FALAFAL : PROTEIN PACKED BALLS

Falafal is a deep fried ball or patty made from ground chickpeas, fava beans or even combination of both.  It is a traditional Middle Eastern food, commonly served in pita bread topped with salads, pickled vegetables, hot sauce and drizzled with tahini sauce.  Falafal can be served alone or as an appetizer with hummus. (Hummus recipe was in my previous blog)

The origin of Falafal is controversial.  The common theory is that it originated in Egypt and that it can be traced back to Pharaonic Egypt. 

Falafal plays an important role in Israeli cuisine.  It is considered to be the national dish of Israel and is readily available in every restaurant or corner shop.

In North America, prior to 1970s, Falafal was found only in Middle Eastern restaurants but today it is easily available as street food all over North America.  With people turning vegetarian due to health reasons, Falafal has been accepted as a healthy alternative.

Falafal has very high nutritional value. Since it is made of chickpeas, it is full of protein, complex carbohydrates and fiber. Chickpeas are also low in fat and salt and contain no  bad cholesterol.  It can be baked to reduce the high fat content which comes from deep frying. Only problem is baking will change the texture and the flavor of this dish.

No matter what mode of cooking you prefer, Falafal is an easy dish to make. It is very simple and less time consuming.  Here is the recipe.

Ingredients:

1 cup chickpeas or garbanzo beans or white channa, 1 medium onion chopped finely, 3 cloves of garlic chopped finely or crushed, 1 tsp coriander powder, 1/2 tsp red pepper(optional), 1 tsp cumin powder, 1/2 tsp crushed black pepper, 2 1/2 tbsp wheat flour(or white flour), 1/2 cup fresh parsley cleaned, washed and chopped, 1 1/2 tsp fresh lemon juice, salt to taste, oil for deep frying.

Method:

Soak chickpeas overnight. Next morning boil them in a pressure cooker or in a covered pan till they are very tender. Mash chickpeas but save the stock( this stock can be used for any vegetarian soup). Combine all the ingredients with mashed chickpeas and blend them in a food processor.  Form them into small or medium sized balls or patties.  Deep fry these on medium flame. Turn to cook from the other side. Drain the oil on a paper towel. Serve them hot with hummus.

You can make big patties and use them in a vegetable burger with lettuce, onion and tomato etc.

HUMMUS:THE HEALTHY DIP

Other day we had a guest over who was about to visit Middle East and Israel. He is a vegetarian so his biggest worry was the kind of food available in those countries.  He told us he was planning to pack lots of Indian snacks with him so that he could survive the four-five days tour. Just then I decided to cook some authentic Middle Eastern vegetarian dishes to give him some options available in those countries.  I cooked falafal, hummus, lentil pilaf with the yogurt and cucumber dip. I must acknowledge he enjoyed the food and took some generous helpings.

Just like a good host in the Middle East, I enjoyed my food being appreciated.  It is a known fact that hospitality in the Middle Eastern countries is considered a duty.  "If people are standing at the door of your house, don't shut it before them," and "Give the guest food to eat even though you yourself are starving," are two sayings which remind people of this duty.

 I have never visited any Middle Eastern country so my only experience of eating Lebanese, Persian, Jordanian or Greek food comes from dinning out in Chicago's Arab town restaurants.  With that in mind, I decided to make Hummus from scratch.

Today, hummus is very popular as a side dish, dip or spread, all over the globe.  Since it is a very healthy dip, health food stores have come up with different flavors of Hummus. There is hardly any party where hummus is not served as an appetizer.  It is made with cooked and mashed chickpeas, sesame seeds, olive oil and lemon juice.  Most people make hummus with tahini but I have made it by roasting and grinding sesame seeds.  The quality of hummus does not suffer with this process.

Ingredients:

2 cups chickpeas, soaked overnight and cooked, 3/4 cup olive oil, 2 or 3 cloves of garlic, juice of 1 medium size lemon, 1/2 tsp paprika or degi lal mirch,1/2 tsp  freshly ground black pepper,  1 tsp cumin powder, 1 cup sesame seeds roasted and powdered OR 1 cup tahini, salt to taste.

Method:

Roast the sesame seeds and then powder them finely.  Blend the cooked chickpeas, all the spices, salt and garlic in a food processorl.  Add the powdered sesame seeds, lemon juice and olive oil to the chickpeas mix and blend to smooth paste.  Garnish with olive oil and paprika. 

Enjoy with chips, vegetables or falafal.

Recipe for Falafal will be in the next blog.

APPLE KHEER

I love making desserts where I can quiz guests about the ingredients in my dish. Apple pudding or kheer is one such dessert. For New Years party I made this dessert which came out to be so tasty that everyone took second or even third helpings. Most of my guests could not figure out if it was apple kheer. The best part is it is very simple and less time consuming.  Apple kheer is a Mughal Era  dish but i gave it a modern touch by adding custard powder. I hope you will like to try it for your next party.

