Falafel made from scratch at home has always eluded me. But I’ve had to keep trying because the place by my house that has falafel on the menu serves up these mini falafel pucks that only serve to make me wish that I was in Texas. Or knew how to make it myself. It seemed that every time I tried the little beasts would explode or suffer from some sort of garbanzo bean plate tectonic syndrome. Soon there would be little fried bean bits floating and bursting into flames in hot oil, victims of the unfair and unstable universe on which they lived. And I didn’t have a clue why.

“It’s street food for crying out loud! It can’t be that freakin’ hard,” I’d cry to Marv who would just roll his eyes over my falafel incompetence. Then, while I was on a plane, I read a description of falafel that said it was a dough made from garbanzo beans and spices that’s fried in oil and served in pita bread with cucumber sauce and lettuce. A dough. Doh! All the recipes I had tried were basically bean patties with nothing holding them together.

Armed to the teeth with this new information – I had another go. And it worked beautifully. Yea! Falafel for me!

Falafel

1 1/2 c dried garbanzo beans
1 onion, peeled and quartered
2 – 6 cloves of garlic, coarsely chopped
1/4 c fresh cilantro, oregano or basil, coarsely chopped
1 t baking powder
2 T sesame seeds
2 T cumin
1 – 2 T Old Bay seasoning
1 T cayenne
1/4 – 1 c whole wheat flour
salt and pepper to taste
oil for frying

Rinse the beans and remove all that look funky. Cover with water and soak for 15 – 20 hours, until tender. Drain the beans, and place them in a food processor along with the onions, garlic and cilantro. Pulse until the the bits are paste-like but still distinguishable. Transfer to a bowl and and stir in spices, baking powder and flour 1/4 c at a time until the mixture is dough (doh!) like and the mixture isn’t wet.

Heat about 1/2″ of oil in a pan. Meanwhile, roll dough into smallish balls and flatten them out. Set aside.

Once oil is heated to 350° or more, fry falafel patties about 5 minutes per side, or until nicely browned. Drain on paper towels and serve with something cucumbery (see sauce below and salad to come).

Tzatziki Sauce

1 8oz container light sour cream or Greek yogurt (if you can find it)
1 small cucumber, deseeded and and chopped into chunks
2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
1/4 lemon juice
1 T chopped fresh dill
1 T parsley, chopped fine
salt & pepper

Combine cucumber and garlic in food processor and pulse until coarse. Add in the rest of the ingredients and pulse until liquid. Serve with falafel or chicken or beef or whatever you like.

It’s better than okay. It’s super easy to make, incredibly flavorful and versatile. I’ve been using it as a less fatty bacon, in salads, pasta, on sandwiches in soup. You don’t need very much to add flavor and interest in foods. Marv took 3lbs to work and watched it disappear. (He doesn’t really work with enough people for that to be reasonable.)

Tasso is made from pork shoulder butt. It’s brined for a week or so and then rubbed with a spice mixture that has cayanne and garlic in it and then smoked for a relatively short amount of time – 3 to 5 hours or so. But, I suspect there are as many ways to make this as there are people making it.

Tasso, the Recipe

10+ lbs pork butt roast

Brine
1 3/4 c Tender Quick
1 1/2 c brown sugar
1 T cayenne pepper
1 T black pepper
1 T ancho pepper
2 T onion powder
2 T garlic powder
1 gallon water

Rub
2 T ground mace
2 T garlic powder
2 T onion powder
1 T black pepper
1 T paprika
1 T chipotle powder
1 T dried sage
1 T dried thyme
2 T honey

Bone your pork butt if it’s not already boned. (Crikey, that’s a bad sentence.) Slice butt into large chunks 3″ x 3″ x however long the meat is. Combine all the brine ingredients and mix well. Put pork into a 2 gallon ziploc bag and pour the brine over it. Let it rest in your refrigerator for 5 days to a week.

