Falafel Waffles

I love falafel.  Used to eat it all the time in NY.  But it's not so common in San Diego.  I'd make it myself, but I hate deep frying. But Mark Bittman's love of freshly-cooked chickpeas (the the resulting broth, which he dubs 'gold') set me to cooking them myself.  Which made me want falafel.

So I thought about alternatives to deep-frying. The essence of deep-frying, I reasoned, is total immersion in high heat, where high means more than boiling, hot enough to brown.

Enter the waffle iron, a device that forms batter into a shape with a lot of surface area exposed to high heat.  Clearly, this is genius on two scales, I thought: it will work beautifully; it rhymes.

Trademark time!  Google search!  First entry: No, you aren't the first person to think of falafel waffles.  D'oh! Still, there aren't many falafel waffle recipes out there, and many included wheat flour, but I wanted both wheat- and gluten-free, so I set out on my own expedition.

I started with chickpea flour (Bob's Red Mill).  For seasoning I used garlic, scallion and some fresh herbs (various mixtures of dill, cilantro, mint and basil.)  The taste was great, but I had used very little water, just enough to bring the mixture to a paste, and that did not work so well in a waffle iron.  If I left it long enough to brown, my falafel turned into a jawbreaker.

So gradually I increased the liquids, water and some olive oil, until I got to a pour-able batter, just like flour waffles.  On the advice of waffle experts, I added baking powder, and where others added a little wheat flour for binding, I added arrowroot.  I haven't done controlled experiments on the effects of the arrowroot as a binding agent, so don't panic if you don't have any.


In addition to the baking powder, I borrowed the traditional wet/dry method from baking: two bowls, one for wet ingredients, one for dry, mix each thoroughly, then combine.  The wet and dry mixtures should be roughly equal in volume.  This recipe uses 1/2 Cup of each, resulting in about two waffles in a medium-sized circular waffle iron.

The result is spicy, savory waffles, light and crunchy, with a uniform texture.  They are different from traditional falafel, but close enough for my purposes.  I eat them as a standalone snack, or with chopped  cabbage (usually red) dressed with a sauce made of lemon and tahini (sesame paste).

To restore some of the feel of traditional falafel, I often add small quantities of mashed chickpeas, cooked brown rice, or both.  Both of these reduce the tensile strength of the waffle, but add a nice crumbly texture and nuttiness.


I put the wet ingredients in a measuring cup and puree with an immersion blender:

• 2 scallions or 2 cloves of garlic, or mixture
• a few sprigs of herbs
• pinch of salt
• a tablespoon or two of olive oil
• enough water to bring the level to 1/2 Cup.
• Optional: a tablespoon or two of chopped/mashed chickpeas and/or brown rice (cooked)

Dry:

• 1/2 Cup chickpea flour
• pinches of salt, pepper, cayenne, cumin
• 1 teaspoon of arrowroot
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder

The resulting batter should pour easily. If not, add more water and mix until it does.  Bean flour takes some time to re-hydrate.  I let the batter rest for an hour; anything less than that seems to leave a hint of raw bean taste.  This recipe makes about two waffles in a circular waffle iron.

Lamb Stew with Zucchini and Steel-Cut Oats

I grilled a leg of lamb earlier this week when refugees from the San Diego fires were staying with me. Normally I make this dish for parties and there is nothing left over, but this crowd had small appetites. Even after some lovely lamb sandwiches, there was plenty left. The weather has now turned colder and we're getting a bit of rain, so I decided a stew was in order. I had some lovely zucchini that would certainly go well with the lamb, but I felt the stew could use a binding agent.

Earlier this year I saw Alton Brown's show on oatmeal. All my previous attempts at making steel-cut oats had failed to impress, but his recipe produced a wonderful dish that has since been a staple. But that left me wondering why oats are such a niche grain: breakfast cereal, cookie filler and granola grain.

Alton's trick to cooking steel-cut oats is to delay the addition of salt, because it seals the starch in the grain. If allowed to escape, the starch forms a creamy sauce, just like Arborio rice in risotto. It seemed like that was just what I needed for my stew.

The experiment was a success. The oats didn't lose their texture, as rice sometimes does, and the starch thickened the sauce, but never felt like glue, as flour sometimes does. The dish also has the benefit of being wheat and gluten free (except for trace elements that might have been introduced while processing the oats), a plus for several people I know.

The following recipe fits easily into a large latte' mug.

• Half a small yellow onion, diced.
• Two small zucchini, diced.
• 1/2 C grilled lamb, diced.
• 1/4 C steel-cut oats.
• 1 1/2-2 C chicken broth.
• Olive oil.

Heat a sauce pan over low to medium heat, add enough olive oil to cover the bottom and sweat the onions until translucent. Add the zucchini, toss until they begin to soften, then add the oats and continue to toss until the zucchini is soft and moist looking. There should be enough oil to cover the oats so that they do not stick, and ideally they should toast a bit.

Add the lamb, toss, then add enough stock to cover the ingredients. Bring to a simmer, cover and cook for fifteen minutes. Taste the stew and season as needed. I put a lot of spices on my grilled lamb, so I added just a little salt at this point. Cover and simmer until the oats are tender, another 10-15 minutes.

I also have some leftover chuck roast. Perhaps I'll try the same again tomorrow with that instead of the lamb.