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April 29, 2011 · 2:05 pm

SOcca Good

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!

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April 26, 2011 · 3:51 pm

One of THOSE Days

*sigh*

You know those days where everything is a little bit more challenging than it should be?

I’m having one of those days.

I woke up nice and early to jump-start the bizillion pages of paperwork needed to complete the hiring process for my new Pilates instructor gig. First the printer shot out three copies of the first three pages (which, incidentally, I didn’t even need to print) and by the time it got to the important stuff the ink was running low. Time was getting tight and in my haste I copied a few things upside down (does moving quicker ever really make you more efficient?). I gathered my 5 forms of ID, my void checks and routing numbers, my paperwork checklists, and my completed bizillion forms and jumped on my bike with moments to spare. Upon arrival my bike lock ceased to function and I squeezed in the door frazzled and sticky only to find out that my appointment was at the other location, 9 miles away. Well, at least the very sweet front desk worker thinks it was there, we couldn’t get in touch with the women I was meeting. After 3 previous appointments for this position at the downtown location and no mention of meeting elsewhere I assumed it was there. On the way home it started raining on my bizillion pages of newly completed paperwork. Crap.

Breath.

My morning stress was almost all user error but it is just one of those days where everything is a little extra challenging.

On a MUCH happier note, my birthday came early this year!

Isn’t she B-U-tiful!?

Thank you Grandma and Zayda! I will carry on the tradition of taking pictures of every possible occasion (and non-occasion :))!

The lovely folks at Hometown Seeds sent me a little something also.

Their Kitchen Herb Value Pack comes with ten seed packets, including Purple Ruffles Basil which is the one I am most excited about.

It’s still a little early to plant most herbs around here but I did start two yesterday.

The bag said to soak the seeds so I followed some online advice and soaked the bity seeds by wrapping them in wet napkins. The napkins make the tiny seeds easy to handle.

After about 24 hours of soaking I tore the napkin into little pieces and planted the seeds, napkin and all.

I’ve never really grown herbs from seed before so I am unsure of how this will go but I do love me some herbs! I’ll do my best to nurture these little babies into some fabulous meal come harvest time!

Time to run off some of this ridiculous angst/stress and learn to use this A-MAZ-ING camera!