A taste of the Mediterranean in Emporia
Dan Ferrell - Emporia Gazette
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
I was first introduced to Mediterranean food while I was stationed at Fort Bragg, N.C.
A friend in my platoon asked whether I wanted to go grab lunch one day.
We started trying to figure out where to go eat. He asked if I had ever had a gyro. I remember seeing the gyro guys in Westport after we closed out Kelly’s Pub, but had never tried them. He told me it was good and I would probably really enjoy it, so I decided to give it a try. I was hooked on the first bite.
Gyros became an addiction for me. Whenever I moved to a new city I would go hunt down my new gyro source. One day in Seattle a friend of mine joined me for lunch and I expressed my love of the gyro. He asked if I had ever tried falafel. I told him I hadn’t. He told me it was similar to the gyro, only it was made from a mixture of grains and seasonings.
The history behind the dish goes sort of like this. It is a Middle Eastern dish that has been called the “fast food of the Middle East.” Some have even called it “the middle eastern hot dog,” though once you taste it you will find it to taste nothing like a hot dog. The comparison has more to do with their shared role as a common street food.
The Egyptians, who were the inventors of the meal, originally used the fava bean. As the dish migrated to the north, other countries started to use the chickpea or garbanzo bean over the fava bean. The western version is generally made using the chickpea.
There are two choices you can make if you would like to make falafel. You can make it from scratch (see recipe below), or you can go down to Nature’s Paradise, 1511 W. 6th Ave., and pick yourself up a box of the pre-mixed stuff. I find the boxed stuff to be extremely easy to make as well as really tasty.
If you are die-hard and want to prepare the entire dish from scratch, here is a recipe I found on cooking.com.
FALAFEL MIX
1 cup dried peeled fava beans (7 ounces), soaked overnight
3/4 cup dried chickpeas, soaked overnight
1 small onion, finely chopped
1/3 cup minced flat-leaf parsley
2 tablespoons minced cilantro
1 garlic clove, minced
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
3/4 teaspoon ground cumin
Pinch of crushed red pepper
3 tablespoons water
Pure olive oil or canola oil, for frying
Tzatziki Sauce (see recipe)
Drain and rinse the favas and chickpeas and put them in a food processor. Add the onion, parsley, cilantro, garlic, baking powder, salt, cumin and crushed red pepper. Pulse, scraping down the side of the bowl, to form a coarse paste. Add the water and process until the mixture is gritty but fine and brilliant green. Scrape the paste into a bowl. Form into patties (about the same size as a sausage patty).
In a medium saucepan, heat 1-1/2 to 2 inches of oil to 350 degrees F. Place the patties of the falafel mixture into the hot oil and fry in small batches until browned and crisp, about 2 minutes. Drain on paper towels set over a wire rack and serve hot.
Assembling the falafel
Just as the ingredients change from place to place, so does the way you prepare it. To keep things simple here, I am going to explain how I learned how to make it.
To start, take a piece of pita bread and cut it down the center. Open it up so that it resembles a taco shell. Spread some hummus along the inside of the pita bread.Next, tear apart the falafel patty into the pita bread. On top of that place some shredded lettuce, tomatoes and onion. Finally dress it with some tzatziki sauce.
Eating a falafel without tzatziki is like eating a hot dog without mustard or fish sticks without tartar sauce. You will know what I am speaking of the first time you taste it all together.
When I went to make tzatziki sauce for the first time I tried looking up the recipe on the Internet. I found numerous recipes, but it seemed they all varied in one way or another. I was confused as to what was the correct recipe. A few days later I was looking through one of my barbeque cookbooks and lo and behold, there was an excellent recipe for tzatziki sauce. I decided that was the one to use. I was not disappointed.
TZATZIKI SAUCE
1 regular cucumber, or 1/2 large hothouse (English seedless) cucumber
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon curry powder, or more to taste
1/2 teaspoon course salt (kosher or sea), or more to taste
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, or more to taste
1 cup sour cream
2 teaspoons red wine vinegar or fresh lemon juice.
Peel the cucumber, then cut it in half lengthwise and, using a melon baller or spoon, scrape out the seeds. Cut the cucumber into 1/2-inch chunks. Place the cucumber, garlic, cumin, curry powder, salt, and pepper in a food processor and process to a smooth paste.
Add sour cream and purée, running the machine in short bursts. Taste for seasoning, adding more curry powder and/or salt as necessary.
To complement the falafel, try starting the meal off with a Greek Salad. Ingredients can vary depending on what you have available.
GREEK SALAD
1 large cucumber, sliced in half, seeded, then cut into 1/2-inch pieces
2-3 medium tomatoes, cored and cut into wedges
1/4 red onion, sliced into thin strips (julienned)
1 green pepper, julienned
6 oz. feta cheese, crumbled
16-20 kalamata olives
4-5 whole pepperoncini peppers
3 tbs. extra virgin olive oil
2 tbs. lemon juice
1 tbs. dried oregano
1/2 tsp. salt
fresh ground black pepper
Put the olive oil, lemon juice (or you can use red wine vinegar), oregano, salt and pepper in a bowl and mix well. Put all the salad ingredients in a large bowl. Pour the dressing over everything and mix well.
“What’s for dessert?” That was a commonly asked question in my house when I was growing up. In this case, lets go with one of the most famous Mediterranean deserts, the baklava.
The exact origin of baklava is hard to determine. This is due to the fact that every ethnic group whose ancestry goes back to the Middle East has a claim of their own on this pastry. Many believe, however, that the Assyrians at around the 8th century B.C. were the first people who put together a few layers of thin bread dough, with chopped nuts in between those layers, added some honey and baked it in primitive woodburning ovens. Today you will find this delicacy almost everywhere.
Note: Phyllo, filo, or fillo dough is paper-thin sheets of raw, unleavened flour dough used for making pastries. This can be found in most grocery stores’ freezer sections.
BAKLAVA
1 cup unsalted butter
1/2 (16 ounce) package phyllo dough
2 cups chopped walnuts, pecans or pistachios (You pick)
1 1/2 tablespoons whole cloves
1 1/2 cups water
1/3 cup white sugar
1 cinnamon stick
1 cup honey
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Melt the butter over low heat. Pour 2 tablespoons of the butter into the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking pan. Layer 3 sheets of the phyllo dough in the pan. Trim dough to fit. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of pecans over the phyllo dough. Layer 3 more sheets of dough, brush generously with the melted butter, and sprinkle with 2 tablespoons of pecans. Continue dough-butter-pecan layers until pan is 3/4 full.
With a sharp knife, score phyllo dough to form diamonds. Press a clove at each end of the diamonds. Pour remaining butter over the dough.
Bake 45 to 50 minutes in the preheated oven, until golden brown.
Meanwhile, combine the sugar, water and cinnamon stick in a medium saucepan, and bring to boil, stirring constantly. Simmer for 10 minutes.
Add the honey and simmer for 2 minutes longer. Remove from heat and discard cinnamon stick. Pour honey mixture over hot baklava. Let cool on wire racks. Cut into diamonds.
Pour honey mixture over hot baklava. Let cool on wire racks. Cut into diamonds.
I did not include the directions to making gyro meat because lack of space. I do recommend going to www.foodnetwork.com and search “Alton Brown” & “ gyro.” I have personally tried this recipe and found it to be delicious!
Happy cooking Emporia!
Dan Ferrell can be reached at his email: ferrell@emporiagazette.com