Home Made Broad Bean Falafel & Pita Bread

I'm back! After an almost two month hiatus after Vegan MoFo I've finally got my mojo back. I'm not sure if I will participate next year, I found this year a bit draining, and I didn't enjoy it as much. I also found the lack of Google Reader really annoying and I felt like I probably missed out on some really great posts. The Random MoFo thingy for some reason kept taking me back to a few particular blogs... not that they weren't great but I like to try and have at least one look at everybody. Anyways, enough whingeing.

Like we do every year, we grow broad beans, which were in plentiful supply to us so that I forgot to freeze a shelled half kilo of them(d'oh!) . However, when I pulled the plants up I harvested the rest and these have been outside drying out in their pods. I decided to use some today to make some gluten free broad bean falafel. For some reason so many of the mixes and recipes I've seen aren't gluten free so  I decided to just make it. Now don't get me wrong, I like chick peas, but I like the Egyptian broad bean falafel a lot better. We don't use this humble bean enough! I fear the poor broad bean gets left at the back of the shelf too often while the chickpea gets flung about and used like the village bicycle. What a floosie.

When I began looking at different recipes I found so many people used tinned chickpeas, flour, and eggs to make it at home. What's with that? Tinned chickpeas are way too soft to give a good felafel texture, and if made correctly you DO NOT NEED FLOUR OR EGGS!!! Sounds like a pikelet mixture to me.

Anyway with a lack of a decent recipe I had to come up with my own.

I also wanted to make my own pita bread to have warm and fresh, and some other yummy fillin's and fixin's like hummus and tabbouleh. 

I wanted to make a gluten free tabbouleh so I used my old friend the millet seed. I've seen plenty of recipes of late for quinoa in salads who is currently to the food world what One Direction is to music. I can't believe I just wrote about One Direction in a blog post. But you know what I mean, it's trendy,  its popular, its everywhere (although us vegans have been eating it long before the hipsters did). Millet on the other hand lies old and forgotten like the daggy Kamahl record covered in dust at the back of Vinnies.  So back to millet I go! I like to add a little orange zest to the tabbouleh, and use char grilled tomatoes instead of fresh tomatoes to give it a slightly smoky flavour.

Falafel Ingredients

225 gr dried podded broad beans

75 gr dried chickpeas
75 gr sunflower seeds
75gr sesame seeds

1 small onion

1 bunch coriander leaves

1 clove garlic

2 tsps ground cumin

1 tsp chilli powder

2 tablespoons tahini

1/4 cup water

Method

1.For a quicker falafel I simmered the broad beans and chickpeas in a pot of boiling water for 15 minutes, and then left aside to cool. Traditionally these are soaked overnight, but I wanted it now! They were just softening but still very firm. You don't want these to end up as a pot of hummus, you want a gritty texture.

2.In a food processor put in all the ingredeints except the water and pulse until you have a very coarse breadcrumb appearance. Add a little water after each pulse to help it a long. You should have a very thick mixture that easily sticks together.

3.Shape portions of the mixture to your desired size (I got 8 large falafels, but you could make them smaller for appetisers).

4.Heat some sunflower oil in a frying pan for shallow frying, and then fry falafels until dark golden on each side. Put them on a oven tray and put them in the oven at 100C to keep warm until you are done cooking them all.

Pita Bread Ingredients

2 cups bakers flour

1 cup water

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 teaspoon salt

Method

1.If you have a stand mixer you can use your dough hook and place all ingredients in the bowl and leave until dough centres around the hook and comes away from the sides of the bowl (adjusting liquid if necessary). If you are doing it by hand, make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients, and pour wet ingredients in the middle. Using a spoon gradually incorporate the flour into the middle until all mixed, and then turn out onto a floured board and knead until smooth. 

2.To cook the pita, take pieces about 1/4 cup in size, and then roll out very thin, almost to the point where it would break. Dust with flour if you have to to prevent it sticking to your workbench.

