Another try at Falafel

Earlier this week it was about 70º, giving us a hint of spring to come and planting notions of grilling in our heads. I even went out and bought some strip steak to grill for the next grilling opportunity. The deck was finally clear of any snow, most of the snow in the yard was melted and the ground was beginning to dry out a little bit. And then this..........

Back to square one. Sigh. Last time the snow as kind of pretty. This time, it's just kind of depressing. I'm getting tired of messy roads that make it such a pain to walk Bailey - they put down gravel here and he ends up with black bits all caked in his fur and it turns his coat a nice grayish color. The ground has been so wet that even just letting him out the back door to do his business gets him quite muddy. But that's March for you. But I'm ready for a string of windy, sunny days to get rid of the snow and dry things out!

But enough griping about the weather......on to falafel.

We were not overwhelmed by our last attempt at falafel, so we gave a new recipe a try for our Friday Lenten meal this week. This recipe calls for soaking the chickpeas, but not cooking them - a technique I've not tried before. I combined the falafel and relish from this recipe with the tahini sauce from this recipe.

Falafel Pitas with Tahini-Yogurt Sauce

While we definitely liked this falafel recipe better than the last one we tried, I can't say that I've found THE falafel recipe for us. I think they could have had a bit more flavor and kick to them and I also detected a raw flavor from the uncooked chickpeas. I wonder if this kind of recipe really could benefit from going the traditional route of frying the falafel instead of the lower-fat version here that calls for baking them. Frying will add fat, but if you fry correctly (this is a yet another link to a transcript of Good Eats with Alton Brown - he did a great episode on frying), very little of the fat should end up being aborbed by the falafel, so I think it's worth a shot. The tahini sauce was good, but again, I think it could be better.

My craving for good falafel is still not satsified, and so the search continues..........

Poached Eggs and Polenta (or cornmeal, or grits or....)

It's not often that I think to have eggs for dinner, but when I do, they are almost always a hit. These eggs are served over polenta or cornmeal. But is there a difference between the two?

I find the similarities or differences between cornmeal, grits and polenta to be more than a bit confusing and although some purists would probably argue that there is a difference, they are essentially interchangeable, especially for a dish like this. I sat here and tried to type up an explanation of the differences, but then I confused myself even more, so I will simply refer you here, here and if you like Alton Brown, here. There, now you can go and confuse yourself and then you won't be able to blame me for the confusion. That said, I have started to use stone ground coarse cornmeal for polenta instead of trying to track down those overpriced packages of polenta that are probably pretty much the same thing anyway.........

Poached Eggs over Polenta

For this dish from Cooking Light, however, I used the Quaker Oats cornmeal which has been degerminated. See, this is where I get confused - if hominy grits are different from corn grits because they have been degerminated, then wouldn't cornmeal that has been degerminated really be the same thing as hominy grits? So that hominy grits=degerminated cornmeal=Quaker Oats cornmeal? And then polenta=stoneground whole grain cornmeal (either coarse, medium or fine)? See, that's why I'm referring you to the above articles and letting you decide.

Obviously I used yellow cornmeal in place of white, but I think that yellow cornmeal actually works better here in that it provides a nice color contrast to the egg whites. We found that the polenta needed A LOT more salt than the recipe called for and actually, more of everything - it just didn't have that much flavor. I ended up adding a bit more butter, a bit more cheese and a lot more salt. My parmesan cheese was not top quality, so if you can't use a top quality parmesan with lots of flavor, then I recommend using a sharper or smoked cheese that might help kick up the flavor - in fact, I'm not sure that Parmiggiano Reggiano would have been enough - perhaps a sharp or smoked provolone would work best.

The salsa added an interesting dimension for us - we are not accustomed to eating tomatoes with our eggs - and added nice color as well. I prefered to keep the egg and salsa separated, but enjoyed both flavors with the polenta. I would certainly consider making this again, but I would play around with the polenta to get something a little more interesting and would also be inclined to try the this dish with variations in the salsa, such as using roasted red peppers only or maybe a bit of balsamic. In any case, it's a pretty simple meal to throw together and it's made from ingredients that are commonly on hand.

Alton Brown's Cocoa Brownies

Source: Food Network

Soft butter, for greasing the pan
Flour, for dusting the buttered pan
4 large eggs 1 cup sugar, sifted
1 cup brown sugar, sifted
8 ounces melted butter
11/4 cups cocoa, sifted
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup flour, sifted
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Preheat the oven to 300º. Butter and flour an 8-inch square pan. In a mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, beat the eggs at medium speed until fluffy and light yellow. Add both sugars. Add remaining ingredients, and mix to combine. Pour the batter into a greased and floured 8-inch square pan and bake for 45 minutes. Check for doneness with the tried-and-true toothpick method: a toothpick inserted into the center of the pan should come out clean. When it's done, remove to a rack to cool. Resist the temptation to cut into it until it's mostly cool.

I talked about this recipe HERE.