Feeding Friendship: Pecan Crusted Trout

Sarah's choice of nuts of nuts for this round posed a problem that I often run into with Feeding Friendship - too many choices!  I have nutty recipes for every course - beet, goat cheese, and pine nut salad; peanut soup; walnut bread; hazelnut-chocolate crepes - but in the end I decided to dig into my enormous pile of recipes torn from magazines to make pecan-crusted trout.  I had a recipe, but ended up mostly using it as a suggestion (I have issues with authority) and simply salted and peppered my trout fillets before dipping them the non-skin side in succession into (1) flour, (2) yogurt thinned with milk to replicate buttermilk, and (3) a mixture of a 1/4 cup of finely chopped pecans and 1/4 cup of panko bread crumbs.  Cook the trout 4 minutes per side over medium high and serve with a squeeze of lemon. The combination of rich fish and oily nuts makes the dish deeply satisfying with the crunch provided by the panko and nuts offering up a nice contrast to the soft fish.

This was a Sunday night meat and two vegetable sort of meal (an unusual occurrence at our house where I like to shove my protein, vegetables, and carbs into a single dish).  Spring time means peas for me so I simply blanched them and then tossed them with butter, salt, pepper, and lemon zest.  Another easy side - perfect roasted potatoes.  Have I told you about these before?  My friend Summer taught me this rather obsessive method for cooking potatoes.  Toss quartered red potatoes with olive oil, salt, and pepper and then line them up, all facing the same way with one cut side down.  Roast for 10 minutes at 450 degrees.  Flip each potato over so that the other cut side is down. Roast 10 more minutes and toss with whatever fresh herbs you have on hand.  I promise, these will be the most perfectly crisp roasted potatoes you have ever had and they really aren't THAT much more effort.  Perfect potatoes - because I'm worth it.

Feeding Friendship: Chard, Sweet Potato and Black Bean Pizza

I was so very excited to see that Veronica's pick for this round of Feeding Friendship was pizza.  We've always made homemade pizza fairly frequently (In fact, I made Pizza Bianca with Balsamic Caramelized Onions for a previous round of Feeding Friendship and have shared pictures of my Kale, Pancetta, and Grape Pizza and  Turkey Pepperoni and Black Olive Pizza as part of my Photo365 project) and over the past several months we have settled into a Friday night pizza and Netflix routine.  I am not a cook who has a go-to list of recipes that I make week in and week out.  In fact, the vast majority of recipes I make - even ones I like - never get made again.  Yet, Geoff and I are both happy to have pizza every week - with unlimited topping options, we never get board.

I've tried a number of different crust recipes, sticking with one until I find something better or easier.  I prefer a thinnish crust - not paper thin, mind you - but I still want it to have some flavor.  The best (in my opinion) way to get flavor into pizza dough is a nice long ferment.  You can get your dough to rise quickly with more yeast and a warm environment, but the flavor just isn't as good.  This long rising time seems like a drawback, but actually it means that you can make your dough in the morning before you leave for work, or even the night before.

This recipe is super quick because it is no-knead - just stir, cover, and leave it for 12 hours or so.  It's been my experience that the wetter the the dough, the more of those great bubbles you get in the crust, so I tend to make sure that this dough is on the wet side when mixed together because as the flour absorbs the water, it will tighten up a bit.  It is still pretty loose when I start to work with it, but I just put down a good amount of flour and it's fine.  I like to work directly on a sheet of parchment so that if the dough sticks, it's not a problem - the whole thing goes in the oven and the bottom browns nicely.

The inspiration for this pizza started with a pizza I liked from the local pizza place in State College.  It was a simple combination of just mashed spice black beans and mozzarella cheese that was served with salsa and sour cream on the side for dipping or smearing.  I decided to pile some more stuff on top, because I can.  I like black beans with sweet potatoes and chard as an enchilada filling and I came across a similar combo at Foodie Bride with the addition of goat cheese.  It was a winner!  The dough recipe makes enough for two pizzas and the extra crust can be rolled out, cooked for about 2 minutes and then frozen.  It should be thawed before being topped and cooked.

