Cooking Machine

I haven't made falafels since about 198-something.  Some friends came back from kibbutzing in Israel* and raved about them - freshly cooked at a roadside stall, served in pitta bread with salad and tahini** or yoghurt sauce - a squeeze of lemon, and there you go, medditeranean sunshine food.

So they decided to treat me one night.

They cooked chickpeas and lentils and onions and spices until they had a pot of pretty ace looking soup.  

And then they said "Now you pinch off a dollop and fry it."

Frying soup does not not make a crunchy and delicious falafel, it makes a mess.

I sort of rescued them by managing to thicken up the soup to the point that spoons could stand up in it.  It was still too wet to fry so I rolled balls of the mixture in sesame seeds and baked them until the outside was crunchy.

The falafels above were made and deep fried by me.  Crunchy outside. soft and fluffy inside, tasty, spicy and quite more-ish.  My version worked.

Next time I'll do pitta breads and salad to go with them.

*Haven't heard of anyone doing that since about 1980-something.
** I'd never heard of it in 1980-something.  Sesame seed paste if you were wondering.