On a very hot BBQ plate, or an iron skillet (or in my case, my iron wok-of-all-work) spray lightly with oil, and cook until "bubbles" appear or it puffs up. Flip over and cook the other side. It takes about a minute for the first side, and maybe 30 =40 seconds for the second side. It's important to use as a hot a surface as possible. Of course traditionally pita breads are baked, but there's no way a home oven could get hot enough to bake it so it puffs. This is the same method I use to make naan and tortillas and it works great.

Millet & Kale Tabbouleh Ingredients

1/2 cup millet

1 big bunch of flat parsley

1 big handful mint

2-3 large kale leaves

juice of 1 lemon

1 Lebanese cucumber

4 large tomatoes - deseeded, chargrilled, and cooled

2 tablespoons garlic infused olive oil

1 tsp orange zest

Method

Chargrill seeded tomatoes and set aside to cool. When cool chop finely, and set aside.

Cook millet in a pan of boiling water according to packet directions and set aside to cool.

Finely chop parsley, kale and mint. If you are making a lot pulse it a few times in the food processor its much quicker!

Dice cucumber.

Assemble tabbouleh by placing all ingredients in a large bowl and tossing until well mixed.

We had our falafel in the fresh pita with the tabbouleh, some corn cous cous, coconut yoghurt and freshly blitzed hummus. You could also add extra chilli, tahini, or garlic sauce if you wanted to. It was delicious! If you wanted a gluten free meal just omit the pita bread and eat the falafel with the corn cous cous and all the extras :)

Cookbook Mondays: Artisan Bread

A while ago I found a book called Artisan Breads  by Jan Hedh. I immediately bought it because I was suckered in by all the beautiful bread in the book, and also the recipes for bread made from wild yeasts. I have another bread book written in the early 70's which has taught me a lot about breadmaking, but it was pretty standard sort of recipes. Since Jan is a Swedish baker I was sure I would learn new skills and recipes, and they would be a success. But then it lingered on the bookshelf, because learning a new bread recipe takes time and patience, and at that point I had none. 

A couple of weeks a go I began a raisin starter from the book. 

The recipe called for honey as well as sugar but I omitted it in the hope it would work anyway. I had no idea the French usually make sourdough with a honey and raisin starter, so now I know! It worked and a week later my jar of raisins was bubbling like champagne, and the jar opened with a pop! You can see the bubbles in the photo below.

 I went ahead making the 'mother' and then the 'chef' which sounds complicated but really it wasn't, I just put it into the Kitchenaid with the dough hook on and timed it. I do like making the actual loaf by hand, or at least finishing it by hand though. Breadmaking is such a tactile process and you really need to 'feel' the dough turn into elastic. I made the dough for a wheat and rye loaf on Friday night, and left it overnight, hoping I had done everything right and it would rise. Phew... it did! I baked it off Saturday morning and we enjoyed it as part of a brunch. I made the Beloved have the first slice in case it was a disaster LOL. I was so pleased it worked the first time, and I'm going to keep making different bread from the book. If you like making your own bread and have the time to do it I would recommend it. Not all the recipes are vegan but many are easily adaptable and he explains the chemical process so the right substitutes can be made. Happy baking!

Superhero Snacks: Beer Dough Pretzels

I have to admit, I'm having fun coming up with hero related snacks, but probably not as much fun as  Phil and John have had coming up with some pretty awesome add ons like t-shirts (sweat shop free - woot!), a playmat, activity book, badge, and of course the amazing action figures. To check them out head on over to their Kickstarter campaign, but they only have two weeks left so if you think these two are as awesome as I do for their creation please consider a pledge!

Enough of the shameless plug...on to business!

