Tag: Middle eastern

BURGER-a-la-FALAFEL …. Chickpea Delight!

“The first wealth is health” 

Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Sitting here the other day I was thinking of what to make over the weekend. Having just signed up for Ten in 10 for eating healthy (read more vegetarian food), my foodie resolutions hung like a sword over my head. Have to look for more fun vegetarian options to feed the kids, the question was how to make it fun and healthy. I was thinking pita bread and falafel, but the kids were thinking burgers!
Decided to meet half way through, and thought of falafel burgers. Hmmm, tweeted out sweet and affable Beth, a lady whose first love seems to be chickpeas, to ask of she had ever tried making them before. Incidentally, she is my chickpeas 101, and was last  reported soaking chickpeas for Mowie and Bruce!
Well, she hadn’t heard of something of the sort, but she squealed with chickpea kinda joy, and booked 2 burgers for herself! These are for you Bethany…
I based the patty recipe on the earlier falafal recipe I had used. Added some sauteed garlic, garlic greens, spring onions & bell peppers to the chickpeas while grinding to a lovely texture. Also added some falafel mix that my niece had got me from Dubai. That is optional though. The burgers got their beautiful green colour from lots of fresh coriander. Great taste and a welcome change from chicken burgers. Ten in 10!!
Originally made with fava beans in Egypt, the dish later migrated northwards, where chickpeas replaced the fava. Falafel is made from fava beans or chickpeas or a combination of the two. The Egyptian variation uses fava beans exclusively, while other variations may use only chickpeas. Palestinians and Yemenite Jews in Jerusalem historically made their falafel from chickpeas and parsley only, as in Syria and Lebanon, and this continues to be how falafel is known throughout the Levant today.

Unlike many other bean patties, in falafel, the beans are not cooked prior to use. Instead they are soaked with bicarbonate of soda, then ground with the addition of a small quantity of onion, parsley, and spices such as cumin and coriander.

Falafel Patties
Adapted from Epicurious
1 cup dried chickpeas
2-3 stalks of garlic greens with stems
4 cloves of garlic
1 red bell pepper, chopped
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh coriander
1/2 large onion, roughly chopped (about 1 cup)
1 teaspoon salt
1/2-1 teaspoon dried hot red pepper
2 tsps falafel mix (optional)
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon baking powder
4 tablespoons flour

Vegetable oil for frying

Method:

Put the chickpeas in a large bowl and add enough cold water to cover them by at least 2 inches. Let soak overnight, and then drain. Or use canned chickpeas, drained.
Saute the garlic, garlic greens and red bell pepper in 1 tbsp oil till soft (4-5 minutes).
Place the drained, uncooked chickpeas and the onions in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade. Add the bell pepper mixture, coriander, salt, hot pepper, falafel mix and cumin. Process until blended but not pureed.
Sprinkle in the baking powder and 4 tablespoons of the flour, and pulse. You want to add enough flour so that the dough forms a small ball and no longer sticks to your hands. Turn into a bowl and refrigerate, covered, for several hours.
Form the chickpea mixture into patties, and shallow fry.
Use sandwiched in burger buns with a hung yogurt garlic dip, tomatoes, lettuce,onions etc.
Note: Use patties immediately as they tend to harden up as they stand. The burgers taste best fresh!
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Posted by Deeba @ PAB

HERB CREAM CHEESE CRACKERS…there’s more to buckwheat than meets the eye!!