If you are in the mood for something different, Holly and I made this Easter Egg pizza last weekend featuring garlic oil, cheese, mushroom walls and eggs cooked right on the pizza for the last 3 minutes.  Let me hear your favorite pizza combos in the comments - I'm always looking for new toppings.

Kale, Sweet Potato, and Black Bean Pizza
Serves 4

For the Dough:
2 cups bread flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp. active dry yeast
2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cups water

For the Pizza:
1 sweet potato, cubed and roasted
1 bunch swiss chard, sliced
4 oz goat cheese
1/2 yellow onion, thinly sliced
1 can Goya black beans in sauce
1 tbsp. olive oil

1.  Ten to 12 hours before dinner, combine all bread dough ingredients in a large bowl.  The dough will be very loose, this is good. Cover with a tea towel and allow to rise at room temperature.
2. Preheat oven to 500 with pizza stone on lowest rack for about 30 minutes before cooking pizza.
3. Cook down and mash black beans until they form a thick paste.
4. Saute onion in olive oil until translucent, then add chard and cook just until slightly wilted.
5. Split the dough in two and roll out with plenty of flour.  Cook each crust about 2 minutes before topping one with the black beans (otherwise you can't spread them easily on the soft dough).
6. Top with chard, sweet potato, and goat cheese.  Bake an additional 8-10 minutes or until bottom crust is brown.  Enjoy!

Feeding Friendship: Mussels Steamed in Beer

Sometimes when the feeding friendship ingredient is revealed, I spend a day or two thinking about what I want to make and researching options on the internet.  But more often than not, an idea comes to me right away and I just go with it, for better or for worse.  My local grocery store has been hawking their mussels for the past several weeks and each week I've stopped, admired, and then walked away.  This week, they came home with me.

This recipe is a riff on Moules à la Marinière, a classically French dish of mussels steamed in white wine with butter and shallots. I've substituted a wheat beer for the wine - I love the unfiltered wheat from Kansas City's Boulevard Brewery which is getting much broader distribution than it was a few years ago.  Mussels, like most shellfish, will get chewy when overcooked so I start pulling them as soon as they open, usually within three minutes on the heat.  Overcooked mussels are like checking on erasers.  So keep an eye on them and remove each as it is perfectly cooked.

Your mussels come with their own sauce which they will let loose into the pan to mingle with the beer you use to coax them open.  This is a pretty tasty mixture, but I couldn't leave well enough alone.  Once all the mussels were out of the pan, I added a few heaping tablespoons of stone-ground mustard and thyme.  When the sauce had reduced by about half, I stirred in some half-and-half and parsley.  Voila!

Along side the mussels, I served a spring mix salad with mustard vinaigrette and slices of pumpernickel bread which married nicely with the mustard-cream sauce.  Bread (or fries) are a must with mussels to soak up all the saucy goodness.  Geoff thinks this version is even better than it's wine-based cousin, and I think I have to agree.

Mussels Steamed in Beer with Mustard, Garlic and Thyme
serves 2, generously


2 lbs. mussels
6 oz. wheat beer, I like Boulevard Unfiltered Wheat
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp. fresh thyme
3 tbsp. half and half
1 heaping tbsp. stone-ground mustard
2 tbsp. parsley, minced
1 tbsp. butter

1.  Clean mussels, remove beards, and discard any mussels that are open or cracked.
2.  In a very large pot, melt butter and cook garlic until just starting to color
3.  Add beer and bring to a simmer over medium.
4.  Add mussels, cover pot, and let the mussels.  Steam for about 3-5 minutes or until the mussels open.
5.  Remove mussels and split into two large bowls.  Discard any mussels that don't open.
6.  Add half and half (or heavy cream, use what you have on hand) to the liquid in the pot and simmer for 5 minutes to reduce.
7.  Stir in parsley and pour over mussels.

Feeding Friendship: Slainte!

I went fairly classic with my pick this round and decided to make Guinness Beef Stew.  But instead of putting the potatoes into the stew, I poured the soup over boxty.  This was a plenty hearty meal, so I skipped making these Irish pancakes for dessert event though I didn't get any on Shrove Tuesday.  There are a lot of boxty recipes out there, but I chose this one because it includes both shredded raw potatoes and mashed potatoes to give both texture and creaminess.  I decided to up the flavor by adding garlic and onion powder to the mashed potatoes.

