Socca is a large chickpea flour pancake that’s very popular in the beautiful Southern French city of Nice. It’s usually served as a snack on a paper plate, with a generous dusting of pepper and often accompanied by a glass of rosé. Our whole family loves socca and it’s literally the first thing we sink our teeth into when we land in my husband’s home town. I’ve tried recreating it time and time again at home using different flours, waters, cooking methods and recipes but it is never EVER like the original.
So I’ve given up for now…but I have been extremely successful making it’s thicker Marseillais cousin, the panisse, also made of chickpea flour but a lot more forgiving when made in one’s kitchen. It’s prepared like polenta and then poured into a pan, where it cools before being cut up and fried or baked. Crispy on the outside, melt-in-your-mouth on the inside, it is an absolute treat. My kids like to call them socca fries, so I do too…
Ingredients
- 2 cups chickpea flour
- 4 cups water
- 2 tsp cumin
- 2 tsp salt
- olive oil, odorless coconut oil or ghee
- Extra salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Prepare a large baking sheet and line it with lightly greased parchment paper
- Bring the water to boil and gradually whisk in the chickpea, cumin and salt, continuously mixing until the mixture is smooth and thick, around 4 minutes
- Pour the mixture onto the baking sheet and try to shape it into a large rectangle around 2 cm thick
- Cover and place in the fridge for at least an hour or overnight
- When ready to serve, cut the chickpea flour mixture into rectangles that are as wide as they are thick so that they look like French fries. The recipe usually yields about 20 rectangles but you can adjust the size of the “fries” to your liking
- Heat a few tbsps of oil or ghee in a sauce pan on medium high heat and when it is nice and hot, place the “fries” and leave them around 1 minute per side or until they are golden on the outside
