Ta'ameya

Fava beans and not chickpeas, which is why the inside is bright green rather than pale.

Vegan.

Ingredients

the mixture

• 400 g dried split skinless fava beans, soaked 18 hours
• 1 onion, roughly chopped
• 6 cloves garlic
• a very large bunch of coriander
• a large bunch of dill
• a large bunch of flat parsley
• 4 spring onions
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 3 tablespoons sesame seeds

to fry

• 1.5 litres sunflower oil

to serve

• flatbread, tahini sauce, pickles, tomato

Method

1. IT IS FAVA BEANS AND NOT CHICKPEAS, WHICH IS WHY THE INSIDE IS BRIGHT GREEN RATHER THAN PALE. That is the whole difference from the chickpea fritter this site already has, and it runs deeper than the bean: fava has a softer starch, so the mixture is smoother and the fried fritter is creamy inside rather than crumbly, and it carries far more herb. The green comes from both -- the bean is pale green to begin with, and the quantity of coriander, dill and parsley that fava will hold without falling apart is much larger than a chickpea mixture tolerates. Cut one open and it should be the colour of a pea.
2. THE BEANS ARE SOAKED RAW AND NEVER COOKED BEFORE GRINDING. Eighteen hours, then drained and dried. This is the same unbreakable rule as for the chickpea version: the raw starch is what binds the mixture and sets in the fryer. Cooked or tinned beans give a wet paste that needs flour to hold and either disintegrates in the oil or fries dense.
3. SPLIT SKINLESS FAVA BEANS, NOT WHOLE ONES. The pale yellow-green split kind. Whole fava have tough dark skins that will not grind out and leave the mixture flecked and slightly bitter.
4. THE HERBS ARE AN ABSURD QUANTITY AND THAT IS CORRECT. Three large bunches plus spring onions against four hundred grams of beans. By volume the raw herbs look like more than the beans. This is what makes it taste like itself, and a cautious handful produces something beige and ordinary.
5. THE MIXTURE IS GROUND TWICE AND IS SMOOTHER THAN A CHICKPEA ONE. Through a mincer twice, or processed in bursts until it is a damp paste that holds a fingerprint -- finer than the damp-couscous texture a chickpea mixture wants. Fava can take it without going gluey.
6. THE BICARBONATE GOES IN AT THE LAST MOMENT AND THE SESAME ON THE OUTSIDE. A teaspoon stirred through immediately before frying, because it spends itself in half an hour. The sesame is pressed onto the shaped patties rather than mixed in, so it toasts on the surface.
7. THEY ARE SHAPED FLAT, NOT ROUND, AND FRIED AT 170°C. Discs about a centimetre and a half thick. Flat gives more crust and cooks through faster -- and a ball of this wetter mixture is more likely to break up. Deep-fried submerged, three to four minutes.
8. A TEST ONE GOES IN FIRST, ALWAYS. One disc before shaping the rest. If it breaks up, the mixture wants another pass through the mincer or twenty minutes in the fridge.
9. The beans SOAKED 18 HOURS, then DRAINED and spread to dry.
10. The onion, garlic, all the herbs and spring onions minced with the RAW beans.
11. Put through the mincer a SECOND time, or processed to a damp paste that HOLDS A FINGERPRINT.
12. The cumin, ground coriander and salt mixed through. Chilled 1 HOUR.
13. The oil heated to 170°C.
14. The bicarbonate stirred through AT THE LAST MOMENT.
15. ONE TEST DISC fried first.
16. The rest shaped into FLAT discs about 1.5 cm and pressed on both sides into the sesame seeds.
17. DEEP-FRIED SUBMERGED, a few at a time, 3 to 4 MINUTES until deep brown.
18. TESTED: broken open, the inside should be BRIGHT GREEN and creamy. Beige or crumbly means too few herbs, or chickpeas.
19. Eaten at once in flatbread with tahini sauce and pickles.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Egypt · All recipes