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Tuesday 11 March 2014

Felafel v Felafel, with porridge on the side

First of all I want to say welcome to Zana, I should have done this yesterday but my psychedelic  porridge threw me off piste.

This is an early post as I am going to be outside all day and once I have come in, showered, eaten and drunk a gallon of tea I will not be fit to string 2 words together.

Remember my promise? well here it is.



It looks a bit blurry because it was steaming hot, and doubly delicious for being in my Winnie the Pooh bowl. Today I fine diced the apple and warmed it with the blackberries for 3 minutes as I forgot to take them out to defrost.

Last night I made up a pack of the Felafel mix from AF, I had company for dinner and when I looked at the amount of mix I had a moment of "Crikey, there's not enough to feed a mouse there!"
So I grabbed my "Jack" cook book and turned to her recipe.


I had all the ingredients, I still have coriander in the garden and the parsley is growing while I watch, so made a batch, it took no more than 4 minutes. I decided that as it was a last minute thing I would make 4 patties, time was running and the other ones were in the oven already.




I got 8 from the AF mix and 4 from the "Jack" recipe, if I had made regular sized Felafels it would have been 12 - 14.

The patties were well textured, moist not wet, firm not dense and very moreish. The tin of chick peas were  on offer ages ago, I used 1 average sized carrot and half a large red onion, the herbs were from the garden and the cumin from a large pack at an Indian shop in London, I left the oil out of the mix because I forgot about it in my haste and used some 1 cal olive oil spray to fry them off. 

The AF mix ones were very tasty but low on texture, they were firm and dense. I will make them again but will add onion and carrot to open the texture up and fresh herbs to brighten the flavour.

I served them with wraps, AF, salad and spicy Mango Chutney, AF, thinned down slightly with a splash of hot water. I was going for the traditional taste of yogurt with mint but my hand closed round the Mango Chutney first.

Which would I choose first out of the contestants?



It has to be Jack's recipe, for a few reasons.
1. It uses store cupboard ingredients.
2. It needs no tweaking.
3. I made it myself.
4. I LOVE it.
5 My guest felt the same.

As I said I will use the mixes with some tweaking as there was nothing fundamentally wrong with them, and because I will not waste them, I am thinking of making a version of Onion Bhajis with a packet tonight to have with Lamb Madras ( using an AF Madras Kit)
I will be cooking Pilau Rice and Naan Breads so if they are not successful it will not matter.

Reasons to be grateful.

1. Dinner was a success at a minimal cost.

2. My Purple Porridge is sooooo gooood.

3. I have a full day in the fresh air.

4. I have walked Ben and managed to run for part of the way.

5. There are moves afoot to bring forward my move date.

I will share my plans later this week if they pan out. I may be looking at the end of April/early May.
I must not count my chickens yet, I may have to scramble some eggs!
My tea is drunk, my Purple Porridge is history and Ben is sitting by the door looking at me with a "hurry up" expression on his face.


                         TTFN                                              Pam 




10 comments:

  1. Your porridge looks really bright! I might invest in that book when I'm allowed to buy books again, I've heard good reports about it.

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    1. I am so glad that I ordered it, I intend to work my way through it, tomorrow I plan on cooking Pork Kokkinisto.

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  2. That porridge looks so good and very purple!

    Jacks book is still on my wish list, i bought a patchwork bag book this month and a new printer has just arrived, so I will have to wait a little while. It gets some great reviews but the best ones are from people like you who actually make the recipes and are delighted with the results. Glad you enjoyed them.

    Your move sounds exciting! X

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  3. My Purple porridge is good, I am going to have to leave the coconut out though, it makes it too sweet for me. I don't understand my sweet tooth, I love syrup sponge and custard, but I can't cope with Millionaires Shortbread.

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  4. It might taste good Pam but I'm sorry it really doesn't look too good! It must be the sunshine, you ran today, I went on a bike ride! My thighs are killing me! X How are your legs?

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  5. My legs are fine my hips ache but i have been out on the garden for most of 2 days. I am really steaming into it now that the soil is so good.

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  6. I think it looks great Pam! Purple or not! I like to stir jam into my rice pudding and that often takes on a strange colouring too.

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    1. OOH I do not like rice pudding very much, Basmatti rice and very runny and I can manage it, not proper rice pudding though.

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  7. Those falafels are nice! I follow jack's blog and tried them when she blogged about them. I have used grated zucchinis as well with success. My blackberries are nearly ready to pick must try that the porridge! Thanks for the welcome.

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    1. The Felafels are yummy and I will be making them again, I do like chickpeas in just about anything. The fresh herbs give them a real boost, I may try using some of my Thyme varieties next, the lemon one would be good.

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