Hi, This is a very interesting forum: cooking falafel has been many times frustating for me (and I guess that for more people). Though, I have been able to cook falafel this morning. The result was not bad, but not incredibly tasty either, as the falafel was crusty on the outside but just like the unfried mixture on the inside (is this ok, for traditional recipes?). My cooking procedure was: First, I soaked the chick-peas overnight and boiled them until soft. Afterwards, I mashed the chick-peas and added one egg, onion, parsil, paprika, garlic and salt. The first batch looked nice before deep-frying, but fell apart using very hot olive oil. So I added one more egg to the mixture, but unluckily the falafell came apart once again. I didn't give up, and I added some flour (only a couple of tablespoons) and lowered the flame when putting the falafel into the skillet. This time everything went fine. This seems to be a good trick: the oil must be very hot to curdle the egg that ties together the mixture, but I guess the fire cannot be too high or the bubbles will destroy your patties. Also, as you add more egg the mixture becomes more difficult to handle, and some flour is useful. I do not know if this procedure was "orthodox" or not. My questions are: - Are the chick-peas boiled in traditional recipes? I have seen recipes in which they are just soaked overnight: this way, they should be raw when deep-fried. On the other hand, if you do not boil the chick-peas, you could suffer a terrible gas-storm :-)! - Which are the best spices for getting tastier falafel? - When the amount of chick-peas is specified in a recipe: does it usually refer to the dry or to the soaked amound? Thanks (sorry for my english).
