Falafel

1 cup dried garbanzo beans, soaked in water to cover overnight and drained
1 cup dried shelled fava beans, soaked overnight and drained
1/2 cup peeled and finely chopped yellow onions
3 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
1 cup water
1/2 cup sesame seeds
1/2 cup garbanzo flour
1/4 cup fine bulgar
1/4 cup finely chopped parsley
1/4 Tbs. salt
2 tsp. ground cumin
2 tsp. ground coriander
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
Oil for deep-frying
Run the drained garbanzo beans and fava beans through the fine blade on your meat grinder or in your food processor. Blend in all the remaining ingredients and let the mixture stand for 1 hour. Form into little patties 1/3 inch thick and 1-1/2 inches round. Or, you can form them into balls the size of walnuts. Deep-fry in 375? oil until toasty brown and crunchy on the outside, about 4 minutes.

Fill pita bread with Falafel, sliced tomatoes, sliced onion, lettuce and yogurt.

Makes about 24 patties, enough for 6 sandwiches.

Filfil Rumi Mahshi (Stuffed Green Peppers)

6 green peppers
180 grams (6 oz., 3/4 cup) pine nuts
4 large onions
250 grams (9 oz., 1 1/2 cup) olive oil
450 grams (1 lb., 2 1/2 cup) long-grain rice
125 grams (4 oz., 1/2 cup) currants
5 grams (1 tsp.) salt, 3 grams (1 tsp.) pepper
15 grams (1 Tbs.) sugar, water to cover
7 grams (1/2 cup) mint
4 grams (1 tsp.) allspice
lemon slices, tomato wedges
10 grams (1/2 cup) chopped flat-leaf parsley
30 milliliters (1 oz., 2 Tbs.) lemon juice

Choose medium-sized green peppers. Wash them and cut out the stems. Core with an apple-corer or paring knife. Make the stuffing by lightly frying the pine nuts and chopped unions in olive oil. Add the washed rice and cook, stirring, for five minutes. Add the currants, salt, pepper and sugar. Pour in water to about twice the depth of the other ingredients in the pot and simmer until the water is absorbed. Add mint, allspice and lemon juice. When cool, stuff each pepper loosely, as the rice will swell. Cover open end of pepper with a slice of tomato like a lid. Set the stuffed peppers in a single layer in a large pan or dish. Sprinkle with salt and sugar, drizzle a little olive oil and 250 milliliters (1 cup) of water over them and simmer very slowly until the peppers are just tender. Decorate with chopped parsley, lemon slices and tomato slices or wedges, and refrigerate. Serve cool.

Other vegetables stuffed in the same manner are tomatoes, zucchini (courgettes), eggplant (aubergines), cabbage leaves or grape leaves. Both kinds of leaves should be briefly parboiled to make them tender and flexible.

Missaa

4 aubergines
? lb. of meat
1 onion
Salt and pepper
Oil for frying
1 cup of water or tomato juice
Peel the aubergines and slice them. Put them into a colander and sprinkle heavily with salt. Drain well. Mince the meat.

Heat some oil in a frying pan, and when it is smoking hot, fry the aubergines. Drain them well.

Chop the onion and brown it in a little oil, add the meat and fry it. Put half the aubergine slices in a layer at the bottom of a pyrex dish, then the meat, and finish with another layer of the aubergines.

Pour over the water or tomato juice. Put in the oven for 1?-2 hours and cook until dry. Serve.