Tamiya (Falafel)

This is an oriental dish, I like it so much and it's so easy to do it – even though here in Egypt we can just buy it from a fast food, it's always fresh. Or, if we really insist on doing it at home, we can just buy the mix and fry it home. But I prefer doing it by myself, I know the way I'm doing it..

In Egypt, it has 2 names – in Cairo they call it Tamiya and in North, in Alexandria, they call it Falafel. In Europe it is well knows as Falafel, but I am used to call it Tamiya, so I will call it like that whenever I will refer to it.

Ingredients:

-1/2 kg chickpeas

-2 medium onions

-5-6 cloves garlic, crushed

-2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped

-1 teaspoon coriander

-1 teaspoon cumin

-2 tablespoons flour

-salt, black pepper

-1 egg

-sesame (optional)

I.We put the chickpeas in a bowl and we cover it with water. We leave it like this over the night

II.Mix the chopped onions, garlic, the finely chopped parsley, coriander, cumin, salt and black pepper all together, then add the egg and flour and combine them all.

III.Mash chickpeas or put them in a food processor together with the paste we've made before from all the other ingredients. You can do this 2 times, so the result will be a thick green paste

IV.When the paste is ready, we make little balls, maybe flatten a little bit and we put them in hot oil to be fried.

If we like sesame, after we make the balls we just put some sesame seeds on the surface of the balls and then we fry them.  

We can serve Tamiya with fried potatoes, garlic sauce, tahina or just with egiptian bread (pita) and tea. Or, as we eat it in Europe, we can make sandwiches.

Enjoy it!

Ingrediente:

-1/2 kg boabe de naut

-2 cepe medii

-5-6 graunti de usturoi, pisati

-2 linguri de patrunjel proaspat tocat (o legatura graosa de patrunjel proaspat)

-1 lingurita de coriandru

-1 lingurita de chimion

-2 linguri de faina

-sare, piper

-1 ou

-susan (optional)

I.Punem boabele de naut in apa si acoperim castronul; le lasam pana a doua zi

II.Amestecam cepele tocate marunt cu patrunjelul tocat marunt, usturoi, coriandru, chimion, sare si piper apoi adaugam oul si faina si amestecam foarte bine.

III.Boabele de naut le dam prim masina de tocat, apoi adaugam pasta facuta anterior din celelalte ingrediente. Le dam pe toate prin masina de doua ori si obtinem o pasta verde foarte fina, dar groasa.

IV.Cand pasta este gata, face bilute, poate le si presam putin cu mana si le punem la prajit in ulei incins.

Daca ne place susanul, dupa ce facem bilutele din pasta pe care o avem, putem sa presaram cateva seminte de susan peste, avand un gust bun si aspect frumos, dupa care punem la prajit. 

Putem servi Tamiya cu sos de usturoi, cartofi prajiti, sos tahina sau doar cu lipie si ceai. Ori, cum mancam noi in Europa, putem sa facem sandwich.

Pofta buna!