Egyptian · Starter
Ta'ameya
- Intermediate
- 35 min
- roughly 2 of 4 for cost
- Vegetarian
- Vegan
Leads with fresh herbs arguing happily on top, toasted, nutty warmth throughout, on a slow, honest burn.
Ingredients
- 500 g dried split skinless fava beans, soaked 12 hours
- 150 g onion
- 100 g leek, white and pale green only
- 60 g flat parsley
- 60 g coriander leaf
- 30 g dill
- 6 garlic cloves
- 10 g ground coriander
- 8 g ground cumin
- 12 g salt
- 3 g bicarbonate of soda
- 50 g sesame seeds
- 2 litres sunflower oil, for frying
The skills inside
FalafelDraining fried food: a rack, never paper
Allergen screen
Found: sesame
Screened for: gluten, dairy, egg, nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish, molluscs, soy, sesame, celery, mustard, lupin, alcohol. Not screened: sulphites.
Screened by keyword from the ingredient list, not reviewed by a person; check every label for what the list cannot show.
Method
- Drain the soaked fava hard and spread it on a cloth until the beans look matt and feel dry to the fingertips.
- Pass the fava through the coarse plate of a mincer with the onion, leek, garlic and all three herbs, then send it through a second time: you want a damp green rubble that takes a fingerprint, never a smooth puree.
- Chill the paste covered for an hour, then fold in the salt, spices and bicarbonate only when the oil is already hot.
- Shape 45 g patties 2 cm thick, press one face hard into the sesame and slide them sesame down into oil at 175C (350F).
- Fry 3 to 4 minutes, turning once, until the crust is dark and crackles under a spoon; drain on a rack, not paper, and salt while steaming. 4 min
How to tell it is going right
This dish has no standard of its own yet. It is judged on the technique it exercises: checked at the pan, while there is still something to be done about it.
Draining fried food: a rack, never paper 77 recipes
- The rack was in place before the first thing went into the oil, not fetched afterwards while food waited in a spider over the pot.
- It lands on a rack with air moving underneath it. Anything set down on paper or a flat plate traps its own steam against its base.
- Salted within seconds of landing, while it is still hot enough to take seasoning.
- A minute later the underside is still as crisp as the top: no soft flat patch where it has been sitting.
- Nothing is stacked or piled while hot, however tempting it is to keep it together. A pile steams itself soft from the inside out.
Where it goes wrong It was drained on paper, or piled up to keep warm. Steam leaving the food has nowhere to go but back into the crust, so the underside softens within a minute: the crispness the frying just bought is gone before the plate reaches the table.
At the Table
- The Pour
- Off-dry Riesling (Mosel Kabinett)
- Also Right
- Gewürztraminer or off-dry Chenin
- From the Taps
- Crisp lager or pilsner
- Zero-Proof
- Agua fresca or iced jasmine tea
Sugar, cold, and low alcohol are the fire code: sweetness tames capsaicin while acid resets the palate; tannin would fan the flames.
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