I've made pretzels quite a few times, but I wanted something a bit different for Herr Pretzel from Pack of Heroes. Pretzels are an obvious choice, but what could make them more pretzelly (is that even a word? it is now!) than making them with beer dough using a German beer! I'll be honest, I was just going to use whatever beer I could find in the Beloved's homebrew, but spied the German bottle sitting on the shelf. Perfect! (As a side note the Beloved says the beer pictured is rubbish, even if it is gluten free). It did make a cracking good dough however, the texture was quite light when they were baked. I will probably make more of them using a different beer next time to give a different flavour.

Ingredients

3 1/2 - 4 cups bakers flour

1 tsp yeast

1 bottle beer

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup warm water

2 tsp fine salt for the dough, plus rock salt or flakes for the top

1/4 cup bicarb soda

Method

1. Heat the water until lukewarm. Add the oil, salt, and yeast, stir, and leave aside until mixture bubbles. Add beer.

2. Make a well in the centre of 3 1/2 cups of the flour, pour in the yeast mixture, and with a wooden spoon, bring in flour to centre and mix. 

3. Turn out onto floured surface, and oil your hands (this prevents the dough sticking to you, plus drying out your skin!)

4. Knead for about 10 minutes, or until dough is smooth and elastic. You may need to add a bit more flour if it is too sticky - I used nearly 4 cups this time, humidity was high as per usual when I make these!

5. Put into an oiled bowl, cover, and set aside until doubled in size. This may take 1-2 hours depending on the temperature. I set mine next to our fire. (You can put the oven on for five minutes, turn off, and then leave the door ajar with the dough inside to speed things up).

6. Punch down and knead for a couple of minutes. Divide dough into 12 portions and roll into long sausages , about 40cm long. Loop into a pretzel shape. Place on a lined tray, and allow to rise again until double. 

7. Turn on oven to 190C to preheat, and set a large saucepan of water on the stove to boil. Fill the saucepan about 2/3 full.

8. When water is boiling, drop in salt and bicarb - watch out it froths!

9. Carefully drop the prerzels in one at a time to poach, about a minute and a half on each side. Remove carefully and set on greaseproof lined baking trays, a few centimetres apart. 

10. Sprinkle the top with salt crystals or flakes.

11. Place in the oven to bake for approximately 20 minutes, until dark brown, and set on a wire rack to cool.

Vegan MoFo: Home Made Soft Taco Shells

We love Mexican food in our house - how could you not being a veg head? All those wholesome bean varieties, salsas, salads, fresh vegies and punchy flavours! Being in Australia, Mexican foods are pretty limited in the way of ingredients apart from Old El Paso sort of kits. But I have found a couple of good Mexican ingredient importers online based in Sydney, so I've been able to order a few things to try. We also ventured a couple of years ago into growing our own tomatillos, as I found some organic seed, and it's not something you can buy at the markets (not that I've ever seen). I was so impressed with them as the following Spring there was a bunch of volunteer plants, so I don't think I'll ever be without them! 

A request for some upcoming catering possibly involves a taco bar. The tortillas in the shop are always a bit too thin, a bit too big, and tend to tear easily. They also taste a little funny, probably from those little sachets they put in to stop them drying out and such. I want a robust taco that can stand up to some fillings! I had a look at some soft taco shell recipes, but couldn't really find anything that wasn't a basic corn tortilla or didn't involve eggs. Strange...maybe I'm looking in the wrong place, or maybe I'm too picky? What the hey, I'll just make up my own and hope for the best!

I made a yeast mixture with some warm water, salt, and sunflower oil. When it went all bubbly I added a half half mixture of bakers flour and masa, and worked it a bit, adjusting until I got the right feel in the dough. Don't ask me for measurements, this is a work in progress! I let the dough sit covered for a couple of hours, and then rolled out balls of dough into about 6 inch rounds, a good size to fit snug in the hand, dusting with masa and piling them up. I even got to use my vintage Indian rolling pin (so I bought it for Indian roti making, but don't judge ok?)

