Today was an interesting food day. My cousin introduced us to what a good falafel tastes like and we got to be with her again for a couple of hours more.
Luke took the car to meet friends for breakfast. We packed and then made a simple breakfast. Suzette stuffed the last three or four figs with goat cheese and I fried two eggs over easy and we spread slices of fullkorns bread with goat cheese and drank the last of the Rose with it.
When Luke returned around 10:30 we packed the car and drove to the Benito Juarez Market in downtown LA and found the fresh holy leaf (Hoja Santa) we had been looking for since we had it at Audrey’s. Now all we need to do is to figure out the adobo sauce and find a fresh sea bass or red snapper and we can replicate the recipe.
We then drove to Dharma Damama’s apartment. Gee, GPS is wonderful. She had ordered falafels. There was a bit of an adventure with a neighbor’s cat, Orlando, that was locked out of the apartment. Dharma gave the cat some milk but the cat kept meowing. We sat at a picnic table outside Dharma’s
apartment and talked and drank glasses of raspberry tea.
When the falafel delivery man came Dharma told us that the restaurant was Israeli owned shop. So I realized these were the real thing.
Here is a basic recipe for falafels in pita bread.
INGREDIENTS
FOR THE FALAFELS
1 (15-oz.) can chickpeas, drained
4 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
1 shallot, roughly chopped
2 tbsp. freshly chopped parsley
1 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. ground coriander
3 tbsp. all-purpose flour
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Vegetable oil, for frying
FOR YOGURT SAUCE
1/2 c. Greek yogurt
Juice of 1 lemon
1 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
1 tbsp. freshly chopped dill
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
FOR TAHINI SAUCE
1/2 c. tahini
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tbsp. lemon juice
2 tbsp. warm water (plus more as needed)
Kosher salt
FOR SERVING
Pitas
Chopped lettuce
Halved cherry tomatoes
Thinly sliced cucumbers
GET INGREDIENTS
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DIRECTIONS
In a food processor fitted with a metal blade, combine chickpeas, garlic, shallot, parsley, cumin, coriander, and flour and season with salt and pepper. Blend until mixture resembles a thick paste.
Form mixture into falafel balls about 2" in diameter.
In a pot, heat 1” vegetable oil until a drop of water added to the oil sizzles and pops.
Fry falafels until golden, then transfer to a paper towel–lined plate and season immediately with salt.
To make yogurt sauce: In a medium bowl, whisk together yogurt, lemon juice, oil, and dill. Season with salt and pepper.
To make tahini sauce: In a medium bowl, whisk together tahini, garlic, lemon juice, and warm water. Season with salt. (If you prefer a thinner sauce, whisk in more warm water 1 tablespoon at a time.)
Serve falafels in pita with lettuce, tomatoes, and cucumber and drizzle with either sauce.
What I can tell you after eating my first official Israeli falafel sandwich is that both the pita and the falafel were incredibly tender. The falafel was not very flavorful. In fact it was rather doughy, but the Tzatziki (cucumber, lemon, and yogurt sauce) was tangy and delicious.
There were small containers of a thin hummus or tahini sauce that we drizzled on the sandwiches for extra flavor. So, I can see that the range of variation in the falafel category includes a complex assortment of ingredients and sauces.
Dharma, who is a vegan, told us a funny story. She ordered a falafel sandwich with hummus and they delivered a hummus sandwich. She called the restaurant back and they checked their order and confirmed she had ordered a hummus sandwich, but sent a falafel sandwich over anyway. The apparent joke was that hummus is a light sauce and she was overwhelmed when she bit into a sandwich with no falafel and only sauce.
We sat and Luke asked Dharma about her daily practice and she said it started around 3:30 with a cold shower and yoga. Then he asked her about her how they became attracted to the Sikh practice. She said they found the apartment they now live in because it was across the street from Robertson park that is a pocket park near Beverly Hills, where her parents lived and where she was raised, because it had basketball courts and they were playing lots of basketball in those days.
The Sikh temple was located at the end of the block, as it still is. Dharma Damama Singh went To a yoga class there and then a lecture and when they said, “This our practice and this is why we do it, but you can do whatever you want,” he and they were hooked and became Sikhs. They were among the earliest American Sikhs and know all the founders of the American movement. So she concluded by saying, “So, our love of basketball led us to the Sikh religion.”
I realized something fundamental as she spoke these words as three members of the Simon family sat around the table, one a Sikh, another a Buddhist, and the other oriented to Hinduism and a pure spiritual practice. It is not the religion that attracts a person to a spiritual path. Instead, it is the proclivity of the person to choose a spiritual path that attracts them to a type of spiritual practice they prefer. Most of us follow the religious path of our forefathers, but some of us seek a different spiritual path and that is what each of us Simon’s did.
At 1:15 we said goodbye and Luke drove us to LAX for our return flight to Albuquerque.
When we arrived in ABQ, we decided to go home and find something to eat in the fridge. When Suzette opened the freezer section, I saw a package of frozen steamed buns. I said, “I have been wanting to see if we can make these in the steaming oven.”
That was enough of a challenge for Suzette. She read the instructions and put them on a tray covered with parchment and into the dreaming oven. The first setting she used did not contain enough steam and the began to brown, so she reduced the heat and increased the steam to its highest setting and that worked fine.
While she was steaming the nine buns, I made a dipping sauce with 1 tsp of Chinese red chili sauce, about 1 T. of fresh finely minced shallot and about 3 T. of soy. It was too spicy, so I added some rice vinegar and then lots of hoisin sauce and a T. of Mirin. It was still spicy, but not unbearably spicy. Suzette fetched a shallow bowl and we mixed spoonfuls of the chili sauce I made with hoisin sauce until we had a spicy sauce that we found to our liking.
We finally got the sound on on the TV and watched the news. The most recent Trump perversion seems to be coercing Ukraine into investigating Biden’s son in exchange for releasing the $250,000,000 of foreign aid that Congress adopted for Ukraine to fight the Russian invasion.
We went to bed at 11:00.
Bon Appetit
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