ffwd: socca from vieux nice
I’ve never been to Nice, or the South of France, for that matter, so I had no point of comparison for this week’s French Fridays with Dorie recipe: Socca, which is a chickpea pancake. In France, this street food made by vendors stationed on the sidewalk. At my house, we had it as a starter to dinner.
This recipe introduced me to a new ingredient, chickpea (also called garbanzo) flour which is ground up chickpeas. It has a vegetal aroma quite different from wheat flour. The batter is simple to mix up: garbanzo flour, water, olive oil, chopped rosemary, salt and pepper. This is done in advance so the batter can rest. Dorie says that improves the end result.
The preparation was interesting. The pancake bakes in a very hot oven. The pan preheats at the same time. Once everything is hot, you pour oil into the pan and return it to the oven to heat up before pouring in the batter. It’s essentially oven-fried, though finished under the broiler to blacken the surface slightly.
It was a little challenging to transfer to a serving plate
To eat, we tore the piping hot pancake into pieces and smeared them with tapenade and goat cheese. It was tasty, though unusual. I cooked half the batter to make one medium pancake to try tonight and plan to cook the other half with tomorrow’s lunch.
I still have the rest of the bag of chickpea flour leftover, so I will probably try this again. I’m less sure about it plain, but I have lots of Mediterranean condiments to experiment with for toppings.
I was also intrigued by the falafel recipe that came on the bag. I love falafel but I’ve always been put off making them at home because I am uncomfortable deep-frying. The recipe on the bag of flour only calls for a few tablespoons of oil to cook them, so I might be trying that out. Any other suggestions?
We don’t post the recipes, but you can find it in Dorie Greenspan’s book Around My French Table. To see what other Doristas thought of socca, check out their posts here.
Voila, Socca!
ffwd: sable breton galette with berries
Fruit tarts are one of my favorite desserts, so I was excited about making the Sable Breton Galette with Berries this week for French Fridays with Dorie. This tart is homemade summer simplicity at its best. A cookie crust is topped with lemon curd and fresh berries. That’s it!
The crust is made from a soft cookie dough. It’s similar to shortbread, but the egg and baking powder made it a little lighter, perfect for eating with a fork. The cookie base is pre-baked so, if you plan ahead, you can assemble this impressive dessert on a moment’s notice. The base is pressed into a flat disk rather than forming edges which made for a fun presentation.
The lemon curd can be homemade or store-bought. I wanted to try making it, but didn’t want lots extra, so I made a half batch which was the perfect amount for topping the tart. You whisk together eggs, sugar, lemon juice and a smidge of corn syrup then melt butter into it, whisking as you go. I was a little nervous that it wouldn’t come out thick or smooth, but after just 3 minutes, I had created a jar of lemony delight. I’ll be making this again.
For berries, you can use whatever you like. Local strawberries have finally arrived in these parts, so I topped my tart with strawberries and blueberries. I loved the color contrast.
When I was previewing this week’s Dorie recipe at home, Howard wasn’t wild about the idea of lemon curd, so I brought this to work to share. I brought the tart into a meeting, and I thought we’d serve it and eat while we met. I admire the self-control of the person this was in front of. The tart sat in the center of the table for over an hour before someone asked when we would be eating it. We cut it into 12 slices, and everyone enjoyed it.
This is definitely one of my favorite recipes in the book so far. I know this will make several appearances on our table this summer. For Howard, I will try spreading a matching berry jam on the cookie instead of lemon curd. I think that will be a delicious variation.
The recipe can be found in Dorie Greenspan’s book Around My French Table. To see what other Doristas thought of this recipe, check out their posts here.
Happy Summer!
A Plateful of Happiness 