Hmm. I’ve made that recipe, and it came out just fine. It was my only time making falefel - maybe I got lucky?
I usually choose chickpea flour for exactly that reason, but TBH the amount of flour is so small it really doesn’t make a difference.
Did a quick comparison with the recipe in Jerusalem, which works well for me. More onion and herbs in the SK version, although the Jerusalem one does have some water, so maybe that’s a wash. And of course the Jerusalem recipe has that tiny amount of flour.
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I agree with you on this one. I liked it, but it seemed to be missing something important. I think I would need to find a new recipe when making something like this again. Seems like a rare miss for her.
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CREAMY TOMATO CHICKPEA MASALA
This is not a ”keeper” for me. I liked it fine, but found it a little boring and I am not sure why. Perhaps it was my expectations. I was hoping that with the cream, it would taste like the rich sauce of a chicken tikka masala, but it didn’t taste like that to me. I made the recipe as written with two exceptions. I used dried chickpeas which I soaked overnight and cooked and I added the garam masala during the last 10 minutes of cooking. Mine seemed a bit watery; the recipe adds 1 1/4 cups of water and perhaps I should have simmered it a bit longer or at a higher temperature to reduce the liquid.
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GREEN ANGEL HAIR WITH GARLIC BUTTER
I also really liked this, with slight adaptations. I did half butter and half olive oil (due to shortage of butter on hand, not any culinary wisdom) and parm over pecorino (again because it’s what we had). The whole family liked it (an unusual win) and has asked for it again - we’ve probably made it three times now.
The first time I used spaghetti and have since switched to cavatappi, mainly for the little eaters’ ease. Adults have added red pepper flakes, as @MelMM suggests.
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May voting is now open!
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I voted for this book so here goes
I chose a cookie recipe as my favorite cookie recipe is Whole Wheat Chocolate Oat cookies from her blog
Oatmeal date shortbread page 223
I didn’t think the final dough would be so dry and crumbly but there is no liquid or egg and it was sand.
Also using a food processor as recommended was a bad idea. It only took a few pulses to pulverize the dates and oatmeal so the dough had no texture left. I decided to add a few tablespoons of booze and it brought it together enough to form logs. The next day, this morning, I sliced and baked 1/2 inch thick cookies for 10 minutes, not 12 to 14 per the recipe. They were pretty but very hard and I would have tossed them but I had a coffee hour commitment so I brought them along with my successful favorites SK WW choc chip. Surprisingly the jaw breakers as I called them were terrific dipped into hot coffee. It was a dreary rainy day and a friend compared them to biscotti. I don’t recommend them… I just got lucky.
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At least they didn’t go to waste. If this recipe had been posted on her blog, you could have read comments to see if others had similar issues.
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Belatedly - I’ve made a riff on the farro with roasted tomatoes, in that I didn’t roast them all the way to dryness but left them pretty juicy. I did it again today but substituting buckwheat for the farro - 1 C dry, cooked in water per package directions. 1 quart cherry tomatoes, roasted for 30min at 425, then added tomatoes with their juices. I threw in a can of drained white beans and a chunk of feta (crumbled), dressed with red wine vinegar, olive oil, s&p, and dried oregano - nothing measured, all to taste. This will be lunches for the week.
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DELI PICKLE POTATO SALAD
Have to agree with MelMM on this one. It was okay to eat but unlikely to make it again.
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CUCUMBER SALAD WITH GARLICKY DILL YOGURT P. 48
Chances are you’ve had something similar to this dish. Mix Greek yogurt, dill, garlic, S&P in a bowl. In another bowl mix cut up Persian cucumbers, red onion, white-wine vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper. Put the yogurt mixture on a plate and top with the cucumber mixture. I used too large of a garlic clove in mine and will adjust in the future. Needed some good flat bread to eat with it. Will definitely be making this again.
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That’s a cute bowl & the salad looks good in it.
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SNOW PEAS WITH PECORINO AND WALNUTS (pg 45)
This was a pretty easy salad - thinly slice a half-pound of snow peas, and toss with a dressing made of olive oil, white wine vinegar, s&p, and pecorino, plus toasted walnuts. I liked the flavors but would probably decrease the olive oil next time and increase the vinegar. My peapods were a little starchy and I wonder if maybe the dish would work better with them slightly steamed or blanched.
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Sounds like it’d work well with snap peas, which tend to be sweeter and crisper than snow peas.
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Agree with the suggestion of sugar snap peas!
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I agree with the snap pea taste, and I’ll admit that’s what I was envisioning. But it might be harder to stack them and slice thinly!
True, but thanks to their texture, they’d probably work sliced thicker on the bias.
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Find the May book here:
“RUSSIAN” BLT p. 174
I like BLTs and they sounded appealing to my finicky stomach so this recipe went onto the list. You quick pickle the iceberg lettuce with white vinegar, water, a garlic clove, sugar, salt, and fresh dill. (I used dried because the fresh was a rotten mush in the fridge) The idea of pickling the lettuce comes from Deb’s Russian MIL so there’s one aspect of the title.
The second Russian part is the homemade Russian dressing. It is pretty standard–mayo, ketchup, relish, lemon juice, kosher salt, and a dash of hot sauce.
You assemble the components on toasted bread and voila–your “Russian” BLT. It was a good sandwich. The pickled iceberg had a milder flavor than I was expecting. I’m sure the fact that I used dried dill was part of it. If I made this again I’d be sure to use fresh dill and more white vinegar than is called for. I’d also let it sit for longer than the 30 minutes called for.
I’m not in a huge rush to make this again but that’s really more because BLTs are the kind of thing I get in a diner and not something I make at home regularly. Like I said I would make tweaks to the pickled iceberg to see if I could improve the flavor there. I’m sure I will make this again eventually. I don’t have any complaints but nor do I have a huge rave about it.
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PERFECT MEATBALLS AND SPAGHETTI pg 209
The “twist” here seems to be that the meatballs are big and baked. Well, the latter wasn’t particularly novel as I prefer to bake meatballs rather than pan-fry them. And bigger is not always better - I found the meatball mix to be too loose to make well-shaped balls, and they oozed a bit as they baked. (To be fair, gluten-free panko is terrible. But I don’t think the recipe needed 2 eggs and [essentially] a panade for 1 lb meat.) The tween liked the meatballs, I thought they were fine but not better than the meatballs I usually make. And the sauce was runny - no way was I going to thin it out with pasta water! Not a keeper for us.
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