chickpea flour - recipes

[spicygal]

I bought a large container of chickpea flour recently and have no idea what to do with it. Any good recipes/suggestions?

[jarvis]

Pakoras! mmmm

[nofunlatte]

Chickpea crepes.

[jsaimd]

Panisse, socca

[Caitlin McGrath]

Here's another thread with some more ideas: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/564750

[farmersdaughter]

These seafood pancakes from Mark Bittman are fantastic: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/01/din...

[paulj]

Reminds me of cross between socca, the S France chickpea crepe, and a Korean seafood and green onion pancake.

[farmersdaughter]

Perfect description. That's exactly what it's like. It is delicious - I can easily make a meal out of nothing else but the pancake.

[Marge]

Me too, I love them for brunch. I also recently did Marcella Hazan's marinated sardines which I dusted in chick pea flour before sauteeing--excellent.

[farmersdaughter]

Yum. Which Marcella cookbook is the recipe in?

[Marge]

Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, p. 63...her recipe calls for regular flour, I substituted chick pea based on another recipe I had seen-- the nuttiness of the chick pea flour really worked!

[farmersdaughter]

Great idea, and I've got that cookbook right here. I'll give it a try soon. Thanks Marge for the tip!

[cinnamon girl]

Socca

Madhur Jaffrey's mulligatawny in her first book, An Invitation to Indian Cooking; besides thickening the soup it gives it a lovely flavour.

[pitu]

farinata!
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/282684

[anakalia]

A Persian bakery in my old college town used to sell tiny chickpea flour cookies, called Nan-e Nokhodchi. I've made them a few times using a recipe available on the vegetarian times web site, and everyone has always loved them. They go very well with coffee or tea, as they aren't very sweet. The recipe calls to make them in a cloverleaf pattern, because I guess that is traditional, but I just roll them into small circles, instead, and top them with crushed pistachio.

[MFalk]

Shred about 4 cups of cabbage, salt them a bit, and combine them with about a cup of chickpea flour, some cumin, and a minced green chile until you can form them into golf-ball-sized spheres. Deep fry them till a dark brown (for deep frying with chickpea flour batters, the longer the better--you want a deep, dark, crispy crust), then drain them.

Puree a can of tomatoes with about an inch of chopped ginger and another chopped green chile. Make a roux in a sauce pan with the chickpea flour and vegetable oil, add asafetida and cumin seeds, then after about thirty seconds the tomato puree. Let that cook down a bit, salting as needed, and add milk, cream, or coconut milk to your taste.

Just before serving, reheat the cabbage balls in the gravy. This is called cabbage kofta and it's delicious.

[Rasam]

In addition to all the other excellent suggestions, if you like Indian food, then try a North Indian (Punjabi style) karhi (chickpea flour fried dumplings in a yogurt gravy that is thickened with more chickpea flour, plus spices of course).

This is warm, filling, and rich, perfect for these lingering winter days.

Julie Sahni has a good recipe, but so should the internet.

[farmersdaughter]

I've never heard of that dish but it sounds delicious. I've had something called dahi vada, which are dumplings in yogurt, and I think are a Southern Indian dish. Are the karhi similar to dahi vada?

[Rasam]

No. Thayir vadais (=Tamil word for Dahi vada which is Hindi) are vadais (lentil doughnuts or fritters or dumplings - whatever the correct analogy is) made mostly with urad dal, and then fried, and soaked in spiced yogurt. It's a snack item, served at room temperature. Very different in ingredients, execution, and appearance/taste from karhi.

Karhi is a main dish, traditionally eaten with rice. Yogurt, simmered with spices and chickpea flour to thicken it, maybe some sliced onions and diced potatoes sauteed and added. Fried chickpea dumplings are added to the Karhi. It is a totally awesome dish - there are Punjabi, Gujarati, UP etc variations. It's typically pale golden yellow because of the chickpea flour. It's served very warm, with rice.

The South Indian parallel to karhi is mor kozhambu (called different names in different Southern languages). Spiced yogurt (different spices than the North) is thickened with toasted and ground chana dal (which is basically the same as besan=chickpea flour). Vegetables like sauteed okra are added, which is not used in the North. This is a different shade of pale golden yellow because of turmeric rather than chickpea flour. This is also eaten at room temperature with rice.

[farmersdaughter]

Thanks for the explanation! I'm going to look for a good recipe for karhi. It sounds delicious.

[Rasam]

You're welcome. It's spelled different ways in English: kadhi, karhi, etc. so try all the spellings.

For the basic Punjabi version I recommend Julie Sahni's from her Classic Indian cooking book. It's simple, well explained, and good.

Tarla Dalal's web site has a good Gujarati Kadhi recipe.

I use my mom's Southern recipe.

I adore this dish with a passion, all versions of it.

[weem]

Years ago I took a vegetarian cooking class that had a recipe for a dessert called "Laddu" that was so completely addictive I still search out chick pea flour for it.

Melt a cup of butter in a pan (or pot or wok or whatever) on a medium low heat. Slowly stir in 2 cups of chick pea flour. Roast the flour in the butter until it turns a darker color (about ten minutes or so). Keep stirring it while it roasts so it doesn't burn. Then add two cups of powdered sugar. (This will involve some elbow grease to mix it thoroughly and avoid lumps of sugar.) Remove it from the heat for a bit and when it is cool enough to handle, form it into one-inch balls. Cool completely and eat.

Some alternatives: Instead of forming it into balls, I sometimes just spread it in a pan and slice it into squares like shortbread when it's cooled. The recipe suggests options like adding shredded coconut or chopped nuts, but I've never done that. Also, I find that reserving a quarter cup of the butter to melt in after the flour is roasted makes for a consistency that allows for easier incorporation of the sugar. And once I was lazy and tried it without roasting the flour, and it wasn't good that way.

[Pia]

Weem, this is more complicated but this type of laddu is what I've always seen:
http://www.neivedyam.com/2009/05/100t...

[weem]

That's interesting, thanks for posting it. I certainly don't claim to represent the last word on laddu recipes, just passing along the one I happen to have and like. There's probably as many different styles and recipes as there are for mac-n-cheese or meatloaf.

[Rasam]

What weem posted was "besan laddu" = chickpea flour laddu.

What Pia posted was "boondi laddu" = little fried chickpea ball laddu.

There are myriad laddu varieties, some made with cream of wheat and others with rice flour, some with puffed rice, so on and so forth.

These are just two of them. Both are legit.

I would have added a smidgen of cardamom to each recipe and incorporated a few raisins into the laddu-rolling stage, but that's my preference.....

[novelgazer]

Here's another from the New York Times -- chickpea battered fried vegetables.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/16/hea...

[Westminstress]

In one of Lidia Bastianich's books (I think Lidia's Family Table) there's a recipe for fresh pasta made from chickpea flour, which I've always wanted to try.