Ingredients:

2cups milk, 2medium size apples, 8 tsp sugar, 10 cashews, 20 raisins,  8 almonds, 1tsp cardamom powder, 2 tsp custard powder,1/4 cup cold milk.

Method:

Wash, peel and grate apples.   In a non stick pan add these grated apples and sugar and cook them till all the water evaporates. In a heavy bottom pan boil milk. After one boil reduce flame but keep stirring.  In the meanwhile chop cashews and soak raisins in lukewarm water. In a 1/4 cup of milk, mix custard powder and stir well so no lumps are left.  After five to seven minutes,  add the custard mix to the boiling milk. Keep stirring.  When it begins to thicken add cashews and raisins and stir again.  Now mix the cooked apples to the milk and stir well, give one boil and turn off the flame.

Roast and chop almonds and garnish the kheer. Enjoy this healthy and delicious dessert.

HOLIDAY SUGAR COOKIES WITH OATS

Sugar cookies are an all time favorite of kids and adults alike. These buttery, moderately sweet and crunchy cookies are rolled out cookies which can be shaped and decorated as per your choice. That is the reason they are perfect for holidays.  Santa's little helpers in your home will be happy to assist you in decorating these.

Usually these cookies are made with all purpose white flour but I made these cookies with oats and multi grain flour.  They came out to be so tasty that 90 percent of these finished much before the Christmas Eve.

My recipe is very healthy and simple.  All you need is a few ingredients and a food processor.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup unsalted butter(at room temperature), 1/2 cup canola oil, 1egg, 1 cup granulated sugar, 2 tsp vanilla extract, 2 cups ground oatmeal, 1 cup multi grain flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 1/4 tsp salt, 1tbsp milk.

Method:

Sift together flours, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Set it aside. Put butter, oil and sugar in a bowl of electric mixer and beat until light in color. Add  egg and milk and beat till well blended. Put mixer on low speed. Gradually add flour mix and beat till the mixture turns into a dough. This dough should not be too hard or too soft. Divide dough into two parts and wrap each part separately in plastic wrap and refrigerate it for two to three hours.

Roll out dough.  Sprinkle powder sugar on the rolling pin and roll out dough to 1/4 inch thick. Cut into desired shapes with cookie cutters. Place one inch apart on a greased baking sheet and bake in a pre heated oven for 8  - 10 minutes on 350 degree F (180 degree C).

Cool cookies for five to seven hours before icing them.

Ingredients for Icing:

1 cup confectioners sugar, 2 tbsp meringue powder, food coloring, sprinkles, 1/3 cup warm water.

Method:

In a mixing bowl beat confectioners sugar, meringue powder and warm water with electric beater or food processor. Beat till stiff. Add color as per your choice. Decorate your cookies with icing gun.  Use your favorite sprinkles.  Enjoy.

I want to wish you all Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and a blessed New Year.

SPICY MATAR CHAAT (CHAAT MADE OF PEAS)

Delhi is famous for its foods and flavors but the real flavor comes from the chaats, savory snacks.  There is so much variety in this category.  There is papri chaat, potato chaat, kachalu(taro root) chaat, sweet potato chaat and matar chaat. There is no end to this list.

 The word Chaat is used for a group of hot, spicy and tangy, vegetarian snacks from north India. The Hindi word ‘chaatna’ means 'to lick'. Chaat dishes are so delicious that they make you smack your lips and lick the plate clean. Chaat is a comfort food often sold by street vendors... You can see people standing all around a Chaat cart, eating and licking their plates.  When you find many people around a chaat vendor or shop, it is a certificate that his chaat is simply scrumptious.  It’s a kind of celebration in congregation.

So I have decided to explore this area of Delhi street foods over next few times. Today we are going to get into matar chaat.  This is a delicious yet easy snack to make, using dry peas, or 'matar.  These peas are creamy and light greenish in color, almost like chickpea. They are available in the lentil section of any grocery store.

Ingredients: 

2 cups of dry peas, salt to taste, ½ tsp red chili powder, 1 tsp cumin seeds roasted and coarsely ground, 1 tsp chaat masala, 1 tsp of tamarind pulp

Ingredients for garnishing:

1 onion peeled and finely chopped, 1 medium potato boiled and cut into small cubes, 2 green chilies finely chopped(optional), ¼ cup  chopped fresh coriander leaves, 3 tbsp green chutney made of mint and coriander leaves, 3 tbsp sweet chutney made of tamarind or dry mango powder. (For the recipe of green chutney and sweet chutney see my blog Papri Chaat of May 7, 2012)

Method:

Wash and soak peas overnight. Place in a pressure cooker with four cups of water. Once pressure is made, cook for 5 minutes on the full flame. If you don’t want to boil in the pressure cooker, boil the peas in a covered pan until they turn soft. Once cooker cools off, check that peas are soft enough. If too much water is there, drain it.  Now mix tamarind pulp in ¼ cup of hot water, stir it well and add it to dry peas. Add chaat masala, chili powder, salt, cumin powder to the peas. Just before serving add chopped onion and potato and green chilies. Sprinkle fresh coriander leaves on the top.