And this is what I ended up with! I fried them off in my wok (the heat distribution always works really well when I make Indian breads this way). The texture reminded me a bit of naan bread, but the taste of corn was definitely prominent. They were soft, a little flaky inside, and much thicker than regular tortillas.  All in all, I was pretty happy with the first try, they didn't break when we folded them over some char grilled corn salsa, beans, and guacamole. When I've perfected it I might post a recipe...

UPDATE
Finally I've got a moment to update this with an actual recipe! Makes approx 15 taco size tortillas.

Ingredients
1 1/4 cups bakers flour
1 cup masa
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp sugar
1 tablespoon sunflower oil (not essential, but easier to work the dough)
approx 1 3/4 cups warm water
1/2 teaspoon dry yeast

Method
In a bowl put water, yeast, sugar, salt, and oil. Allow to bubble and add flour and masa. Add a little more water if needed. Like any baking, temperature of the day, moisture in the air, and in the flour itself all takes part, so add enough water so that you have a soft and slightly sticky dough.

Take golf ball size pieces of dough and roll into a ball. Squish down between your palms and either roll out with a rolling pin or if you have one, put between two pieces of greaseproof paper into a tortilla press...OR you can use the bottom of a heavy saucepan or frying pan and push down. they should be fairly thin, remember they will puff up!

Lightly oil a heavy based frying pan, wok, or even a BBQ hotplate. Cook until toasty one side, most of them puff up when you are ready to flip. Cook off the other side for about a minute. Put them aside and keep warm in a teatowel.

Ironchef Challenge # 1: Beetroot Mini Cobs with Caramelised Beet & Onion Mayo

The colour peeping out from the slash I made before baking - so pretty!

Sauteed mushroom, kale, and caramelised beetroot & onion mayo in the mini cob

I love beetroot! Fresh beetroot that is, roasted, juiced, pickled, pureed...just don't give me a tin of Golden Circle slices. Too sugary and unbeetroot. So I was tickled the pink of beet upon discovering this week's Ironchef secret ingredient!

I baked today listening to Edith Piaf which didn't seem quite right with a German style bread - perhaps I should have been listening to Beethoven. But I digress. Being Oktoberfest, I thought it would be a good idea to do a pretzel sort of cob...but with - you guessed it - beetroot. Recipes I've tried to make pretzels with before seem to be lacking a bit on the sweet side, or too much salt, or not enough liquid, or just too small... so I used the juice to colour and subtly sweeten the bread.They turned out great, better than I expected. Not tasting of beetroot, just an earthy sweetness, and a beautiful colour. The pulp I reserved from juicing, and I caramelised with onion and cumin to make a relish to swirl into mayo.  We had these with some sauteed mushrooms, kale leaves, and a generous dollop of the beet mayo.  A good vego sausage patty or vegie burger would be pretty tasty too!  Now, if only I could figure out how to make beetroot beer...

Dough rising in bowl

Cob Ingredients (makes 6 mini cobs)

3 1/2 -4 cups bakers flour

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 tsp salt plus extra tsp

1 cup  fresh beetroot juice (I used 2 large beetroot and got 1 1/4 cups) 

3/4 cup rice milk or water

3 tsp dry yeast

1/4 cup bicarb soda

salt crystals (optional)

Method

1. Heat the beetroot juice and rice milk (or water) until lukewarm. Add the oil, salt, and yeast, stir, and leave aside until mixture bubbles.

2. Make a well in the centre of 3/12 cups of the flour, pour in the yeast mixture, and with a wooden spoon, bring in flour to centre and mix. 

3. Turn out onto floured surface, and oil your hands (this prevents the dough sticking to you, plus drying out your skin!)

4. Knead for about 10 minutes, or until dough is smooth and elastic. You may need to add a bit more flour if it is too sticky (when I made this I probably used closer to 4 1/4 cups flour because the humidity was so high).

5. Put into an oiled bowl, cover, and set aside until doubled in size. This may take 1-2 hours depending on the temperature. I set mine on top of a propagating heat mat and it took about 50 minutes. (You can put the oven on for five minutes, turn off, and then leave the door ajar with the dough inside to speed things up).

