Saturday, March 3, 2012

Socca - Rustic French Chickpea flour Crepe


Chickpea is one flour that I do not love working with. I feel nauseated by the smell or aroma as some might call it. But I love all the pakoras and dhoklas where it is a main ingredient and even kadhis and other gravies where it is used as a thickener.

Everything except the pancakes or .My mom used to talk about hot besan pancakes that my grandma used to make. But the reluctance with which I tried them made sure they were a flop. So I had given up on such quick breakfasts when I chanced upon the socca recipe at David Lebovitz.

Socca is a thin crust rustic chickpea flour pancake/crepe from the south of France and is used as a starter or snack and is generally a street snack.The recipe is pretty simple and almost same as besan ka cheela with the difference that socca is made in the oven.

Ingredients:
Chickpea Flour: 1 cup
Olive Oil: 1.5 tbsp + as needed for greasing and garnish
Water: 1 cup and 2 tbsp
Cumin Powder: a pinch or 1/8th tsp
Salt: 1/2 tsp +/- as per taste
Pepper: generous grating

Preparation:
Mix together flour,salt, cumin and oil. I also added little pepper just for a kick. Let the batter rest for atleast 15 minutes at room temp covered.

Heat the broiler in the oven to the max temperature. Oil a suitable pan for making the pancake and keep in the preheating oven.

I first used a round pan and though the pancake came out nicely it stuck to the dish. So next time around, I lined a dish and then oiled it and followed the recipe to the 't'.Also I just warmed the dish in the oven rather than making it blazing hot.

Take out the warm dish, pour in enough batter that might cover the bottom after slight swirl and
then pop it back in the oven.

Bake until the socca is firm and the edges start to brown. This takes around 8 mnts  only.

Slid it onto the cutting board and serve sliced garnished with more oil, pepper etc.You can see excellent step by step pics in the original recipe.


Fuss free snack, perfect anytime especially evenings after a marathon outing etc. or with soup as a light meal.
Will I make this again,?definitely, as my daughter polished off one immediately after the pics and loved it. I too feel that  it is a first positive step in dealing with besan. :)






4 Comments:

Reshmi Mahesh said...

New and delicious looking crepe..

Cham said...

I heard of socca but never knew it was baked one. Looks good the crepe!

City Share said...

Yum. I love crepes, but we have been avoiding grains. This sounds like a perfect solution. Thanks for the inspiration.

Bergamot said...

This is new to new. Looks interesting.

Thanks for visiting my Blog

/*TYNT script starts here */ /*TYNT ends */