Not surprisingly, the delicious crunch and cakey taste of falafel wasn’t introduced to me in Texas.  A warm pita bread with pickled cabbage, cucumber hummus and fried balls of chickpea were honestly something I didn’t think about.

This was mainly because there are strict rules in Texas regarding the food you shall eat, and falafel really breaks most of the rules.

Texas Food Rules:

1. There must be meat in it
2. Only eating vegetables for a meal is the equivalent to coming out of the closet in the 1950s
3. The only acceptable types of bread you can eat are as follows: cornbread, biscuits, white bread, po-boy bread and tortillas
4. Yogurt is for dieting office ladies

With these rules firmly in place, its entirely understandable why I would steer clear of this cuisine. Oh, how naive I was!  But do not think falafel won me in some overnight fashion, oh no it was a long process along with a new set of rules that took me to the fast food of the middle east.

New York Food Rules:

1. You have little money
2. Food carts are your friends
3. Some girls are vegans/vegetarians, that means they cringe when you mention your obsession with the perfect rib-eye, humor them in some way
4. You must be, somewhat, culturally relevant so do what others do

With a bit of embarrassment, I can tell you that the first falafel I had was probably two years ago.  Since then, I’ve tried to make it to all of the city’s most famous falafel sites like Mamoun’s, Rainbow and an unknown favorite of mine, Pick-A-Pita, with a general appreciation of the chickpea concoction.

For some reason two weeks ago, I thought falafel would be the perfect thing to make from scratch.  It seamed easy enough, blend some chickpeas with onion, cumin and garlic, form into balls and fry. This sort of blazen gusto led to a horrible mess in my frying pan.   But when I finally did get it down (psst you need a binder, yo!) it was amazing.  Golden brown crunch on the outside, with a dough like consistency in the middle, all out of that little wonder, the chickpea.

And although I miss the days of strict Texas food rules for their rigidity and moral high ground, I appreciate my new “New York” rules for the world of cart food it has opened up.

My favorite part is mixing, dunno why.  Maybe its because you’re making a massive dance party, with your food.

This picture looks like I’m a food stylist, but a really crappy one because I forgot to get the clean paper towel for the money shot.

Falafel and avocado slices?  Why not?

Falafel

1 lb dried chickpeas (aka Garbanzo beans)

1/2 bunch flat leaf parsley

1/2 bunch cilantro

1 onion

1/2 tbsp cumin

1 tbsp garlic powder

1 tbsp salt

1/2 cup flour

2 tbsp. baking powder

4 cups vegetable oil (or canola/blend)

Directions

Soak beans overnight.  Barely cover chickpeas in large stockpot with water, boil for one hour. Drain the beans and dry as thoroughly as possible.  Put chickpeas and the rest of the dry ingredients in a food processor and chop until the mix runs up the sides of the food processor.  Note: You might have to do this in batches, depending on the size of your food processor.

In a deep-sided frying pan, heat the vegetable oil to about 350 degrees.  You can gauge whether the oil is hot enough for frying by taking a small crumb of your mix and placing it into the oil.  If it bubbles up fast, the oil is ready.

Scoop the chickpea mixture into a mixing bowl and grab enough mix in your hands to make a ball the size of a golf ball.  An ice-cream scoop might work well in this situation also. Place the falafel balls into the hot oil (carefully!) and cook for about 5-7 minutes.  You want enough oil to cover the falafel, so you might have to turn the falafel in order to get an even fry.  I would start by making one falafel ball first to see if you’ve got the right proportion of flour to your mix, if it falls apart, add more.

The beauty of this is that you can save the mixture for another meal.  Enjoy deliscious fried chickpea!