Tuesday, August 14, 2007

hurricane food and falafel recipe

So I went to the grocers store on Monday, yesterday, to get famine food for the oncoming hurricane. It turns out to be very stressful going to the grocery store at the same time as every single other person. At least we were all clumped in the grocery store together instead of the highway trying to evacuate. Where do we evacuate to when on an island? At the grocery store people had their carts in the aisle way in order to check out. so you couldn't peruse the food. Which stressed me out, not being able to think about what should I get for a hurricane. I love this sort of thing usually, disaster planning that is. When given time. So I panicked and got some cans of beans and some candles. and some cereal bars. So I think I want to make a list for the next time this happens, I can get in and go. But I am having a hard time still. Such as: Should I get things that I have to add water to? Shouldn't I be conserving water in this type of situation? I saw people buying ramen and thought about how my survival handbook suggests adding things to getaway pack such as packages of instant mashed potatoes and those dried up soups, where you just add water and you get a very filling meal. It seemed to stress the idea of filling self up with little food. More cans, I guess, but if we have to flee up the mountain then we wont be able to carry them all if on foot. Dried fruit I should have gotten, but it was so expensive I didn't think it would be worth it. seeds, those are light and proteinous.
So trail mix. item one.
some cans of beans are good if we do have to stay home, but what to eat them with that would make a complete protein? I should have made some bread, and I thought about it but was unmotivated because we still have a whole loaf clyde made the other day. bread would also be hard to carry more than one loaf of, but a loaf would have been good and filling.
Loaf of bread and cans of beans. Item two.
real fruit would have been good for home too, because it doesn't have to be refrigerated. Like a bag of apples. and some bananas. some of those would have traveled well, and they provide a lot of water. What kind of vegetables do not have to be refrigerated? potatoes, and we can cook those on an open fire when wrapped in foil. but then we also have to have foil.
Fruit. Item three.
If we have to walk a long distance we are going to need more protein. I think some of those protein bars are a good idea, not just cereal bars, because cereal bars are mostly junk food. I should have optimized my bars for doing the most.
Protein bars. Item four.
and then the filling add water stuff, like the ramen and the dried potatoes and the soup containers.
Of course the hurricane hasn't taken out the power yet. Tonight we had falafel for dinner, which is the house favorite. I videotaped myself making it in short bursts.
Falafel:

1 can or 1 and 1/2 cups of chickpeas
two pieces of bread soaked in water, start soaking at the beginning
1/8 cup dried parsley or 1/4 cup real parsley
1/2 onion
3 cloves of garlic
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon basil
1/2 teaspoon coriander
1/2 teaspoon salt
pepper to taste
hot sauce like sarachi or Tabasco, i just pour some in.
flour

So I cut the onion and garlic and put it in the magic bullet. If you don't have a magic bullet and have to use a blender then it really sucks. Magic bullets(M.B.) make it easy cause you can pick them up and shake them when they are blending, instead of having to stop the blender every three seconds cause the onions and garlic are not getting blended.
So then I pour the liquefied (if you have the M.B.) or chunky (blender) onions and garlic into my big mixing bowl. Then I add the parsley and the beans. Now if the beans are really soft you can just put them in and smash them with the bottom of a measuring cup and then a fork until they are mixed. If they are a little harder you may have to magic bullet them or blend them. I used to blend them, and so I hardly ever made falafel. Now I just pour my canned beans into a pan and cook them even longer and mash them. Couldn't be easier. So after mixing add the lemon juice, all the spices, and mix. Then squeeze the bread mixture out and put that in and stir. Maybe a food processor would make this way easier, putting in everything from the onions to the bread. I don't have a food processor, so its hard to say what they do.
so after you stir all of that together I put the oven on 375 degrees.
I get out a baking sheet and pour a good amount, maybe 2 or 3 tablespoons, on it and rub it around. Then I get some whole wheat flour, but it doesn't matter really what kind you use, and put it on a plate. just enough for dipping. then i start pulling balls of falafel out of the bowl and forming patties. we are not talking burger patties, more like meatball size. smaller meatballs, but not too small. I dip each side of the patty into the flour and put it on the baking sheet. half way thru this it all sticks to my hands. washing really helps, even if its inconvenient, it makes it easier in the long run.
Next they go into the over for ten minutes on each side on the center rack. They come out to get fried in olive oil on medium heat until they are crispy on both sides, it doesn't take long.

I make this with roti, which is middle eastern flat bread.
Roti
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour (but you can just use 2 cups all purpose if you want )
1 teaspoon of salt
Mix these together
Add 2 tablespoons olive oil
Mix
add 3/4 up hot water.
Mix into ball o' dough.
Its sticky. Then I heat up my pan on about 5-7. Med - med. high heat. I use cast iron with no oil. My Teflon did well for this with no oil, but my aluminum (?) metal pans they just stick to with no oil. But if you use oil they turn out crispy. So I take out small balls of dough. really small. smaller than the falafel. I use a wine bottle for a rolling pin for this because it makes it easy to hold one side of the dough while rolling, because you want it pretty thin. Recently I have made it less thin, like maybe the thickness of a tortilla. and about the size of a small tortilla. So when your done you pretty much have a tortilla, which i have used as replacement when I didn't feel like making this bread, but this bread is better. They cook really quick, just a few seconds on each side, and they get bubbles of air on them while cooking. they are good.

I serve this meal up with some cabbage I cut up. I like using cabbage instead of lettuce, cause it lasts longer in the fridge and doesn't wilt quick and still has good nutrients. I also cut up carrots and mushrooms. we take roti and cover it in sour cream, then the raw veggies, then cheese, mostly mozzarella, and then the falafel. so good.

2 comments:

clydebink said...

I don't know what chrissy's talking about; we don't need aluminium foil, I'm cutting the tops of littered soda cans off using a'a and cooking my potatoes in that.
Chrissy did not panic. I've seen chrissy panic, and she didn't. If she experienced discomfort while preparing for disaster, it's because she feels like she needs to do something even though she already prepared us for disaster. The only thing we really had to do was store fresh water; which she took care of by filling a colorful amalgumation of cups and covering them.

Shannon Rae said...

Alright, so I made this recipe. And let me start by saying that I have a food processor, so I followed your explanation on using if from start to finish.

It did not ball up, however. It was liquid. And I have to guess it's because of the bread that gets put in water? I did take it out of the water before adding it in, but...I probably shouldn't have even put it in water to begin with, right? I'm unsure on the concept of watery bread.

I baked and baked it, then fried it in a frying pan, with no oil, just to try it out. Turned out ok-ish.

The roti, was perfect!

And to spice it up I made a :

TAHINI SAUCE:

2/3 c. tahini (sesame paste)
3-4 tbsp. water
Juice of 2 lemons
Salt, freshly ground pepper
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tbsp. fresh chopped parsley
Mix the tahini to a smooth paste with the water, then blend in the lemon juice and other ingredients.


this tastes so so so good with it! and I used your suggestion of cabbage and carrots with some hot sauce as filler. I'm trying to lose weight so I didn't add any dairy, and this was just perfect, so thank you!