Almond Milk Meal

Almond milk is great stuff and reasonably easy to obtain in France but like anything bought preprepared you can never be exactly certain what's in it or have total control over the final product.

It's also something I've been meaning to try to make for really rather a long while.

To make about 450ml or so of almond milk you need 150g of whole almonds, with their skins on. Rinse them well and then cover with fresh water and soak overnight in the fridge - try not to leave them more than 12 hours.

Drain off the soaking water, put the almonds into the blender along with 600ml of fresh clean water and blend until smooth. Then all you do is strain the liquid through a fine mesh sieve or some cheesecloth. Squeeze the pulp to extract all the liquid.

At this point you can add sugar, flavourings like vanilla or a tiny pinch of salt to enhance the almondy taste. Beat the additions in well (or return to the blender) until dissolved and then chill the milky fluid before using in drinks or cooking. I chose not to flavour the bulk of my almond milk although I did flavour a small portion with some strawberry syrup to make a mini milkshake.

Stored in the fridge the milk may start to settle out but it's easy to quickly stir it back together again when needed.

And then you're left with about 250g of almond pulp. This can be used in cakes but I wanted to try something more savoury and decided to use the almond debris as if it were ground chickpeas. I made felafel.



Add to your almond meal a finely chopped onion, as many minced green herbs like parsley and coriander as you can find (I couldn't find any!) and a teaspoonful of cumin seeds. Ground pepper and salt to taste, you might also add a little cayenne pepper or even a finely chopped chilli to the mix.

Form the mixture into small balls or disks. My technique is take just enough mixture to make a coin sized cake about 1cm deep in the circle formed by my forefinger and thumb on the right hand, using the left hand to compress the mixture into the shape, which makes it sound far more complicated than it is.

Place each felafel onto a well oiled tray, you'll get about 16 out of this many almonds, and then bake in a hot oven, say 220C, for 20 to 25 minutes until golden. They are a little fragile but should, if the tray was well greased enough, be strong enough to remove on to bread or salad for serving.

I won't lie, baked like this they are a little dry and worthy, next time I'll try deep frying them as I do for the chickpea version but with a well flavoured sauce to moisten them they are a very healthy and enjoyable foodstuff, serving as part of a mezze table, as a starter for 3 or 4 or a main course for two.

Use a traditional tahini based lemon and garlic sauce, a mint raita (as I have done here) or put them in a mixed salad with plenty of oily vinaigrette.