Sunday, November 27, 2011

Falafel, Tahini Sauce in Pita Bread

This is my 7th or is it 8th post in the month of November..   Well, that is something.  I have been cooking regularly!

I saw this being made on Masterchef India 2.  There was this demo by the two chefs who said they would be making easy Mediterranean dishes which needed ingredients readily available in the Indian kitchen.  I wish I had noted the recipe down, but then I was half asleep and was not too sure of what they would ultimately make.  So I sat through the hour and liked what they made, and here is my experiment with Mediterranean food.

Ingredients:
Tahini Sauce -
White Sesame seeds - 30 gms
Olive oil - 1/4 cup

Toast the sesame seeds.  Do not brown
Put in blender and make a fine paste with olive oil.

( I am not sure if I made an authentic tahini sauce, we do use sesame in our cooking, but never a sauce of this sort - the sauce we were told can be bottled and will stay for a couple of months in the refrigerator)

Falafel -
Whole chick pea ( Kabuli Channa) - 200 gms
Onion - 1 medium - finely chopped
Green chilies - 1-2 - to taste - finely chopped
Parsley - I used coriander
Garlic - 3-4 - finely chopped
Cumin powder - 1/2 tsp
Coriander powder - 1/2 tsp
Salt to taste
Oil for deep frying
( I do not know if ginger was used, but finely chopped ginger would add to the taste)

Soak the chickpea ovenight or atleast for 6-8 hours
Drain.  And make a paste in the blender with green chilies and garlic
Add the chopped onions, green chilies, the spice powders
The salt and coriander leaves/parsley
Mix well
Make small balls, flatten and place in hot oil
This does not require any binding, and do not disturb them when frying, only gently turn over when under side is brown
Drain and keep aside
This got over as fast as I was  making them!

Pita Bread
( This was not most successful, but then the recipe called for baking and I used a pan and the microwave - and that could be the reason). 

This is a little like a small naan...

Dry yeast
Refined flour
Salt to taste

Activate the yeast, by dissolving it in warm water to which a little sugar is added. The chefs in the program I watched added a pinch of salt, which they said was to control the yeast activity..

Add the activated yeast solution to the flour.
Add salt and knead to a soft dough
Keep aside for an hour or more
It will rise. 
Knead gently 
Roll out into slightly thick round portions  
(And then put in a pre-heated oven 180C)
I put it for a short while on a heated pan and then transferred it to the microwave
Watch the pita bread rise.  And as soon as it puffs up completely, remove from the oven
Cut the round bread into half. Look into the cut half, and you can find a pocket in the bread.

Now time to assemble
You can half some onion rings,tomato slices, lettuce leaves.  I had a ready salad of carrot, onion and tomato. I used that.

In the pita pocket, put the salad, place the falafel and put the tahini sauce on it. 
And enjoy.  
Despite the hiccups in the pita and possibly the tahini, the end product was YUM!



4 comments:

  1. The best combo meal from the middle east cuisine..:) This looks super good..:)
    Reva

    ReplyDelete
  2. very tempting and yummy.I love falafel.

    ReplyDelete
  3. When was this episode telecast... I wld like to see it...

    ReplyDelete
  4. @Archana - the telecast was on November 26th. The second hour of the show.

    ReplyDelete

Some time to spare? Do leave a comment. Thanks.

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails