13_Food Stuffs

Now, I'm not one to brag.  That is to say, I subscribe to the Midnight In the Garden of Good and Evil type of bragging:  "It ain't braggin' if ya really done it."  And last week I really did make an amazing batch of homemade falafel.  So for the benefit of anyone with a food processor and an ever-growing dislike of their local middle eastern takeout spot, I present to you my falafel recipe:

NOTE:  This makes a lot.  I don't think that there is such a thing as too much falafel, but you could half the recipe if you wanted to.

Ingredients:
2 cans of grabanzo beans
1 red onion
4-5 cloves garlic (depending on size)
1 healthy handful of parsley (About 1/4 cup.  I used the dried stuff and it worked fine, but you could use fresh if you want to.)
1/2 of a handful of cilantro
Red pepper flakes
Salt
Pepper
Flour
Panko bread crumbs
Oil

Directions:
Drain the garbanzo beans and put them in a food processor.  Pulse until they are mushy, but not pureed.  Dump them in a large mixing bowl.  Pulse up the onion, garlic and herbs (if not already chopped finely) and add to the garbanzo beans.   Add in the salt, pepper and red pepper flakes to taste.  You can eat the mixture raw, so it's easy to adjust the seasoning as you go.  Once seasoned, begin sprinkling in flour until the mixture binds to a sort of dough.  Don't be afraid to mix with your hands.

Once the mixture begins to hold together as a dough, form it into small patties, about a tablespoon and a half each.  (This recipe will make about 15 patties, give or take.)  Dredge the patties in the panko, making sure to pat the bread crumbs into the patties so that the panko sticks.

For frying, I used a small pan filled with about a centimeter of oil and did it in batches.  I think that should keep them from getting too greasy.  Let the patties fry until golden browned and turn (about 3 or 4 minutes on each side).

Serve in pita or with salad or cucumber sauce or however your heart desires.  You can't really go wrong.  I did mine in pita with lettuce, tomato, yogurt and feta and they were pretty amazing.

Also, if you're afraid of frying, I've seen recipes online that advertise baked falafel, but I haven't looked into them.  I'm sure this recipe would work in the oven, I just don't know what sort of time or temperature you'd be looking at.

Enjoy!

- Kid

12_Summer Reading List

I have to admit that I hate going into book stores.  I suppose it's the same way pet lovers hate going to pet stores:  it's that absolute need to leave with something.

So when I found myself in Red Emma's yesterday perusing through histories of Spanish anarchy, I knew I'd be leaving with something.  I was tempted to pick up some of those anarchist histories, but I meandered over to their fiction section instead.  There I found Borges' Labyrinths, Phillip K. Dick's The Divine Invasion and a complete copy of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' Watchmen.  I was tempted to pick up the massive Metamaus, the supplementary volume to Art Spiegelman's Maus (of which I now own a beautifully bound complete volume), but I figured my chances of actually reading all of it were pretty slim, so it stayed on the shelf for another day.

Much perusing, dragging of feet and $52 later, I walked back out into the midday traffic on St. Paul street feeling pretty upbeat about my purchases.  One of the greatest short story collections of all time, another Phillip K. Dick book (always something to be happy about) and one of the greatest graphic novels of all time.  Yes please.  Plus, while I've been picking my way through Johnathan Lethem's Chronic City, I've also been sending up some pretty bad literature karma by reading Ian Flemming's original Dr. No, with all of its terrible writing and thinly veiled racism.  I suppose if you're going to read something trashy, summer is the time to do it.

So off I go to spend these beautiful, glorious summer days the way they were meant to be spent:  inside, reading.  Time to get my literature karma back on track.

- Kid