“Much Virtue in Herbs, little in Men.”
Benjamin Franklin
Couldn’t resist adding that quote…sorry guys!
…I’m beginning to have more fun in the kitchen. That bag of buckwheat flour has done me a world of good. It keeps beckoning to me from the shelf. Was back to Heidi @ 101 Cookbooks to drool over some delicious looking Swedish Rye Cookies, when a note in the middle of her post grabbed my attention. She had let loose some pearls of wisdom about trying the Swedish Cookies in a savoury avatar. Fancy that? Of course I did, & the feet found themselves moving towards the kitchen with a strange sense of excitement. It was like working in the Chemistry lab back in school, when mixing different solutions resulted in magical colours (& smells to faint by). Still fun with experiments ruled nonetheless. Now a parallel fascination continues. I worked like a busy bee throwing in a bit of this & a bit of that, throwing caution to the wind…how much can go wrong with substituting flours? It was just the sans sugar factor that bothered me, but I plodded on. The end result, as you can see, turned out to be cracking good! The fact happily endorsed by my ever enthusiastic little official taster! Crackers with herbs, za’atar, to be more specific. Za’atar is a Middle-eastern herb which my hub’s niece got for me from Dubai. She is new to cooking/baking & regularly stops by my blog for ideas, & has now become an expert on adana kebabs, lamb curries, apple crumbles & much more. She plays Santa every few months & religiously gets me a bag of goodies to intrigue me further. This time it was za’atar in a bag of yummy ingredients that caught my eye… as did her poppet of a daughter … all of 2 years old with sea green eyes, a bit like the colour of the za’atar!!
Za’atar is generally prepared using ground dried thyme, oregano, marjoram, or some combination thereof, mixed with toasted sesame seeds, and salt. It is a mixture of herbs and spices used as a condiment with Middle Eastern origins. The name of the condiment shares the Arabic name of the herb used as the main ingredient. Za’atar is used as a seasoning for meats and vegetables. It can be mixed with olive oil to make a spread called za’atar–wu–zayt as a dip for the sesame bread rings known as ka’ak. Za’atar can also be spread on a dough base and baked as a bread, in which case it is called manaeesh bi zaatar. It can be sprinkled on labneh (yogurt that has been drained until it becomes a tangy, creamy cheese). Za’atar is often sprinkled on hummus or served with olive oil as a spread or dip. It can also be used to spice meat and vegetables and can be mixed with salt, rolled into balls and preserved in oil, or dried in the sun I even pinched a bit of dough & rolled out a petite pastry shell to see if it would make a crust. It did…a perfect & pretty little crust … am now thinking ‘fillings’. Goat cheese & cherry tomatoes, caramelised onions, or maybe broccoli & cauliflower. Any suggestions are most welcome…

HERB CREAM CHEESE CRACKERS with buckwheat, oatmeal & za’atar

An original recipe… inspired by Heidi @ 101 Cookbooks
Ingredients:
Buckwheat – 1/2 cup
Oatmeal – 1 cup (I ground a cup of Quaker oats in my coffee grinder)
Flour – 1/2 cup
Butter – 1/2 cup (100gms); chilled & cut into cubes
Za’atar – 1/4 – 1/3 cup (as per taste); you can even substitute this for any other herb of your choice, or then freshly ground black pepper. Do adjust the salt accordingly as za’atar has salt of its own
Freshly ground pepper
Sea salt to taste
Cream cheese – 100 gms
Grated cheddar cheese – 50 gms

Method:

  • Toss all the flours + pepper + chilled butter into the food processor & pulse until breadcrumbs like mixture forms.
  • Add the salt & za’atar & briefly pulse until evenly mixed.
  • Turn out into a big mixing bowl, add the cream cheese & grated cheddar & work into a dough till it all comes together. From into 2 balls & chill in cling wrap for about an hour.
  • Roll out thin & cut into shapes of your choice. Sprinkle with sea salt / za’atar/ freshly ground pepper / paprika & bake at 180C for 10-12 minutes till golden brown. Cool on racks & store in an airtight box. Stays well for a week or so in cold weather.
  • Serve as part of your holiday cheeseboard, or better still, sandwiched with some cream cheese!

These savoury cookies are flying westwards to Susan @ Food Blogga for her Eat Christmas Cookies event, to Happy Cook @ My Kitchen Treasures for her Homemade Christmas Gifts event, & also to Lore for her Original Recipes event @ Culinarty. This post featured on

Posted by Deeba @ PAB

LAVASH CRACKERS AGAIN, WITH A ROASTED BELL PEPPER DIP…GUILT-FREE SNACKING!!

