Yom Haatzmaut (Israeli Independence Day) falls this year from sundown on
Monday the 13 of May 2024 and ends sundown on Tuesday the 14th of May 2024.
In Israel the smell of barbecues abounds from people's gardens, in the countryside or on the beach. The traffic gets quite congested as people are moving around to visit family and friends and go for hikes or relax by the sea I always got into the habit with my friend Hannah, of getting up really early and going wherever we wanted to go with her children, before we spent the day in a traffic jam! If we were going to the beach, we would arrived there at 5:00 AM and have breakfast an early swim and return against the traffic by lunchtime to barbecue On her patio! We would do the same if we were going for a walk in the countryside or whatever activities we had chosen to mark the day.
Here in the UK, there is no guarantee that we will have good enough
weather for a BBQ therefore I've decided to give you some recipes for homemade
falafels, pita bread, to be served with an Israeli salad, tahina, and humas.
Homemade Pita Bread
Homemade pizza bread is so much easier than you would imagine, it
doesn't require needing and it is not complicated once you've made it a couple
of times you probably will never go back to store bought Pitta bread
Ingredients -Makes 8 pitta bread
2 teaspoons fast action dried yeast
500 grammes strong white bread flour you can use wholemeal but it's not
traditional, you will also need a little for dusting the counter.
2 teaspoons good quality salt
one tablespoon of olive oil
300 millimetres of warm water (blood temperature)
Method
Put the warm water in a large mixing bowl, add the yeast stir it then
leave it to sit for about 5 minutes preferably in a warm place, the years to
become bubbly, mix the flour salt and olive oil into the yeast mixture I bring
together into a soft dough.
Lightly flour your work surface, and turn the dough onto it and kneed,
for approximately 5 minutes alternatively if you have a mixer with a dough hook,
mix it with a dough hook for 3:00 to 4:00 minutes using as little extra flour
as possible just enough food so does not stick to the board or to the bowl. The
more flour you add the heavier the pita bread! Once you have kneaded let's go
place it into a large bowl that's lightly oiled cover it without cling film or
a tea towel and leave it till it's doubled in size this is about 40 minutes to
an hour.
After the dough has risen, pre heat the oven 250 C 230 c fan oven Gas
mark 9.
Place your baking tray in the middle of the oven until it's incredibly
hot.
While the baking tray is heating, divide your dough into 8 balls and
flatten each with the palm of your hand till it's slightly oval, they should be
approximately 20 centimetres long 15 centimetres wide and 3 centimetres high.
Using oven gloves carefully remove the hot air trade from the oven
unlikely just the tray with flour, put half the pittas, onto the tray place it
back into the oven and bake for 4:00 to 5:00 minutes, until the Peters have
puffed up on a kind of pale colour. If I'm cooking the Pittas in batches, I wrap
the cooked ones in a clean tea towel until all of them I've cooked to keep them
warm and fresh.
Let them slightly cool, slice into the top, and then fill the pizza
bread with hummus salad, tahina and homemade falafels enjoy!
Homemade falafels
Making falafels is much
easier than you think this recipe makes 4 servings, enough for 8 Pitta, but you
can double it if you have a large crowd coming
Ingredients
2x 400 g tins of chickpeas
drained and rinsed. (Don't throw away the juice from the chickpeas put it in an
airtight jaw in your fridge it is really useful for vegan baking more about
that next time)
The juice of 1 lemon
one tablespoon of tahina
paste
1 cup of coriander or
parsley finely chopped
two cloves of garlic
peeled
a teaspoon of salt
a teaspoon of ground cumin
half a teaspoon of sea
salt.
If you like things spicy
add A teaspoon of Harissa paste.
Vegetable oil for frying
Method
Place the chickpeas lemon
juice and tahina in a food processor and blitz still nearly smooth, then add
the rest of the ingredients continue the process until all mixed in.
Slightly wet your hands a
make tea spoon size balls of the mixture.
Heat the oil in a pan, you
can use a deep flat fryer, or a saucepan, with at least enough oil to cover the
falafels all over.
Fry the falafels at a
medium heat turning them half way through when they are becoming golden brown
so that you have an even colour all round.
Remove the falafels from
the oil with a slotted spoon carefully and put them on kitchen paper to drain
serve warm or room temperature
Tahini
Ingredients
two cloves of garlic Peeled
and chopped
3/4 of a teaspoon sea salt
3/4 of a cup of tahini
paste
the juice of 1 lemon
between 1/4 to 1/2 a cup
of cold water
optional half of cup of
freshly chopped flat leaf parsley leaves.
Method- you can use a food processor or a hand blender to
do this I use either method depending on the quantity.
Place the tahina, garlic,
salt lemon juice, and half the water into the food processor, and blitz, adding
more water until it isn't the consistency that you like, then at the parsley,
blitz again until it is smooth. The first time you make tahini you might notice
that the more water you add the thicker it becomes continue doing this till the
mixture is very pale and then you can make it thinner. (Hint if you make your
tahina before you make your hummus it's you can make your hummus in the same
food processor and the residue tahina would add flavour to your hummus)
Quick Hummus – (once you have made your own hummus unrealized how simple it is you might never be tempted to buy shop bought hummus which is full of additives and really unnecessary things ever again! This literally takes 2 minutes)
ingredients
1400 G can of chickpeas
drained and rinsed under cold water
3 cloves of garlic peeled
one tablespoon of tahini
paste
the juice of 1 lemon
half a teaspoon of sea
salt
3 tablespoons olive oil
one teaspoon cold water
Method
Place all the ingredients
in your food processor cover and blitz until smooth, you can add a little bit
of water to fill it out is necessary and blitz again. Put in a bowl drizzle
with olive oil zaatar or paprika. Then add to the bottom of the Pitta pocket,
you will have plenty left to snack on!
Israeli salad- the main salad seen all over Israel, and served in every Israeli home, I marvel at the neatness of the vegetables, and the speed Israeli’s can chop this!
Ingredients
3 medium size tomatoes
one small or half an
English cucumber peeled.
one red pepper
4 tablespoons a finely
chopped flat leaf parsley.
one tablespoon of finely
chopped mint
the juice from 1 lemon
3 tablespoons of good
quality extra virgin olive oil
half a teaspoon of sea
salt
Method
Wash all the vegetables in
cold water and let them drain,
Chop all the vegetables,
into small pieces about one centimetre cube or less, it's my personal
preference to peel the cucumber but you can leave the peel on
Place all the ingredients
in a bowl making sure that you add the juice from the tomatoes they not really
make when being chopped, add the parsley and mint, olive oil, lemon juice, and
salt, gently mix them together and allow them to sit at room temperature for
about 15 minutes before serving.
Building your falafel inside
the Pitta.
traditionally after
cutting the top of the pitta bread, and making a pocket, the hummus goes at the
base, followed by Israeli salad that is served with a slotted spoon so that the
dressing doesn't soak the pitta, add your falafels, and then the Tahina, you
can if you want add hot sauce or a pickled chilli on top.
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