Serve green chutney and sweet chutney in separate bowls so that your guests can help themselves as per their need.  Some people like more tangy taste so they prefer just green chutney but others might have little sweet tooth so they might be opting for sweet and sour tamarind or dry mango powder chutney. Personally I like to mix both in my chaat for a magical taste.

EGGLESS SUGAR COOKIES WITH ROYAL ICING

This Diwali I wanted to make cookies along with my usual batch of traditional sweets (mithai).  In most Hindu households nothing non vegetarian is eaten on the Diwali day, so I decided to make these cookies without any eggs for the guests and the family.  As I wanted to decorate these cookies with the royal icing, I had to stick to no egg royal icing also. 
I must say the end result was very satisfactory as everyone had two or three of these cookies in one go.  I wanted to make these cookies without any white flour so I used multi grain flour instead.

Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:

½  cup sugar, ½  cup butter on a room temperature,  2 tbsp milk,  1 tbsp vanilla extract,  1 cup multi grain flour,  1 ½  tsp baking powder, 1 pinch salt,  3 tbsp flour,  2 tbsp sugar

Method:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C).  In a mixing bowl, cream the butter and 1/2 cup sugar until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and milk, and mix. 

In a separate bowl, combine the one cup of flour with the salt and baking powder.  Now mix the wet and dry ingredients to make a dough.  This dough will be slightly sticky.  Once mixed, add about 3 tablespoons of flour, until the dough becomes smooth.  Now pour two tablespoons of sugar on a flat tray.  

Form the dough into 12 equal-sized balls, and flatten until approximately 1/2 inch thick. Cut your favorite shapes with a cookie cutter and roll one side into the sugar to coat.  Place these on a baking sheet with sugar coated side up.   Bake for eight to ten minutes, until bottom is golden brown.  Let these cookies cool off for 4 to 5 hours and then you can decorate them with royal icing.

Egg-less Royal Icing 

Royal icing is a baker's staple for decorating cookies and cakes, and most recipes call for egg whites or meringue powder. However, with a little variation I decorated these cookies with an egg-free royal icing.

 

Ingredients:

1 ½ cups confectioner's sugar, 4 tsp milk, 1 ½ tsp light corn syrup, ½ tsp vanilla extract

Method:

Measure the sugar and pour it into a clean glass bowl.  Add milk, and stir it until the lumps of sugar are all gone.  Stir in corn syrup; if you want a thinner consistency, add another tsp of syrup.  Stir in the vanilla extract.  Now add color as per your choice or the design you want to make. Creativity has no limits.

Once icing on the cookies dries up, you may keep them in an airtight container. Enjoy as a  dessert or with a cup of coffee.

BESAN LADDOO

Besan(chickpea flour) laddoo is a very popular Indian sweet generally made during the festival season. It is very easy and less time consuming unlike other sweets.

I associate this dessert with my mother and grand mother's mouth watering laddoos.  They made it so perfect that I did not even like the store bought laddoos.  My grandmother often made these laddoos with lots of crushed almonds during the winter time. When I asked her why did she make them only during the winter, her reply amazed me.  She said we are more susceptible to cold during the winter months so if you eat just one laddoo a day, cold won't come near you. 

So this Diwali, I made the besan laddoos for the family.  My recipe is quite simple.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups besan( chickpea flour), 3 tbsp sooji (semolina), 5 tbsp of ghee or clarifying butter, little less than 2 cups of powered sugar, 20 - 25 almonds,1/2 tsp cardamom powder.

Method:

Pan roast besan and sooji on a low to medium heat, depending on your stove.. Sooji takes less time to roast and besan takes 8 to 10 minutes on a slow flame.  So it would be better to roast both of them in different pans.

Once roasted, mix both in the same pan. In the meanwhile crush almonds in your grinder or mixer. Add these almonds to the mix.

On a slow flame add ghee to the mix.  Once ghee melts, mix it very well with the flours and almonds. Sprinkle cardamom powder and stir it again.

Turn off the stove and add sugar. Mix it very well. Let it cool off for a couple of minutes and take a small portion at a time and make balls.  Set them in a plate.

When these besan laddoos cool off completely, you can store them in an airtight container. They can be preserved for good month or so.

Enjoy these mouth watering laddoos and have lots of fun on Diwali. I wish you all good health and good fortune.