I admit to being a little cocky about the success of my whole Middle Eastern food thing. So cocky I thought I'd try it all again this weekend and it would be a breeeeze. Well!
Did you know that it's common for falafel to completely disintegrate when you cook them? Like, completely disintegrate. I know this now. At first, I panicked a little. I thought maybe the heat was too high on my stove (I have one of those high output burners, and it always flares up like SUPER HOT right when I don't need it to, I hate that thing). So I tried it again over lower heat. It happened again.
Picture me leaning too close to a hot frying pan, squinting at the falafel as it slowly sizzles into nothingness, and I tilt my head trying to understand. What is happening? What did I do differently this time??
Then I remembered. Last time, I added a lot more flour than the recipe called for, because I was afraid my batter was too soupy. THIS time, I had not added as much liquid in the first place, so the batter was not soupy...but GUESS WHAT. It still needed all that flour! A few handfuls of flour later, and the falafel was behaving just fine.
TO SUM UP. If you are making falafel, I highly suggest you do a test run on one ball of batter before you add a bunch more into the pan. If it falls all to pieces, add more flour! If this advice saves just one person half a bowl of batter and thirty minutes of sadness and confusion, then I have done my job.
I have updated my giant post below to reflect this new, vital information.
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