# Ful & Taameya, beans & Egyptian Falafel !!



## chahira (Jul 12, 2009)

I am back with my ful & Taameya. I promised before that I'll share the recipes with you. Sorry for being late but I had a lot of work to do. First talking about Ful Medames "Ful medammas also Foul Medammas (Arabic: فول مدمس fūl mudammas) is popular in Egypt , often eaten at breakfast. It consists of brown fava beans, partially or completely mashed, which are slow-cooked and served with olive oil, chopped parsley, onion, garlic, and lemon juice. Ful medames is typically eaten with Egyptian bread ('eish masri).'egyptian pocket bread or flat bread" Though originally a peasant food, ful medames has long been part of the daily Egyptian diet. Some have described it as being "like a stone in the stomach". This has led to it being consumed by many in the Middle East in the early morning meal to prepare for a day of fasting during Ramadan. The dish's name derives from the Egyptian language: ful is the Egyptian word for fava beans, and medames is a Coptic word meaning "buried." The second word hints at the original cooking method, which involved burying a sealed pot of water and beans under hot coals." Thanks to wikipedia )) So today I am going to tell you how we cook ful from scratch. Ingredients:- 200gr. Fava beans "the best quality has a lighter color" 50 gr. Of chickpeas "it is not in the original recipe but sometimes I add chickpeas for change, the original recipe contains just fava beans". 50 gr of yellow lentill 50 gr. of wheat seeds A half of small lemon. 

 First wash all these seeds very well then cover it with water for 2- 4 hours. Rinse it again and put it in a pan we use a special pot, it is like a jar, we call it "damassah" The capacity of our pot is 3 litres. Put the seeds and fill the pot with water till the top just leave 1 cm without water. Put it on the stove till boiling then tranfer it on a heater like this one, a lot of people use the stove by putting the ful pot on the smallest and weakest flame, but this heater gives wonderful results because we will leave ful for 7 or 8 hours on the this weak heat. After this period take some with a spoon and test it , if it is done squeeze a half of lemon and pour your ful in a container so after being cooled you should put it in the refrigerator and it can be freezed very well too. If you test it and you find that fava beans still firm and there is no enough liquid in your pot add water but it has to be very hot, just to keep the lovely light color of beans.and let it more time on the heater or on the stove. you'll find all the pics in my blog. 

 It is time now to talk about falafel , in egypt we call it taameya more than falafel it is a little bit different than the lebanese & the syrian one, we use more green herbs and we use just fava beans to make it. Fo me I use to make it with fava beans but sometimes as a change I mix with my fava some chickpeas. "Falafel is a fried ball or patty made from fava beans. Originally from Egypt,[1] falafel is a popular form of fast food in the Middle East, where it is also served as a mezze. Falafel is usually served in a pita-like bread, either inside the bread, which acts as a pocket, or wrapped in a flat bread. In many countries falafel is a popular street food or fast food. The falafel balls, whole or crushed, may be topped with salads, pickled vegetables and hot sauce, and drizzled with tahini-based sauces. Falafel balls may also be eaten alone as a snack or served as part of a mezze. During Ramadan, they are sometimes eaten as part of an iftar, the meal which breaks the daily fast after sunset." o.k thanks again to wikipedia. The ingredients;- 250 gr.skinless and crushed fava beans. Sometimes I put 125 chickpeas and 125 fava beans, but the egyptian original one does not contain chichpeas at all. 1 big onion 2 garlic cloves 125 of green herbs " leeks ,parsley, coriander, and dill Salt & pepper cumin and dried coriander. Wash the beans and rinse it then cover it well with water for 6 hours, if you are using chickpeas you will leave it for 12 hours. Rinse it and strain it very well then add to it the onions and the garlic and the fresh herbs "washed and cut to be ready to go to the food processor" you will mix all and put it in the food processor , it will take from you some time to be a real paste. You can add to it the salt, pepper , cumin and dried coriander or you can wait till you will start to fry it, I usually freeze all the quantity after dividing it into portions. To fry it , we need 250 gr of falafel paste and 1 big egg beat the egg with a fork and gradually add you falafel paste , add 1 tsp of sodium bicarbonate and continue to beat it for 2 mn. Add your salt , pepper , cumin and dried coriander. A pic for the whole meal. 

 please check my blog to watch all the pics, I could not put it all in two places, forgive me !! Start to fry it, I made a videoooo, yes I did it for the first time in my life , my husband and me, were struggling two days to make it, but finally we did it , it is horrible but I hope that it really helps. You can watch it now on youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ieAhoOakoI but please no laugh we are the worst editors in the world, next time would be better ) Thanks to all of you, this forum is really nice !!
Chahira Daoud 

http://www.chahiraelkhabira.blogspot.com/


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