Delectable Treats

AFTEEM

"I just consumed my weight in hummus, pita and falafel" ....no, seriously! Since we've been here we've indulged in many, many delicious rounds of Palestinian food ranging from Middle Eastern commodities such as hummus and falafel to more traditional dishes like maqluba (upside-down eggplant, rice, meat and cauliflower casserole), shawarma, zaatar (spice blend) and foul. YUM!

Step 1: Falafel

Last night, we had the great blessing of putting our culinary skills to the test and learning how to cook Palestinian food at a fantastic restaurant in Bethlehem called Afteem. With all 14 of us crammed in their tiny little kitchen, it was quite the site to see. Imagine if you saw a huge group of Palestinians behind the counter at a restaurant were you chose to dine!

We started off learning how to prepare the falafel which consists of chickpeas (11 pounds of chickpeas), parsley, onions, hot peppers, garlic and various spices. Fortunately, they had already soaked the chickpeas for 6 hrs before we arrived. The ingredients were put through a food processor into a large bucket and then mixed together by hand, ready then to be fried.

Mixing the falafel!

11 lbs of chick peas for hummus

Next, we learned how to make hummus (and they have THE BEST hummus in the world here). Stated with another 11 pounds of chickpeas and added in salt, lemon, garlic, hot pepper and sesame oil. All those were mixed together in a large blender which was pretty sweet. Then, put into two gi-mungo bowls to serve to the restaurant.

Sarah & Kateland chopping vegetables

After that, we headed right into chopping up vegetables to make Arabic salad which consists of cucumbers, tomatoes, parsley, onion and some spices.

Falafel

Frying the falafel

We ended our cooking class frying up the falafel which was an interesting process. HUGE wok full of oil and an ice cream scoop device to form the falafel patties and plop them in the oil to deep fry them. Everyone had their turn, though for some it came a bit more easily than for others ;) Our guide, Elias, definitely showed us all up making it look easy.

Pita and hummus

Perhaps the BEST part of the evening was when we all got to sit down together and enjoy a fabulous feast! After, we got to hear a bit about the history of the restaurant which was started in 1948. What a wonderful evening full of delicious food and new friends!