6. Punch down and knead for a couple of minutes. Divide dough into 6 portions and form into cobs. Place on a lined tray, and allow to rise again until double. 

I can't tell you how bright the dough was - the photo just doesn't capture it!

7. Turn on oven to 190C to preheat, and set a large saucepan of water on the stove to boil. Fill the saucepan about 2/3 full.

8. When water is boiling, drop in salt and bicarb - watch out it froths!

9. Carefully drop the cobs in one at a time to poach, about a minute and a half on each side. Remove carefully and set on greaseproof lined baking trays, a few centimetres apart. 

10. Slash the top in a cross with a sharp knife, and sprinkle salt crystals on top if you wish (the salt makes them a bit pretzel like).

11. Place in the oven to bake for approximately 20 minutes, until dark brown, and set on a wire rack to cool.

Caramelised Beet & Onion Mayo- Ingredients

1 cup beetroot pulp

1 large onion, cut into thin slices

1 tsp cumin seeds, toasted

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

1/4 cup beetroot juice

1/4 cup sugar

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon vegan butter

1 cup vegan mayonnaise (you can make your own or shop bought)

Method

1.On low heat, melt butter into oil in a heavy based pan.

2. Add cumin and onion, and stir gently until translucent. 

3. Add beet pulp, juice, vinegar, and sugar. 

4. Stir gently on low heat until caramelised and onion is very soft. Takes about 1/2 hour. Put into a clean jar and allow to cool.

5. When cool, stir into mayonnaise.

The colour of the bread - a beautiful deep pink!

Go Ahead, Bake My Day: Bread Basket

I love baking bread. The tactile sensation of silky dough, the smell of the yeast and the bread baking fill the house, the taste of new bread straight from the oven smothered in butter...and the satisfaction of making it myself.  Once upon a time I used a bread machine, but it died, and I didn't want to buy another one. So I taught myself how to make bread from scratch. There is a huge difference between machine made bread and handmade bread. I find machine bread too airy and crumbly. This I think is largely due to not testing the dough during the kneading process. When you have made bread for a while, you will get a real feel for the dough, you will throw away your measures, and concentrate only on how it rolls under your fingers. It depends on the flour and yeast you use, the humidity of the day, and the temperature. In warmer months, the dough rises quickly; in winter, I often have to warm the oven for 10 minutes, turn it off, and leave the dough in there with the door open (it really works!). Today I made basic bread dough, then divided it into 4 and added different flavours - rosemary and garlic, olive and paprika, cheese and chive, and pickled onion and caraway. 

Basic Bread Dough

3 cups of bakers flour

approx 500 mls warm water

2 tablespoons dry yeast

1 tablespoon sugar

1 tsp salt

approx 4 tablespoons olive oil

Method

Whisk together yeast, sugar, salt, oil and water. Set aside until bubbly and frothy - if it doesn't bubble your yeast is dead! Some people will tell you not to put sugar in your bread -certainly you can do without it. But -  sugar feeds the yeast, and you will get a better rise, particularly if you use dry rather than fresh yeast. The salt in turn, balances the sugar out. It also gives the bread some flavour.

Activated yeast - alive and kicking!

Add 2 cups of flour and stir with a wooden spoon, gradually adding remaining flour, and adding more if required. You want a nice soft dough, easily indented with a finger. If it appears tough you have put too much flour in. 

Turn the dough out onto a floured bench top or board and knead, knead, knead for about 10 minutes. The best way to knead is to fold over the dough on itself, and use your weight to push forward and squash the dough - which is less tiring than using only your arm muscles. give it a quarter turn and repeat. Pop on your favourite few songs, I usually knead to three or four tracks rather than timing it. There are recipes out there that claim to be "no knead." I am here to tell you, they will not be as good, will probably be quite crumbly (like a scone) and in my opinion, suggests a certain amount of laziness. Kneading is not hard!! It's 10 minutes - consider it part of a workout! Kneading activates the gluten in the flour, which gives the dough the elasticity it needs to capture gases created by the yeast creating air pockets and giving structure to your loaf, and  a chewy texture. Properly kneaded dough rises quickly and well. when it is ready the dough will be silky soft, and elastic - ie if you try to pull a bit off, it won't tear easily.