Remove from refrigerator. Rinse and pat dry. Mix together rub ingredients and rub thoroughly. Hot smoke – 225°f – 250°f until internal temperature is 160°f – 165°f.

It will keep in your refrigerator for 1 – 2 weeks or you can freeze it for much longer.

Tasso Green Bean Salad

1 1/2 lb fresh green beans,
3/4 lb tasso, cut into thin strips 1″ in length or so
4 oz greyere, finely shredded

1/4 c wine vinegar
2 T olive oil
1 T lemon juice
2 garlic cloves, pressed
2 t mustard
pinch salt
pepper

Steam green beans until tender. While beans are steaming saute tasso until browned. Let both cool a bit. Combine the rest of the ingredients except for cheese. When cooled toss green beans, tasso, and vinigarette ingredients together. Toss in cheese and serve.

Tasso Sandwich

4 oz goat cheese, room temperature
1 t garlic powder
fresh basil, julienned
pinch salt
black pepper

tasso, thinly sliced
red pepper, roasted and sliced
hard sandwich rolls or french bread
olive oil

Mix together cheese with spices. Scoop out the insides of the rolls and feed them to my sister. Brush on a bit of olive oil and toast lightly on a griddle. Spread goat cheese mixture on the top bun and place tasso and red pepper on the bottom. Close sandwich and enjoy.

Missed Turn Stew

This is a recipe I already posted, but I made it with tasso rather that pork loin.

I did switch things up a little bit though. I decided to turn a little Japanese. I used panko for the crusting material and created a wasabi vinaigrette to contrast with the goat cheese.

Crusted Goat Cheese Salad with Wasabi Vinaigrette

4 – 8c spring green mix
4 – 8 oz chevre roll
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 t spicy mustard
1/2 c panko, squashed through your hands to make smaller
salt & pepper
olive oil spray

1/4 c key lime vinegar
2 T rice wine vinegar
1 T honey or fruit mustard
1 – 2t wasabi
1t honey
pinch salt

Turn broiler on high.

Cut chevre into 6 or 12 equal portions with a knife dipped into hot water. If the chevre is crumbly roll them into balls and flatten them out. (If it’s sticky you probably won’t have to do this.) Mix the mustard into the beaten egg and put in a small dish and panko sprinkled with salt and pepper (as much as you want) into another dish. Dip the patty into the egg, then transfer to the panko dish, press panko firmly into the cheese. Transfer to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Repeat with remaining chevre rounds. Spray with olive oil and broil for 5 – 15 minutes or until tops are browned. Flip over and continue broiling until tops are brown as well. Keep an eye on them, as they can go from browned to burned super quick.

While chevre is cooking mix together the rest of the ingredients for the vinaigrette. When chevre is on it’s last 10 minutes put mixed greens in a bowl and drizzle with vinaigrette , gently turn over leaves until they’re lightly coated with dressing. Transfer to plates and when chevre is done, place it on top or to the side of the greens.

When I made this, I was making a small side salad for 6 – so I cut one 4 oz log of chevre into 6 pieces and served one chevre patty with each salad, but if you’re making a bigger salad you probably want to serve with more than one patty – thus the range of amount in cheese and greens.

Gorgonzola & Roasted Beet Ravioli

Got your crazy ass lookin’ ravioli right here!

2 medium beets
1 medium yellow onion, coarsely chopped
olive oil
3oz cream cheese
4oz Gorgonzola
1 T balsamic vinegar
1t cream
pinch salt
1/2 c walnuts, coarsely chopped
won ton skins
egg, lightly beaten

Preheat oven to 450°f – 500°f. Peel and cut beets into 1/4″ slices. Toss them lightly with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast, tossing them occasionally until tender. (If the oven begins to blow oatmeal raisin cookie smell at you, don’t worry, it’s just the cookies your brother made a week ago. Heaven only knows why it decided to hang onto it for a week. But it’s super weird to be roasting beets and smelling cookies.)