I had originally planned on just improvising the stew but then I came across this version from Irish American Mom which includes a bit of brown sugar to balance the bitterness of the Guinness and added mustard and red wine vinegar to produce a really intensely flavored broth.  I followed her recipe exactly, except I left out the chocolate and removed the potatoes.  Oh.  And I spaced and bought turnips instead of parsnips.  It worked, but parsnips would be better.

Feeding Friendship: Beet and Goat Cheese Manicotti

My googling suggests that this may be the first ever beet manicotti and I think the world has been missing out.  I was nervous that these weren't going to turn out.  When I put Geoff's plate in front of him, I promised him the frozen (homemade) pizza in the freezer if it was terrible.  But it wasn't.  It was amazing.

As with all beet recipes I enjoy, you have to start with roasting them in their skin.  We got a good number of beets when we belonged to a CSA and I learned that raw beets just don't do it for me.  To be honest, I don't bother to clean them that much or salt, pepper, or oil them before roasting.  Just rinse them a bit and then slip off the skins once they are fully cooked.  While the beets were roasting, I sauteed the beet greens to add to the sauce (which I forgot to do).  Then, I grated the cooled beets and combined them with the goat cheese and parsley to make the filling.

The great thing about using these fresh pasta sheets instead of manicotti shells is that you can just roll the filling up burrito-style instead of trying to stuff those darn tubes.  Feel free to do as I did and fill the pasta and make the sauce the night before so it just takes a few minutes to assemble the pasta the night you want to eat it.  I think the walnuts and panko on top are absolutely essential to add some texture to the dish.  I used pine nuts this time because I realized this week that I have three separate bags of pine nuts in the freezer.  How can you resist hot pink filled pasta?

Beet and Goat Cheese Manicotti
serves 4

3 medium beets, green attached
4 oz. soft goat cheese (chèvre)
1/4 c. parsley, minced
9 oz. fresh lasagna sheets
1/4 c. chopped walnuts or pine nuts
1/4 c. panko bread crumbs
1 c. grated parmesan cheese
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp. flour
2 c. skim milk

1. Wrap beets in foil and roast for an hour at 400 degrees or until a paring knife can be inserted without resistance.

2. Meanwhile, remove stems and wash beet greens thoroughly.  Slice and simmer in a few tablespoons of water for approximately 15 minutes.  Reserve.

3. Sip off skins and cool before grating coarsely.

4. Mix grated beets with goat cheese, parsley, salt, and pepper.  Roll 2 heaping tablespoons of the beet mixture into each sheet of lasagna and place in a lightly oiled 9x13 inch pan.

5. Make béchamel: Melt butter and stir in flour, cooking for 3-4 minutes before slowly whisking in milk.  Bring to a simmer and stir in parmesan cheese, a small pinch of salt, and pepper to taste.  Mix in beet greens.

6. Pour sauce over manicotti and top with panko and nuts.  Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

His and Hers Valentine's Desserts

...or how wrecked macarons turned into brandied-cherry filled truffles.  When we decided on this special edition of Valentine's Day treats for Feeding Friendship, I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to tackle one of my baking challenges - macarons.  My friend Katy lent me a book full of recipes and I selected a dark chocolate and cherry version - a blend of my love of all things dark chocolate and Geoff's fondness for tempering chocolate with some other flavor.

I'll be honest, I got a little cocky.  I've had a lot of baking successes in the last year and so I ignored the fact that I have read many blog posts about how finicky macarons can be and plunged into the recipe around 10pm on Monday night after Zumba and the KU basketball game and knowing that there is an hour-long rest before they go in the oven.

It all started out nicely with perfectly piped pink hearts, cherry-brandy soaked tart cherries and 70% cacao ganache.  But then things went wrong.  I suspect that my first mistake was using my almond meal without grinding it down any further.  My second mistake was trying an unusual shape on my first time out.  And my third mistake, was forgetting to turn over the parchment paper after I drew the hearts on with marker.

So not only did the macarons fail to rise as they should, I had to throw out three-quarters of the "macarons" (let's just call them wafers from now on) because I wasn't sure how toxic that blue marker was.  I nearly gave up then and there, but I had brandy-soaked cherries and ganache made with $16/pound chocolate and there was no reason to toss those out.

