falafel

It never occurred to me to make falafel until I dated Drew. In fact, I'm not sure I had even heard of falafel, but it is something you become well acquainted with when you are a vegetarian or you date one. We're tried various recipes, mostly from the Food Network, and they are virtually indistinguishable (the link is to the one we used this time).

Falafel is very easy to make (but that's not why Drew was in charge of it) because you can process all the ingredients in the food processor. Glancing at the recipe, I know that Drew omitted the cilantro (he's not a fan) and the parsley (I'm not a fan). I know he included the garlic, scallions, coriander, cumin, cayenne, and lemon, but knowing Drew, it is highly probable that he played around and added some other seasonings and knowing me, I wasn't paying any attention.

We used to deep fry the falafel, but lately we've been baking it instead (inspired by a friend who bakes hers in muffin tins). I refuse to fry anything because 1) ) deep frying is very unhealthy, and 2) I'm too lazy to do it. And so Drew knows that if he wants something fried, he has to do it. I must be rubbing off on him because he decided to bake the falafel (and then finish it off with a pan fry, minimal oil) and I didn't even have to persuade him to do it.

I made the sweet potato wedges, which consists of olive oil, Tony Chachere's creole seasoning (I know, I know, the sodium level is through the roof, so I go easy on it), and cayenne pepper. I baked them, but my wedges were kind of soggy. I think the trick must be to par-boil the potatoes first, but that's just one step too many for me. Really, the trick is probably to deep fry the wedges, but that's not happening given my reasons above.