“Good taste is as tiring as good company.”
Francis Picabia
There’s something about these crackers. Never has guilt free snacking been this indulgent, this happy! Munch till you drop? These crackers take food addiction to a new level…no stops here. This is the only time I’ve actually repeated a Daring Baker challenge, that too, more than once. The vegan lavash crackers continue to entice me. The dip I made this time is inspired by the one I saw at Meeta @ What’s For Lunch Honey? . The look of it had me absolutely mesmerised…the Ajvar dip; a Middle Eastern eggplant & roasted bell pepper dip. However, I have quite an aversion for eggplant, & have never taken well to it for some strange reason. A lot of people love eggplant, & though I’ve been brave enough to try it a couple of times, it just didn’t work for me. So, I made my dip with roasted bell peppers, & threw in a few roasted tomatoes to add flavour. Meeta served the dip with crackers sprinkled with zatar, a herby middle eastern spice, which I enviously don’t have. I did have the other one she used, called sumac, a tangy spice made from red berries. The lavash recipe is as simple as crackers can possibly be, & once you master the art of getting the dough consistency right & rolling it out really thin, there’s nothing that can come between you & this addictive cracker. The first time I made them for the DB challenge, I did 2 variants, sweet & savoury, & they were both delicious. (I did a sweet cinnamon & brown sugar lavash with slivered almonds; the savoury version was with alternate rows of black & white sesame seeds…fun, fun, fun!)This time I made 2 savoury versions…a Middle Eastern & an Italian. The Middle Eastern ones were tamed into diamond shapes but the Italian ones were broken into shards. Addictive & yum, both of them! I preferred the ones with red chili flakes, roasted garlic & a sprinkling of Italian grill herbs. The jagged edges of the shards won me over!

Roasted Bell Pepper & Garlic Dip
as adapted from Ajvar Dip @ Meeta’s What’s For Lunch Honey?
Ingredients
Red bell peppers -3

Tomatoes -2
Garlic cloves – 3-4

A small bunch of chopped coriander leaves
Juice of 1/2 lime
Cumin powder – 1 tsp
Olive oil – 1 tbsp
Sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
1-2 tablespoons olive oil

Green chili – 1-2/ finely chopped
Salt and fresh cracked black pepper Method:

Grill the peppers, tomatoes & garlic over an open flame as I did, or in a pre-heated oven.

  • Roast them till the skins have completely charred & blistered. Seal into a ziploc & leave for 10-15 minutes. Peel the skins off, deseed. Squeeze the garlic clove out. Place in a large bowl and mash or purée depending how chunky or fine you would like it to be. (I left mine chunky)
  • Add olive oil and the remaining ingredients. Season with sea salt & freshly ground black pepper. Store in air-tight containers in the fridge for up to a week.
    • Lavash Crackers
    from the book, ‘The Art Of Extraordinary Bread’, by Peter Reinhart.
    Ingredients
    Flour – 1 1/2 cup
    Salt – 1/2 tsp
    Instant yeast – 1/2 tsp
    Sugar – 1 tbsp (or agave syrup)
    Vegetable oil – 1 tbsp
    Water – 1/3 to 1/2 cup + 2 , at room temperature
    Roasted garlic paste
    Sumac, Italian herbs, Roasted garlic, Poppy seeds, Sesame seeds, Roasted red chili flakes or sea salt for toppings

    Method:

    • Stir together the flour, salt yeast, sugar, oil, and add just enough water to bring everything together into a ball. You may not need the full 1/2 cup + 2 Tb of water. Knead to a middle-firm dough, smooth & not sticky.
    • Turn into a lightly oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap, & allow to rise at room temperature for about 90 minutes, until doubled in size.
    • Mist the counter lightly with spray oil and transfer the dough to the counter. Press the dough into a square & dust the top of the dough lightly with flour. Roll it out with a rolling pin into a paper thin sheet about 15 inches by 12 inches. You may have to stop from time to time so that the gluten can relax. At these times, lift the dough from the counter and wave it a little, and then lay it back down. Cover it with a towel or plastic wrap while it relaxes. When it is the desired thinness, let the dough relax for 5 minutes. Line a sheet pan with baking parchment. Carefully lift the sheet of dough and lay it on the parchment. If it overlaps the edge of the pan, snip off the excess with scissors.
    • Preheat the oven to 200 C. Mist the top of the dough with water and sprinkle a covering of seeds or spices if you are doing the Middle Eastern/sumac version (or poppy seeds, sesame seeds etc).
    • For the Italian version, brush the rolled out dough lightly all over with roasted garlic paste, sprinkle with Italian grill herbs, red chili flakes & sea salt. Just a light sprinkling is enough.
    • If you want to precut the cracker, use a pizza cutter & cut diamonds or rectangles in the dough. You do not need to separate the pieces, as they will snap apart after baking. If you want to make shards, bake the sheet of dough without cutting it first.
    • Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the crackers begin to brown evenly across the top (the time will depend on how thinly and evenly you rolled the dough).
    • When the crackers are baked, remove the pan from the oven and let them cool in the pan for about 10 minutes. Pull the cut one apart, or break the Italian one into shards & serve.

