Falafel!

So we made tzatziki, now we'll make falafel.

Soak a cup of dried chickpeas for 20-24 hours in water. Chickpeas expand a lot, so cover them with 3-4 inches of water.

Pulse the drained chickpeas in a food processor with 1 tsp coriander powder, 1 tbsp cumin, 1 tsp cayenne or chili powder, 1/2 C chopped cilantro, 1/2 C chopped parsley, 1 tbsp fresh squeezed lemon juice, 1/2 tsp baking soda, dash sea salt and 1 small onion, quartered. Make sure the falafel batter is somewhat dry, but still sticks together. If it's too dry, add a few drops of lemon juice. Once the batter is smooth and uniform in texture (it will be somewhat gritty) heat up a deep saucepan with about half an inch or so of vegetable oil in it. once the oil is just barely bubbling, and a drop of batter fries quickly, you're ready to go.

Make the falafel batter into tablespoon sized balls and drop into the oil, no crowding! While the first batch is in the pan, set a timer for 5 mins, grab a slotted spoon and some paper bags or paper towls for draining the falafel. After about 2-3 minutes, turn the falafels over using the slotted spoon. The undersides should be brown. After another 2-3 minutes, remove and drain.
Continue until all the falafels are done.

Serve with lettuce and tomato (and kalamata olives if you have them) in pita bread with tzatziki sauce.

Tzatziki sauce!

This is basically strained yogurt, flavored with dill, salt, garlic and cucumbers. It's good on gyros and great with falafel (hopefully I'll post a falafel recipe tonight!)

Using the yogurt recipe, make half a gallon of yogurt and let it set for ~7 hours. Line a colander with fine cheesecloth (use multiple layers) and place some sort of drainage pan to catch the whey under the colander. Pour the set yogurt into the colander and allow to drain overnight.

Once the whey has drained (about a quart will drain from a half gallon of yogurt) finely chop some dill and a few garlic cloves (I'd use a lot, maybe 4-5, but I love garlic a lot, do this to taste). Set the dill and garlic in a bowl together with a sprinkle of sea salt (maybe 1 tsp). Peel and chop a cucumber (remove the seeds) and mix with a little salt to dry it out. Pour off the cucumber liquid.

Put the yogurt into a food processor, pulse once and add the other ingredients. Pulse until smooth and uniform. This will keep a week or two in the fridge (I use an old clean yogurt container to store it).