Indian-Spiced “Socca”

The other day I was whipping up Mridula Baljekar’s  kela na sambhariya, or spicy stuffed bananas, and I had leftover chickpea flour filling; usually when I have extra spicy chickpea flour I add a little water, make a batter, then throw in vegetables for pakoras: chopped or sliced onions for my fave onion bhajis, whole leaves of spinach or mustard greens for spicy spinach fritters, sliced zucchini or sweet potato are wonderful too. This time, however, I don’t know: I didn’t feel like chopping vegetables, I didn’t even feel like eating pakoras. What I felt like was a thin pancake, something on the order of socca, the olive oil-browned chickpea pancake of Nice, France.

My mixture of toasted chickpea flour mixed with cumin, coriander, chile and cilantro was ready, i just stirred in enough water to make a pancake batter-like consistency, heated a tablespoon or two of evoo in a nonstick frying pan, and ladled in the batter. It cooked on one side, I flipped it and it cooked on its second side. It was delicious, tasting at once of France, at once of the Mediterranean, and at the same time, like having dinner with Mridula.

Indian Spiced Socca

1/2 cup/2 oz/50 g chickpea flour (besan)

1/2-1 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon ground coriander seed

About 1/2 fresh chile, depending on its heat and your preference: a mixture of both green and red looks nice, but you can use either, or none, as you like

1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste

1-2 tablespoons coarsely chopped coriander/cilantro leaves

About 3 tablespoons evoo

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