Sara In Akko

Don't let the pictures, or my husband's commentary, fool you. This was either the most ingenious use of DIY resourcefulness or a total fast food impostor recipe abomination. I lean towards best at-home lunch ever!

Although I live in a city bursting full of kosher schwarma shops that line the main street, there are precious few places that sell falafel.  Why is that you ask? I honestly have no idea.

If you live somewhere with a great discrepancy between available schwarma to falafel or just want to know the easiest way to make your own (healthier) falafel and also fix up your pita like a genuine street food experience in your home, this tutorial is for you.


 Super Amazing Falafel DIY Impostor Recipe

Step 1). The easiest way to get genuine falafel is to purchase a ready made powder which you can purchase here or if you're adventuresome you could grind your own chickpeas (garbanzo beans) and mix in spices like these found here. Both options will produce falafel and it all depends on your personal preference. Although I have ready mix waiting in my home (usually due to the family Etsy shop) I like doing things the long and tedious way (grinding beans and adding fresh spice).

Step 2). If you happen to keep a deep fryer around the house, you can toss in the tiny balls of mush chickpea mix till browned. If you are like me and terrified by the thought of cooking with vats of oil, it's time for the oven. This is where my husband and I disagree because I find no reason falafel needs to be a burning hot ball of grease whereas he absolutely believes this is exactly what falafel should be.


Step 3). Cut your pita in half, throw it in the over for just a minute to help it open up a bit if it is giving you trouble.

Step 4). Cut up your essential pita stuffers. At a genuine falafel street vendor you'd find a wide variety of salads and pickles but luckily I enjoy a simple palate of pickles, onions, Yemeni spice and humous (oddly enough, also ground chickpeas... there is a bit of redundancy in available ingredients throughout the Middle East).  


If it's fresh and a vegetable it also belongs in a pita. Middle Eastern fast food is not really as detrimental to your health as the American variety (minus the flaming balls of fried grease).


This is some serious humous. In Hebrew it's just called "spicey" and is found at our local grocer.

Viola! Everything a genuine falafel should be; a mix of texture, extreme spice and stomach soothing fresh veggies. Not too healthy but not a heart attack in a bun. I highly recommend giving this a try at home.

It inspired comments like "Best. Cake. Ever!" and  "Wow!" and my personal favorite "Will you be my Mommy?" Now that's validation for the day of work you took off to bake a cake for a toddler.

Although it may seem simple enough, I admit I googled through a dozen or so blogs to see the variations on rainbow cake just to give me the start-up courage. In keeping with the birthday spirit, I want to share with you the straight forward how-to of this cake (it's a monster but worthwhile). But onto the How-to.


How To Bake your own Huge Rainbow Cake


2). Break out the gel food coloring. You really want your colors to be vibrant now before you bake (some colors may dull out a bit in the oven).


3). Pour and bake each batter in separate aluminum pie tins, unless you have 6 or so cake pans lying around your kitchen. These make slightly thinner layers than a normal batch of layer cake (1/3 batter vs 1/2) so watch carefully. 


 4). Take random pictures of your kitchen until your cakes are baked and cooled entirely. Again, if you are smart you will level out the layers of your cake that have puffed during baking before using your store bought frosting to layer and crumb-coat the ginormous cake tower.  If you're a renegade like me, you will throw caution to the wind and begin stacking your puffy cakes with homemade buttercream and hope the shear weight of the piled cakes will hold it upright.


5). If you're looking to go all the way with this cake (come on, you know you want to) cover in fondant and create 6 balls of gum-paste to match the colors of the inside of your cake and decorate in an outside ring. If not, decorate as you please.


 But cut one of these babies open at your party and wow! Even when you see it open for the first time, it's impressive and worth all the tiny steps.


6). Cut yourself and your party-goers a slice with a very large and very sharp knife (keeps the colors tidy) and enjoy!



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Again the sudden urge for something that does not exist in my immediate area, the illusive Chinese Take-out in Israel. Sure, there are some imitations in larger cities that mostly showcase the local perversion of classic Chinese flavor, Akko is not a large city and I'd like something not doused in Thai Chili sauce and passed off as "Szechuan Beef."

But then there are those days when I think, "Why can't we make Arby's Curly Fries at home?" Or "How hard could it be to make Salsa Verde?"

The fries aren't actually very difficult to replicate with some simple spices we keep in the house, but as luck would have it the tomatillo is entirely inaccessible in the Middle East. *Tomatillo is a husked, sour, green, tomato like vegetable and it is the base for Salsa Verde.

When my 4 year old was hinting for a baking project the other day, I knew it was time to try something different. The impostor recipe for Aunt Annie's pretzels that I had come across seemed too promising to pass up.

The recipes can be found all over the web but they more or less all seem about the same. Here's what I used.

After I threw the yeast and sugar to proof in a bowl I walked away for a minute and by the time I returned to the kitchen, I knew this recipe was absolute gold. The brown sugar must be the secret because my entire kitchen smelled like Aunt Annie's Pretzels.

Not that I want my kitchen to smell like a mall foodcourt, but in this case it was a good sign.

Although the recipe I followed was rated a 4 out of 5 in difficulty, it seemed pretty straight forward and the soda/water bath before baking really made the difference in the pretzel texture.

My kids like Za'atar, lots of it on everything. So while the kids and spouse devoured their homemade mall style pretzels with a distinctly Israeli twist, I quietly made mine cinnamon and sugar and enjoyed the few minutes of peace in my kitchen.

This is a Curly Fry impostor recipe that I've used on everything from tiny potato wedges to sweet potato slices... it may not be exactly like those greasy deep-fried calorie explosions, but does make for a great quick way to spice up the nightly side-dish. If it just isn't the same without the long potato curls... here's the thingy that curls fries for you.