Makeshift Falafel with Donahini Sauce

I omitted this important step in the recipe, Pulse chickpeas in the processor on their own first before adding other ingredients!!! Now back to your regularly scheduled blog entry.

My wife has been soaking chickpeas for three days.
She intended on making a healthy soup to torment me with but it was a busy week for her so it never happened. So what does one do with fermenting chickpeas? Make Falafels!!!
The chickpeas were re-hydrated to the point that they were getting soft. This is exactly what is required for falafels. I found this out just as we were beginning to boil the garbanzos out of them. So I immediately pulled the peas off the fire, drained them and into the processor they went, I had no fresh parsley and trying to get through the entire day without taking off my track pants, I opted for about 2-3 tbsps of dried parsley I had, up until now any homemade falafel I made came from a box so if dried parsley was good enough for me then, it would do now. along with the other ingredients I cobbled together, and then baking them instead of frying (I know, I know, but we ordered in the night before and I think I passed my greasy goodness quota. (BTW, Orderit.ca + Sammy's Eatery = good times)I managed to make a pretty decent tasting Falafel, better the next day if left out for a few hours, the baking doesn't get them as crispy as frying but air drying remedies that.

Online on Saveur magazines site I saw a Tahini sauce which I have had and found just a touch too bitter for my liking. So instead I took a note from the Donair shops on Pizza Corner in Halifax, For their Donairs they use a sweet sauce made of condensed milk and sugar which for those of use you are use to Tahini was gross at first but then became somewhat addictive. So I made a hi-bred Donair-Tahini sauce for us which I dubbed the "Donahini" Sauce.

On a sad note we bought some "Pita Break" multigrain pitas from our local Metro which kinda got me thinking about Falafels in the first place. But alas they were completely mouldy less than a week after buying them. Way to go Metro. So we made due with some toast and salad. But overall very pleased and will do it again as soon as I buy some more parsley and onions and oversoak some more chickpeas.

The Pot Roast Experiment Pt. ll

Success!!!
The brining did embue the meat with a salty, almost pastrami like smell, which isn't a surprise because that is what pastrami is. I then made a makeshift steak rub with very little salt, black pepper, paprika, garlic powder and anise seed for a twist. Then in a roasting pan seared the meat, removed it from the pan, added 2 sliced onions 3 min. added some wine, maybe 1/2 cup to deglaze the pan, then 3 carrots broken into big chunks and quartered sweet potato (next time I'll go with a stronger white potato, this one turned to mush in the cooking. I had some turkey stock I made in the freezer about 2 cups, so I added that and the meat and into the oven it went for three hours, I think I turned the meat every hour and by the end of the time and by the end. Wonderful. I then strained the beautiful cooking liquid and made a gravy by adding it to a roux. Other than the veggies being too mushy for my wife a total success meat and gravywise.

So what do I think of pot roast now? I'm happy with the outcome, generally I think beef should not be braised because it may flavour the sauce but the meat is left bland. The extra step of brining helped immensely and as for cooking beef, I don't do it often and at home, barbeque is my first choice, but I'm happy to have this under my belt and will try this again if I have a hunk of meat and it's not BBQ season, maybe I'll add a touch of liquid smoke to it in the cooking phase and make it in a pie form next time.
I must remember to take photos for my next experiment.

The Pot Roast Experiment

I've never made a pot roast before, Odd? Maybe, but the thought of taking a beautiful piece of meat and slowly boiling it in stock never really appealed to me. But I am committed to clearing out my freezer before spending any more money filling it up again and I happened upon a 2kg pot roast. Now I could have minced it for a pie. I have an abundance of butter that I need to use and thought to make pie shells out of it and a meat pie would work, but I recently made a wonderful Shepard's Pie and minced some lamb shoulder to make it so to desecrate two cuts of meat would just be wrong. So I'll go with the pot roast.
My first strange twist is a brine, I have no idea what this will do to the meat but if it's infused with salt and spicy flavour like my chickens do it should work well. Otherwise I've ruined a good piece of meat. The brine consisted of Water, Salt, Peppercorns, Garlic, Bay Leaf, Allspice, Chilli Flakes, and dried Rosemary. I'm thinking overkill but let's see. I have to wait for a phone guy at home tomorrow so why not do the roast while I work and wait.