While I was at Walmart yesterday, I found three boxes that made me decide to end my quest for Lebanese ingredients out west. No grocer here seems to know what tahini is!
tabouleh, falafel, and hummus mixes
It felt sacrilegious to buy these, but I was getting desperate! Greek-style falafel doesn’t do much for me!
I made up the hummus and tabouleh first and let them sit for a bit.
hummus and tabouleh (with added tomatoes)
The first taste of both left me relieved. The hummus is flavourful and smooth. The tabouleh is a bit more ‘parsleyish’ than I like, needing some fresh mint, but for a box mix I am quite impressed!
I then mixed up the falafel mix, which would have to sit for ten minutes:
very damp falafel mix
While that sat for a bit, I cut up my mystery fruit. I was right, it’s a melon! It tastes like a canary melon and I’m wondering if this is a miniature version of one. It is VERY sweet.
mystery fruit is a melon!
The falafel mix was getting thicker, but not quite ready yet:
falafel mix getting thicker
Pita offerings are slim out west, but these Greek pitas appeared to be anything but and I took a chance on them:
not-so-Greek pitas
They were stale, of course, so I nuked one for a few seconds with a damp paper towel over top. Took it out and investigated. Sure enough, this was a thin, pocket-style pita, not a thick, pocket-less Greek-style pita. Yay!
stale pocket pita is better than no pita!
I then heated up some oil and while that was going, I dressed up my pita:
a layer of hummus
a layer of tabouleh
Time to check if the oil was hot enough:
that sizzle tells me to get those patties in there!
I don’t have a falafel baller, so I just rolled balls in my hands and lightly flattened them. One minute of frying on each side and voila!
that actually looks like falafel!
Add three falafel patties and the sandwich is done:
The falafel mix was excellent! I could zazoom it up with some toasted sesame seeds next time, and it was definitely missing a drizzle of tahini, but for a lunch at home from three boxes I am very satisfied!
And, yes, I will be eating the leftovers for the next few days. I have no problem with that. 🙂
While I’m no expert on middle eastern cooking, one of my local grocers in Los Angeles offers ten or so different types/brands of pitas, and even more of lavish. So if you ever make it this far south, you may want to look for the “Super King” mini-chain of markets.
PS: I prefer the comment button after the article so I don’t have to scroll up to the top of an article after reading it. Other comments on your new blog format defered until I’ve played with it more.
I’m not surprised that LA would have an abundance of middle eastern food. But the northwest sure was lacking!
As for comments, as I replied to Linda, to change that I would have to go with a whole other layout.
Mmm, roasted red pepper hummus is my FAVORITE!!! If you don’t think there’d be a problem with customs I’ll send you some Tahini next time I go into the city, they have great ethnic groceries here. I’ve gotten lazy, Aldi’s carries roasted red pepper hummus for less than I can buy the ingredients for so I haven’t made it from scratch since they came to town 🙂
Rachel, I’m a purist when it comes to hummus, but I have to say I won’t turned down the roasted red pepper kind. 🙂
I bet that tahini would come through customs okay. I have tenants from Asia who get food packages all the time. What a generous offer, thank you!
Cool! I added it to my shopping list…not sure when I’ll get into the city but I usually go once a month or so 🙂
Oh, wow, that would be awesome. Thank you! 🙂 Could I be so bold and for a small quantity of of za’atar, too? It’s a Middle Eastern spice blend, so any ethnic shop that sells tahini would have it. I would of course pay! I am sitting here salivating. 😀
Absolutely! Sorry it took me so long to reply, I only have sporadic internet right now. I’ve never heard of za’atar but I’m sure I can find it, my city has a ton of ethnic shops 🙂 If you think of any other spices zip me an e-mail, they weigh so little I can pack in some others without jacking up the postage 🙂 I was planning to go in this Friday but just found out I’ll be babysitting a sweet little girl instead so I’ll have to postpone my trip until next week.
Any decent ethnic place that has tahini should have za’atar. It’s a Middle Eastern condiment made from the dried herbs, sesame seeds, dried sumac, and often salt, as well as other spices. I bet it’s not cheap, so please send an invoice. 🙂 Thanks!
Got it! Actually, I got it two weeks ago but I haven’t had internet access to contact you, sorry!
I found the za’atar in the bulk spice section and I had no idea how much you’d need so I hope I got enough, I tried to eye-ball a spice-jar size 🙂 The tahini came in several brands and formulations (kosher, etc), I used the ask-a-toddler method of choosing, they preferred the package with the funny orange man 🙂
I assume you can see my e-mail address when I post? Zip me an e-mail with your mailing address and I’ll get this down to the post office asap. Last time I sent something to Canada it took almost two months to get there, hopefully this won’t take that long but consider it a Christmas gift at any rate 🙂
All I can make out as I salivate is thank you!!!!
(and I love the idea of the funny orange man since orange is my signature colour 😉 )