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!