A first recipe - vegetarian and falafel

Hot and crunchy on the outside, fluffy and herby within, it's no wonder so many countries want to claim the falafel as their own."

Felicity Cloake

For a change I'm doing the first recipe thing again, and I'm still on Charmaine Solomon - well I try and keep the books of one particular author together, though this sometimes doesn't work because of size. Anyway from Charmaine Solomon's Complete Vegetarian Cookbook comes falafel.

I think I'll leave the book itself and the vegetarian thing for another day. Suffice to say that although it is the first recipe there is no picture. There are not a lot of pictures in the book, which is fine, but you would have thought that you would have a picture of your first recipe would you not? Just to suck you in. Anyway today I'm just doing falafel, or felafel as she spells it, or ta'amia as they are called in Egypt and by Claudia Roden, who almost everyone seems to regard as the falafel guru. It's the name Elizabeth David uses too.

My granddaughter makes falafel, and there are countless recipes for them in every foodie magazine, including Coles'. And most of the falafel that we all make are not really genuine. A genuine falafel takes up to three days to prepare - mostly because of the soaking and, sometimes, cooking of the beans, but the versions that most of us have tasted or even made, involve shortcuts that are now available to us all.

For it's one of those dishes that has spread around the world like wildfire. We even call them healthy in spite of the deep frying aspect. Well they're Mediterranean, and also vegetarian, so they must be healthy, mustn't they? There are baked options out there I notice, but really as Felicity Cloake says:

"Deep-frying proves, sadly, the best option; Comptoir Libanais does give a shallow-fried variation, but it is disappointing enough that I can't recommend it. Remember, if you put enough salad on top, it's basically health food anyway." Felicity Cloake

Well not really. But who cares if you only do this every now and then. And in spite of the label of vegetarian, vegan even, I really don't think it can be counted as health food. Even if you have it with salad or include things like quinoa in the mix.

After all, what it is, is street food - fast food. Which is how it comes to feature in so many magazines and cookbooks - you can pretend it's healthy because of the healthy ingredients, even if you deep fry it, and you can make it with tinned beans or chick peas and then it is also fast to prepare.

So where does it come from? Just about everyone seems to think Egypt - and ancient Egypt at that, with Claudia Roden being even more specific and going for the Coptic Christians as the originators. And this ancient version is made with fava beans. Another very trendy ingredient, which are what you and I probably know as broad beans - though dried ones. I think it is possible that what we tend to think of as broad beans and that some of us grow in our gardens because they are so easy to grow, are actually slightly different from fava beans, but then maybe not. They are very closely related anyway. Greg Malouf recommends that you use the split and peeled dried ones rather than just straight dried. You can probably buy them cooked already in tins now.

The beans, in fact, are the main point of contention. Felicity Cloake, of course, sums up all the options - just fava beans, fava beans mixed with chickpeas, and just chickpeas. The Egyptians favour the first two options and those from the rest of the Middle East probably mostly favour just chickpeas. Part of the reason for this is that some people are susceptible to something called favism which is an inherited deficiency of a particular enzyme and can cause serious illness. Apparently Jews are prone to this, although maybe it's the Yemenites - because Israel is now known as the second capital of the falafel as it were - but it's a chick pea version which was introduced by the waves of immigrants from the Yemen.

The other thing to note about fava/broad beans is that they are not from the Americas, but are one of the most ancient foods of the Middle East and Europe - along with lentils, peas, and chick peas. I must admit I hadn't really thought about this before. Somehow I think I assumed that all beans came from the Americas. But no, not at all.

But the purists seem to prefer the fava beans, mostly because it makes a lighter mix and the mix clings together better and therefore doesn't collapse in the cooking. I think I made them once and I would have made the chickpea version - out of a tin too - and I don't remember having problems with the mixture holding together. But then there might have been flour in there to hold it together.

Other ingredients? Well this is where individuality comes in I guess, but the most common - and essential are - garlic - lots of it, herbs - most commonly parsley and/or coriander - lots of them, some kind of raising agent - most commonly baking powder, but it could also be bicarbonate of soda or yeast, and spices - the most common being ground coriander, cumin, paprika, chilli - or the Lebanese 7 spice mixture.

So where will you find the best recipe? Here are a few, beginning with Claudia Roden's, which, as I said, most people seem to approve of. Sorry I'm using the English weights.

Falafel

1lb dried white broad beans, 2 red or Spanish onions, very finely chopped or grated, or 1 bunch spring onions, finely chopped, 2 large cloves garlic, crushed, 1 bunch parsley, finely chopped, 1-2 teaspoons ground cumin, 1-2 teaspoons ground coriander,

1/2 teaspoon baking powder, salt and cayenne pepper, oil for deep-frying

Soak the beans in cold water for 24 hours. Remove the skins if this has not been done. Drain and mince or pound them. Mix this with the onions, garlic, parsley, cumin, coriander, baking powder and salt and cayenne pepper to taste. Pound all the ingredients together to a smooth paste. This will take a long time and much effort, so if a mincer is available, put the mixture through the fine blade twice before pounding it. Let the paste rest for 1/2 hour at least.

Take walnut-sized lumps and make flat, round shapes 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Let them rest for 15 minutes longer, then fry them in deep hot oil until they are a dark, rich golden brown.

I'm guessing these days you could process it all in a food processor. People seem to argue over the size and shape too, with flat and perhaps a little bit larger than Claudia Roden't being the preferred option.

Greg Malouf - my other Middle-East guru has three versions: from Arabesque, Hazelnut falafel and tahini-whipped crème fraîche, and from New Middle-Eastern Food. I only have a picture of the one from Arabesque though.

Lovely presentation though. And speaking of presentation here is one of Donna Hay's versions - none of them terribly authentic, but all very modern and beautiful to look at.

And then here in Australia there's that book called Falafel for breakfast. Well I had to include this version - mostly because of the title of the book. I suspect that these are the ones my granddaughter makes as well, as the book was a gift from her mother to me. And I know she uses this particular book a lot. I often see it open on her kitchen bench.

I could go on with the recipes - Curtis Stone, for example uses almonds in the mix as well. It's one of those dishes that you can make your own simply by playing with the 'extras' that you add to the basic mix.

Or if you really can't be bothered, even with a version made with tinned chickpeas, I'm sure you can either buy them from fast food places in shopping centres, or from the frozen and chilled sections of your local supermarket. Indeed one of the cooks whose recipes I perused said that you could even buy a mix - a bit like a cake mix. I think it was Claudia Roden. She didn't totally condemn it but she wasn't that complimentary either.

Not for breakfast for me - lunch though - that would be good.