When life hands you lemons, make curd.  But when life hands you a bowl of ganache, then my friend, you should make truffles.  The wonderful thing about truffles is that they are meant to be rough and rustic so I just took a spoonful of ganache, stuck a brandy-soaked cherry in the middle, and made it into a vaguely spherical shape before tossing it in cocoa powder.

I chopped the remaining cherries and folded them into a half-cup of cream which I whipped to stiff peaks.  Before we left to see Rent, the cream was sandwiched between the eight unmarred wafers and left in the fridge for the wafers to soften slightly.

They weren't anything like macarons, but who can argue with whipped cream, brandy, and wonderful company?

Feeding Friendship: Teff Injera, Doro Wat, and Yataklete Kilkil

When Sarah selected "ancient grains" as our star ingredient for this round of Feeding Friendship, she mentioned a Bill Bryson quote:

Out of the thirty thousand types of edible plants thought to exist on Earth, just eleven — corn, rice, wheat, potatoes, cassava, sorghum, millet, beans, barley, rye, and oats — account for 93 percent of all that humans eat.

I took this as a challenge to avoid these plants and focus on some of the more obscure, ancient grains.  Perhaps some I've used before like farro or bulgur.  Unfortunately, these - along with kamut and spelt - are just types of wheat!  So I decided I should go with quinoa, amaranth, or tef.  Googling (that's a legit gerund, I swear) around for uses of tef led me to injera, the spongy bread used as tablecloth and utensil in Ethiopian cuisine.  At once, I had a plan. 


The first time I ever tried Ethiopian food was in Minneapolis with my parents and some of their college friends.  It was spring break of my junior year and we were there visiting Carleton College (which I decided at the last minute not to attend).  My parents' friends had boasted that you could find every type of food in Minneapolis and my challenge of "well, then, I want Ethiopian" was met.

I used whole grain tef, but I suspect that most of the Ethiopian restaurants that I have been to were using either refined tef or a tef-wheat flour blend.  The whole grain tef makes a dark bread with a slightly gritty texture and the overnight fermentation gives it a slightly sour flavor.  Tef has become popular again recently because it is gluten-free.  Unfortunately, a thin, gluten-free pancake doesn't have much structural integrity so it had a tendency to fall apart when you used it to grab the food (the traditional way to eat Ethiopian food).  A bit messy - but tasty!


Traditionally, an Ethiopian meal, like that of much of the Middle East and into India is composed of several dishes, each of which (to me) could be a stand-along meal.  While I wasn't up to making six or eight dishes, I did make two - doro wat (wat means food) and Yataklete Kilkil.  Wat is a stew that can be made with any meat (doro wat is chicken).  Thanks to a long stewing time, I ended up with shredded chicken, but what sets this apart from your standard crock-pot chicken is that you begin by cooking onions until quite dark in a dry skillet.  This caramelizes them, but also drives out a lot of the moisture.  Once the onions are cooked, you add some oil and berbere - a very hot spice blend.  I adapted a recipe based on several I found.  For me, the result was a perfect blend of spiciness and rich flavors from all the other spices.  The Yetakelt W'et is a gingery vegetable stew that I found was a nice complement to the 

Injera
This is a recipe I found several places online (including here).

1 lb whole grain tef
3 cups lukewarm water
1 tsp instant yeast
1 tbsp kosher salt

1. Twenty-four hours prior to cooking, mix together tef, water, and yeast in a large bowl.  Cover with a tea towel and place on a sheet pan (just in case it rises out of the bowl).
2. Leave a room temperature to ferment/rise.
3. When ready to cook, stir in salt.
4. If you have a gigantic skillet, heat that up.  Otherwise, a normal-size, low-sided cast iron skillet over medium heat will do.
5. Lightly oil the pan before making each pancake.  Add just enough batter to cover the pan and cook until it looks dry on top.  Remove and let cool.

Doro Wat
Adapted from several sources.


