frito's. Both were accompanied by 3 small, perfectly crisp tater tots, and no, I did not steal Paul's tots, in case you were wondering. And the dogs were good, but they're no Kogi!

The Macaroon Trend: Our friend Charlie tipped us off to a patisserie in Venice Beach where we could try macaroons, the tiny, delicate French cookies which are popping up everywhere these days. We got a variety pack (see half-eaten picture below) with flavors ranging from ordinary (chocolate and raspberry) to exotic Ube. They were ok, not something I would crave, but I'm glad I tried them so I can now differentiate the French version from the more familiar dense coconut macaroons.

Joel's Wedding: Last but certainly not least, let's talk about the reason for our trip to LA, my cousin's wedding reception. Influenced heavily by the bride's Persian heritage (her father and many of the guests were Persian), the food included grilled beef and chicken kebabs with pita bread; grilled lamb chops and salmon; lots of fresh fruits; an orange-peel studded rice pilaf (my favorite new ethnic dish!); and for dessert, there was even a rosewater-flavored ice cream (which my family felt tasted similar to old ladies perfume). It was an enlightening cultural experience and very unique!


This brings us to the conclusion of our memorable food tour of LA. We tapped into the varied ethnic roots of the city, the vegetarian/health vein, and many food trends, from gourmet cupcakes to Korean tacos. We enjoyed it so much that we hope to have many more food tours in the future!