Bottom line: I tried to make falafel. I failed. I made a pretty incredible plate of mediteranean inspired stuff instead.
Whenever I see "#selfcare" on social media (which is a lot lately, because, you know, COVID. But I mean, not that much more than usual, because, you know, social media. I digress. Forgive me. Telling a story is a long and winding process for me. You all know this, because as far as I can tell, anyone reading this is my husband, brother in law, or close friend. Expect run on sentences.)
Anyway, whenever I see #selfcare on social media, I think of two things: a mani/pedi and a day spent playing around, experimenting, and enjoying a project in my kitchen, which my husband miraculously cleans as I whip up masterpieces. That last part - the husband (Tom, be honest, you ALWAYS make me help) and the masterpieces - rarely happens. And yet, since the start of quarantine, I've been afforded loads of time in our kitchen. I've been able to tackle quite a few kitchen projects that are new to me, with varied results. The best thing to come from this extra time in the kitchen has undoubtedly been homemade bread (post soon). However, tonight's adventure turned fail turned awesome med plate might come in a distant second. (Honestly, what food can compete with bread? pasta? cheese? french fries? LMK thoughts on this.)
Asides aside, I tried to make falafel tonight. I have never made it before, but Tom and I both love chickpeas and fried things, and I thought "I got this!" Here's the recipe I followed. I made sauces, but not the ones listed on that site. Just the falafel part. It started okay. Well, that's not true. I broke the bowl of our food processor right before thanksgiving, and have yet to order the replacement part. So, I used this ninja blender. It's been doubling as our food processor with mixed results. I don't like it, and I don't recommend you purchase it. It works okay for smoothies and protein shakes.
I don't think the Ninja was up for the task. I did some light reading on falafel before I started this adventure, and everything said keep it dry and mealy not paste-y. But I can't really see what's happening in the blender, and it's hard to scrape down the sides and mix without nicking my spatula, which I do recommend you purchase, and I don't want to ruin. (PS- Do I have an endorsement yet? Ad revenue? How does this work? Can I quit teaching? Oh, I'm talking to myself still.) So, the mixture was as mealy, not pastey, and dry as I could get it given the ninja's limitations. We tasted for salt and seasoning, and the the mix tasted AWESOME. One quick note - I am allergic to onions, so if you see them in a recipe I link to, it's likely I omitted them, as I did here. I formed them into balls, dumped a container of vegetable oil into a pot. (Do recommend). I heated the oil to about 350 degrees, and gently dropped them in. They fell apart. Like into small mealy-not-pastey bean dots drowning at the bottom of the oil pool, with parsley and garlic splashing around on the surface.
We had already made some sauces and toppings for falafel, so I pivoted. We still had a can of chickpeas, so I warmed those up in some olive oil, garlic, paprika, and a splash of red wine vinegar. To eat, I swooshed a smokey eggplant dip on a platter, scattered the chickpeas over it, and layered a riff on Jerusalem salad over that, and topped it off with a drizzle of over blended (see ninja issues above) tzatziki-ish sauce. It was fantastic. Fried balls of chickpeas and herbs probably would've been better, but both Tom and I enjoyed it immensely. He even said, "Hey, this is worth writing down so we can make it again." Little did he know, it'd be the first post here - a place that's a marriage of my love of cooking and my verbose nature.