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    Posted by Deeba @ PAB

    FAST BUT NOT FURIOUS…MIDDLE EASTERN CHICKEN BURGER PATTIES

    “As a child my family’s menu consisted of two choices: take it or leave it.”
    Buddy Hackett
    What do you do when you hardly have any time on hand & hungry kids hounding you? Get the grill going, slap on some chicken patties…then sit back, relax & enjoy their glee!! Rediscovered this easy-peasy chicken patty recipe which I came across a while ago, bookmarked, & awaiting experimentation. No words to waste…it was simple, quick & full of flavour! Surprisingly easy, with yogurt as an ingredient, a happy marriage of spices; I certainly didn’t think I’d sail through this one as calmly.
    This is a great one to have on hand if you are rushed for time, or just in a plain lazy mood. I think these will make excellent finger food too. Serve them with a ‘pomegranate molasses’ dipping sauce, a lime-mint-coriander chutney or maybe tzatziki … YUM!! I made these moist burger patties from this recipe I found here @ Akalaty.

    Middle Eastern Burgers recipe adapted from Akalaty
    Ingredients for patties:
    Extra-virgin olive oil – 2 tsps
    Onion – 1 large / finely chopped
    Ground cinnamon – 1tsp
    Ground coriander – 2 tsp
    Red pepper flakes – 1/4 tsp

    Sumac Powder – 2 tsps (the original recipe doesn’t have this. I had sumac, so I added it)
    Sea salt – 1 1/2 tsps
    Freshly ground black pepper
    Garlic – 5 cloves / minced (original had 2 cloves;I like loads of garlic, but this wasn’t overpowering)
    Fresh coriander leaves – 1/4 cup / chopped
    Minced lean chicken – 500gms
    Plain yogurt – 1/4 cup (I hung it to get rid of excess whey; was scared the patties would be mushy; surprisingly they weren’t)
    Pomegranate molasses – 3 tbsps for brushing (didn’t have any unfortunately!)

    Method:

    • Heat the olive oil in a skillet, add the onion, cinnamon, coriander, pepper flakes, and season with salt and pepper. Cook until onions are tender, about 5 minutes. Stir in the garlic, coriander & sumac (if using) and cook until garlic is fragrant, about 1 more minute.
    • Transfer to a large bowl and let cool slightly. Stir in the chicken and yogurt until the onion are evenly mixed. Season with salt and pepper. (I refrigerated the mince overnight at this stage. They were perfect & easy to handle the next morning. I personally feel that the mixture should be chilled for at least an hour for mingling of flavours & easy handling.)
    • Shape into 4 1/2-inch thick patties.
    • Cook in a nonstick skillet over medium heat until browned and cooked through, about 5 minutes on each side, or until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the sides of the burgers registers between 165 and 170 degrees F.
    • Brush burgers with the pomegranate molasses and set aside to rest for 5 minutes. Serve on toasted buns with fixings.

    Enthusiastic enough to go a step further & make your own hamburger buns too? Check out my post for home-made burger buns here. The recipe for my mint-coriander-lime chutney can be found here.And of course, this too is on it’s way to Ruth @ Ruth’s Kitchen Experiments for her Bookmarked event.

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    Posted by Deeba @ PAB

    PITAS FULL OF POCKETS…with FALAFEL, KABOBS OR COTTAGE CHEESE!

    “If the divine creator has taken pains to give us delicious and exquisite things to eat, the least we can do is prepare them well and serve them with ceremony.”
    Fernand Point

    Getting into the FALAFEL of things…

    Quite a few blogs are buzzing with Middle Eastern food these days & I’m trying hard to catch up. By the time I get to making falafel & pita bread after getting pockets-full of inspiration from Val @ More Than Burnt Toast, she’s already hitting a new trail…’Zataar‘! O Boy… so much to do as usual, & so little time! I must admit I’ve been living under a rock. For some insane reason, each time I heard of falafel I assumed it was a sort of bread. Having had donna kebabs several times in the UK & in Canada, it never crossed my mind that there might be a vegetarian option. I always associated the Middle East with kebabs served on a bed of rice or in pita pockets!!! Can you imagine my surprise when I read at Val’s that it was chickpeas they were talking about! How embarrassing… After reading such rave reviews, I set off to try making falafel…albeit skeptically! With recipes galore, tossed a coin between cooked or uncooked chick-peas…uncooked was the call! Very simple & straightforward recipe, must admit I was sure it would fall to pieces in hot oil! Lo & behold…perfect falafel balls! Even better was the taste…crisp from the outside; bursting with flavour within & a great veggie option! YUM…the recipe for falafel came from Epicurious.