This is what the dough should look like, nice and smooth

Put your dough into a greased bowl and cover with a clean tea towel. Leave in a warm place for about 3/4 an hour, or until doubled in size.

And 45 minutes later, doubled in size

Punch down your dough. At this point I divided into four and added herbs, spices, chopped onion etc, and kneaded for about a minute until incorporate.

Next, shape into the loaf you would like and put on a baking tray, or use a bread tin. I have an assortment of sizes for various breads. Just make sure there is plenty of room so your bread doesn't explode over the side and all over your oven.

Leave aside covered, for at least an hour, slashing the top after about 15 minutes (if you like). I often leave mine for even longer, an hour and a half. 

Preheat your oven to 180C and bake until bread sounds hollow when tapped. If the top is browning too quickly, just put some foil over the top. 40 minutes does the trick in my gas oven, but may take less or longer in yours. Turn out when done, and allow to cool.

Voila! You have bread!

Australia Day: Vegemite Damper Scrolls

G'Day mates, throw another vegie snag on the barbie, it's Aussie Day! (we don't all talk like that you know, except for maybe Paul Bogan  Hogan. Australia Day, for those of you not on our island continent, is our national day celebrated on the 26th January, which marks the arrival of the first fleet at Port Jackson (Sydney Cove) in 1788. It isn't the anniversary (claimed by my friend Josh to an unsuspecting American friend) " of the day in which a young Bushranger by the name of Ned Kelly, implemented his plan of concealing dynamite within the pouch's of Red Kangaroos and sent them hopping into the enemy camp, a plan which ultimately proved to be the decisive tipping point in ending the 6 year Australian-American war." LOL!!! BTW Josh, if you read this, I hope you don't mind me posting it, it was too good not to share!

So in honour of our day, I'm making some twists on traditional Aussie food. There will be a few posts, so keep your eyes peeled.

Damper, for those of you not in the know, is a colonial Australian unleavened bread. Traditionally, it was made with flour, salt, and water, and cooked in the coals of a "dampened" fire in a cooking pot.  Alternatively (and this was my favourite as a kid) it was twisted around a stick and cooked over the fire. We loved to smother ours with golden syrup when it was cooked. It has evolved to include baking soda, butter, and a little sugar, which I much prefer!

So, I've decided to add the other Australian icon, Vegemite - food of the gods! Not that other rubbish, Marmite (New Zealand version has sugar in it! Erk!), or Dick Smith's Aussiemite, or any number of other versions of yeast extract paste. You have to use the real deal (even if an American company owns it ha ha).

Ingredients

2 cups of plain flour 

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp sugar

3 heaped tablespoons dairy free margarine, plus extra to spread

approx 1/2 cup soymilk

Vegemite

Method

Preheat oven to 180C

In a bowl, sift flour, baking soda, and sugar

Rub through margarine until dough resembles breadcrumbs

Add soymilk, and form into a ball, kneading for a couple of minutes until smooth. If it's bit too sticky, just add a dusting of flour.

Roll out into an oblong shape.

Spread with margarine, and lots of Vegemite, covering well. You can also at this point add some shredded dairy free cheese on the top.

Cut into strips about 3cm cm wide, and about 8cm long and roll each one up to form a scroll.

Place scroll cut end up in a greased baking dish (I used my cast iron pot), and continue until pan is full or dough is finished. they should be packed closely together.

Bake for about 15 -20 minutes until top sound hollow when tapped. Eat warm straight out of the oven with some billy tea of course!