Day: April 29, 2011

SOcca Good

5 Comments

Wow, thanks for all the positive response from yesterday’s post!  And all the compliments. 🙂

I finally used a recipe! At the beginning of the month I made a goal to follow at least one recipe a week but this socca recipe is the first I completed.  The intention behind the recipe goal was to get me out of my cooking routine and try some new things.

Socca is a French pancake made from chickpea flour, water, salt, and olive oil.  Given the simplicity of the ingredients it is surprisingly delicious with the faintest hint of falafel and a rich nuttiness.

Socca

Original recipe from David Lebovitz can be found here

  • 1 cup chickpea flour*
  • 1 cup + 2 tablespoons water
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • generous pinches of salt
  • sprinkle of cumin
*I used Bob’s Red Mill Garbanzo and Fava Bean Flour because that is what I found at the store.  It worked brilliantly but I can’t compare the flavor to plain garbanzo flour.

It’s funny to me that I am counting this as following a recipe because not only did I substitute the flour but it is so stinking simple.

Whisk everything but 1 tablespoon of the olive oil into the flour.

Let the thin batter sit for at least two hours.

I made this on Tuesday afternoon and it ended up be so ridiculously hot and sticky that evening that I couldn’t bare to turn on the oven.  The batter went into a jar and refrigerated until Wednesday night.

When you are ready to bake it off add the rest of your olive oil to an oven-safe pan (I used cast iron) and place in oven, turn on your broiler.  When the pan in hot, hot, hot, carefully pour in your batter.

And here’s where I failed to read the recipe details.  I only noticed after pouring the entire jar of batter into the pan and placing it in the oven that David’s recipe makes “about three pancakes”.   Whoops.  My dinner company and I loved the density and thickness that resulted but it did lack any resemblance to a cracker, pancake, or crepe.

After about 12 minutes on a middle rack my socca was golden brown and ready to be gobbled down.

Accompanied by a cucumber salad with garden herbs and lentil sprouts

and a side of garden hose 🙂

I now understand Ashley‘s obsession with socca, I’ve been thinking about it since the first bite and biding my time until I can whip up another.  SO GOOD.

Have a gorgeous, delicious Friday!

P.S  I pronounce it SOcca but have no clue whether this is correct, do you know?  I did a few internet searches but all I came up with were other folks as unsure as I am!