3 cups onions, chopped
1 tbsp canola oil
1 rotisserie chicken, cooked and chopped into 1 inch cubes.
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. ground coriander
1/2 tsp. ground cardamom
1/2 tsp. ground fenugreek
1/2 tsp. grated nutmeg
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. cloves
1/4 tsp. allspice
2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tbsp cayenne pepper (or to taste)

1. In a heavy dutch oven, cook the onions until very dark.  Stir frequently to prevent burning or sticking.
2. Add oil and all spices. and cook for 30 seconds.  Add 1/2 cup water and scrape fond from bottom of pan.
3. Add chicken and simmer about 30 minutes.  Add water as needed to keep moist but not soupy.
4. Serve on top of injera with yogurt on the side.

Yataklete Kilkil
Adapted from here


1 medium russet potato, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1 1/2 cups baby carrots, roughly chopped
1 1/2 cups green beans, roughly chopped
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic
3 inches of ginger, chopped
1-2 tsp. cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp. cardamom
1 tbsp. flour
1 tbsp. canola oil
salt, to taste


1. Place potatoes, carrots, and green beans in a pot and just cover with water.  Simmer over medium heat about 10 minutes or until the potatoes are tender.
2.  While vegetables are cooking, place onions, garlic, ginger, cayenne, cardamom, and flour in the blender.  Puree until smooth.
3.  Heat oil in skillet and add onion mixture.  Cook until the onions lose their raw taste and add to the vegetables.  Simmer an additional 10 minutes.

Feeding Friendship: Blood Orange Yogurt Cake with Blood Orange Curd

I totally lucked out when I picked winter citrus for this round of Feeding Friendship - this week is Citrus Fest at Central Market! That means I had access to sour oranges (mojo anyone?), limequats, Buddha's Hands, and all sorts of other great citrus. After sampling all of my options, I settled on blood oranges and decided to make a blood orange curd I found at Simple Math Bakery (love the name of that blog).

The curd took way longer than I was expecting to come up to temperature, but it is a pretty low maintenance recipe.  Mix together the sugar, eggs, zest, and juice and heat over a double boiler for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Don't freak out if you get a few egg bits, just strain it before you mix it into the butter.  Thanks to the sweet and slightly floral flavor of the blood orange, the resulting curd is complex and very sweet!  I'd recommend cutting back on the sugar and increasing the lemon juice.

I've had a yogurt cake from Clotilde Dusoulier's first book earmarked to make for the longest time.  Then I found Smitten Kitchen's yogurt cake recipe with lime zest and black berry sauce and marked that.  Well, the time had finally come to make a yogurt cake.  I followed the Smitten Kitchen recipe, but substituted blood orange zest and juice for lime.  The wonderful thing about this cake is it is all one bowl.

Once all the wet ingredients are blended, you sift in the dry ingredients and stir - done!  I love a batter that doesn't begin with creaming butter (mostly because I never remember to soften my butter ahead of time).  Evidently, I threw away my round cake pans before our last move (???).  Or at least I can't find them.  So I made cupcakes instead.

I cooked them at the same temperature for 25 minutes and they came out just right.  The yogurt creates a really moist, tender crumb and allows you to cut back the amount of fat used in the batter.  I'll definitely be making these again, but with extracts or more zest to bump up the flavor.

My pictures don't do it justice (I made this late last night), but the curd is a pretty salmon color and, due to the lower acidity of blood oranges, runnier than lemon curd you may have had.  I have about three cups of curd left, but don't worry, I have a plan for it!

Galette Breton with Fresh Cheese and Asparagus

When I was in Montreal, I had a delicious asparagus crepe so I decided to make it when I got home.  Those crepes had a thick white cheese in them, but I made my own Boursin-like cheese from Greek yogurt.  I just improvised this version as I went so if you make it yourelf (and you should - it would be a great appetizer) play around with whatever herbs or other flavorings you would like.  Even if you don't make the crepes, you really should consider making this cheese, it is so delicious.  Eat it the first day you make it when it tastes perfectly fresh.  By the second day, it tastes just like store bought - good, but not spectacular.

My crepe was going to be a galette (buckwheat crepe) except that I didn't have buckwheat flour so I decided to substitute rye.  The substitution was, to be honest, unnoticeable.  So feel free to go ahead and use David Lebovitz' recipe as is - but note that it makes fewer than 18 crepes.