Shouldn’t all fillings be bright pink? (Ooh, perhaps this would make the perfect dish for a Samanda eviction.)

At the same time cook onions in a bit of olive oil over medium-low heat until well on their way to being carmelized.

In a food processor, process cream cheese, Gorgonzola, balsamic vinegar, cream and salt together. Transfer to a bowl.

Once the beets and onions are done. Transfer them from their cooking vessels to something else and let them cool down a bit. Let the oven cool down to 375°f and use it to lightly toast the walnuts. (This does not take very long so keep checking and shaking pan.) Once cooled cut beets into to smallish coarse pieces and mix into the cheese mixture add in walnuts and onions. Taste to check the flavors and adjust if necessary.

Put a large pot of salted water on high heat to bring to a boil.

Lay some won ton skins out on a cookie sheet. Brush outsides of skins with egg and spoon filling into center. You want to keep the filling pretty low and flat while making these because touching it makes pink come out the sides. Top with a second skin and press it together with the bottom skin, manipulating it to match the bottom. Make sure they’re well sealed to not sacrifice any filling to the boiling water gods.

When they’re all done, slide them carefully into the water and boil for 4 – 5 minutes or until they’re floating and the skins are tender. Drizzle a little olive oil over the top, sprinkle with some Parmesan and enjoy!

Tasty little culinary bruises wrapped up and saved for lunch at a later date.

Each potato variety stood up to the stringent challenge of this test. And, really, they tasted quite nice together. Each lent it’s own nice flavor contrast to the others. It worked for me.

Roasted Sweet Potato Salad

3 sweet potatoes, cut into bite size pieces
2 T pomegranate or raspberry vinegar
1T Cuisine Perl’s Late Harvest Riesling vinegar(or other wine vinegar)
1 T honey mustard,
1/4 c light mayo
1 T reduced fat sour cream
salt to taste
chives coarsely sliced
1/2 c walnuts, coarsely chopped
2 – 3 T dried blueberries, chopped

Toss sweet potato bits in olive oil and roast in 450°f oven until they are easily chewable. Allow to cool to a point that they are easy to handle.

Whisk the liquid ingredients together. Add in the liquid mixture into the sweet potatoes until it reaches the consistency you want. Toss in the chives, walnuts and bluberries and serve. Or you can serve this as a cold salad, just let sit in refrigerator for an hour or more and add in optional ingredients and toss again before serving.

Asian & New Jersey Garnet sweet potatoes nestled happily together on my fork before they meet inevitable but tasty doom.

Of course, as an adult, I had to make a dish from my favorite bits, the red cabbage and blue cheese. Then come to find out the thing is actually healthy.
There is some evidence that red cabbage may cut Alzheimer’s risk. Not only that but it may even reduce the risk of certain types of cancer. Pass the slaw, please!

Free Radical Bootie Kickin’ Slaw

1 head red cabbage
1/3 c coconut (or other fruit flavored) vinegar
2 T good quality hot honey mustard
1 T mayonnaise
pinch salt
2oz blue cheese, crumbled

Thinly slice cabbage and set aside in a big bowl. In a small bowl mix together vinegar, mustard, mayonnaise and salt. When thoroughly combined, add in blue cheese crumbles. Pour over cabbage and toss together. Let sit for 15 minutes and toss again. Serve and enjoy in good health!

Toss sweet potato bits in olive oil and roast in 450°f oven until they are easily chewable. Allow to cool to a poin that they are easy to handle.

Whisk the rest of the ingredients together, except the optional ones. When potatoes have cooled add in half the whisked ingredients, and toss. Keep adding in the liquid mixture until it reaches the consistancy you want. You can serve this as a warm or cold sald, if you want it to be cold, let sit in refridgerator for a half hour or more. Just add in optional ingredients and toss again before serving. If you want to serve it warm add in the optional ingredients and serve.