    Pita bread is another story altogether, associated in my past with beastly yeastly tales. But thanks to the Daring Bakers daring french loaf challenge & the success with Susan @ Food Blogga’s pizza dough, rising with the yeast is now the norm, rather than an exception! No problem at all…sailed through the recipe! Got the recipe from Kamini’s @ Bubbling Cauldron that took me to Jai & Bee’s @ Jugalbandi…NO FAIL pita recipe, with a 70% puff rate as they said! Mine behaved very well for a change…must have been the new electric tandoor my parents gifted us on our anniversary! It’s an interesting little box which goes up to sudden high temperatures & cooks 2-3 pitas at a time in a matter of 4-5 minutes! COOL!!

    I made the cardinal error of trying to do too many new things on one single day & almost died of tension! I was sure the falafel would fail-a-fail me; the pitas would be pocketless & the meal a disaster. The verdict was a great THUMBS UP! The high point being that the son who dislikes lentils of any sort, took to the falafel beautifully. He ate a few as a snack, & for dinner had some more in his pita pocket! The only thing I didn’t achieve was the tahini sauce because I ran out of time & energy! I did however serve them with a coriander yogurt sauce from 28 Cooks blogspot, & my all time favourite yogurt/sour cream dip which is a hit with anything & everything!
    This is a post longer than I intended it to be….but, the fact is that the entire meal was a collaboration of sorts. Who ever said ‘Too many cooks spoil the broth“? Amazingly, I put this together with too many cooks, & pulled it off! The chicken kebabs were a Lebanese kabob recipe from no other than my sister, our family’s acclaimed Chicken Queen! Simple & finger-licking good! The salad was a simple one with iceberg lettuce, red,yellow & green bell peppers, spring onions with greens, & tomatoes sans seeds…all tossed together in a light olive oil & lime juice dressing.
    To recap then:
    • FALAFELS…the recipe can be found at Epicurious .
    • WHOLE-WHEAT PITA BREAD…recipe at Jugalbandi .
    • CORIANDER YOGURT SAUCE…can be found at 28 Cooks.
    • TAHINI FROM SCRATCH … head for the Bubbling Cauldron .
    • YOGURT SOUR CREAM DIP…right here at my blog.
    • LEBANESE CHICKEN KABOBS & COTTAGE CHEESE FILLING RECIPE FOLLOWS…
    PITAs WITH FALAFEL…

    FILL HER UP…CHICKEN THIS TIME!

    Lebanese Chicken Kabobs…the Chicken Queen’s adaptation from her new North African and Middle Eastern Cookbook.
    • Make a marinade out of grated onions, garlic, lemon juice, salt, pepper, red chili pwdr, paprika and a saffron soaked in hot water.
    • Marinate chicken pieces in this for as long as you like (overnight is fine) and then grill them for approx 30 mins; turning once at about 15-20minutes.
    • Make sure to put them on a grill tray to drain off excess juices and put something beneath to collect the juices .
    • Rest the kebabs for 10 minutes & use as fillers with a base of salad. Top with coriander sauce, yogurt sauce, tahini> sauce &/or a hot harissa> sauce if you like!

    & MAKE IT COTTAGE-CHEESE NEXT TIME!!

    • Make a marinade with olive oil, grated garlic, juice of 1 lime, red chili flakes, grill seasoning & salt.
    • Cut cottage cheese into thin fingers, about 1 1/2 inches long, & toss gently in marinade. Leave for about 30 minutes to whenever you are ready to eat the meal.
    • Turn the whole thing into a pan, & saute on high heat till dry. That’s option #3 for you!
    • Layer with a salad, followed by cottage cheese & topped with sauces of your choice.

    PITAS FULL OF POCKETS…WONDERFUL OPTIONS INDEED!

    Posted by Deeba @ PAB
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