Fresh Cheese:
1 1/2 cups 2% Greek yogurt
zest of 1/2 a lemon
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/4 tsp granulated garlic

To make the cheese, beat the yogurt thoroughly to release the whey.  Blend in remaining ingredients and transfer to a large sieve lined with cheesecloth or multiple coffee filters.  Place sieve in bowl and cover with additional cheesecloth or coffee filters and weight with a small plate and two cans.  About every 15 minutes, dump out whey that collects in the bowl (you can save it for baking bread).

While the crepes are cooking, steam one bunch of asparagus for about 15 minutes.  To assemble, spread cheese on half a crepe and top with four asparagus spears.  Roll up like a burrito.  A salad with a mustard vinaigrette pairs nicely with the crepes.

Feeding Friendship: Candy Cane Cookies

When Sarah picked peppermint as our ingredient, I knew immediately that I was going to make my Grandma’s candy cane cookies.  She’s made these every year for as long as I can remember.  The cookies themselves are a basic shortbread-like cookie, but what really makes them are the bright red stripes of peppermint frosting. 

I took a few liberties with the recipe for the dough.  I didn’t have much shortening on hand so I replaced half of it with butter (which I had tons of after overbuying for making gingerbread).  I also increased the amount of vanilla extract and left out the butter flavoring (since I don’t have it and I had added butter).  The result of subbing in the butter was a more puffy and tender cookie than the crisp one I’m used to.  The butter added a nice flavor that I liked, but I missed the crunch.  Next time I may sub only ¼ of the shortening for butter.

Once the dough is made, Grandma uses her cookie press to make cane shapes using a circular die with jagged edges.  I was excited to use my cookie press for the first time and had the dough loaded before I realized that of the twelve dies mine came with, none of them was the one I needed.  Luckily, I own a huge star tip for my piping icing.  Unluckily, my hand gave out after piping about three dozen of the candy canes that way.  I understand now why cookies presses need metal parts – that dough is stiff!  I decided to freeze the rest of the dough for other applications in January.

I went ahead and baked the cookies that I had while I made the frosting. The key is to add enough peppermint extract to get a strong enough flavor to stand up to the plain cookie.  Remember that you will only be putting a small amount of frosting on each cookie.  Once cooled, I piped on stripes and took them to a Christmas party where they were promptly devoured to rave reviews!  It’s so nice to be able to have a taste of my childhood at Christmas.

Candy Cane Cookies

adapted from Grandma Cris
Makes 5 dozen

Cookies:
3 c. flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 c. sugar
1/2 c. Crisco
1/2 c. butter, softened
2 eggs
1/4 c. milk
2 tbsp. vanilla

Icing:
1 c. powdered sugar
1 tbsp. butter, softened
1.5-2 c. milk
1/4 tsp. vanilla
Red food coloring
Peppermint extract to taste

1. Cream together butter, Crisco, and sugar.  Add dry ingredients and mix well.  Add remaining ingredients.
2. Transfer dough to a piping bag and pipe into candy cane shapes onto a lightly greased or lined cookie sheet.
3. Bake at 375 for 6-8 minutes.
4. To make frosting, sift powdered sugar and mix in all other ingredients.
5. Once cooled, pipe lines of frosting onto cookies.

Feeding Friendship: Sweet Potato

Sweet potatoes hold a very special place in my heart.  The first meal I ever cooked for Geoff was pork chops and sweet and spicy glazed sweet potatoes.  My mom, grandma and I made a comically large mess (I ended up with sweet potato and coconut webbing between my fingers) trying to craft Paula Dean's marshmallow-stuffed sweet potato balls.  And my contribution to the last several thanksgivings has been mashed sweet potatoes with orange and chipotle.  My latest favorite is sweet potato falafel from 101cookbooks.

I've made these a couple of times, and they are delicious!  You need to plan a bit ahead to allow enough time to bake the sweet potatoes until they are very soft.  You want the sweet potatoes to be completely smooth before you incorporate the other ingredients.  I have made this with both regular flour and chickpea flour and I prefer it with the regular flour (if you can handle the gluten).  This, along with stirring them gently and spooning  blobs onto the pan without compacting them, will result in light and delicious falafel.  I served it with a simple tzatziki and a Greek chopped salad for a light winter meal.  Enjoy!