Recipe Panissa - Chickpea Flour Slices

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I've been working on various combinations for chickpea flour and water and have finally found the right proportion of ingredients.

Ingredients
100g chickpea flour
450ml water
1 tbsp olive oil (optional)
Salt
Pepper

Flavourings
3 large cloves of garlic crushed
3-4tbsp mixed chopped fresh herbs
1tbsp Aleppo pepper flakes
Or
1 heaped tbsp Gochujang
1 tsp ground cumin
1tsp ground coriander

Method
  1. Sift the chickpea flour into a pan. This is essential if you don't want to end up with a lumpy mix.
  2. I roasted the chickpea flour at this stage until it was just beginning to change colour. This step is optional.
  3. Slowly mix in the water and oil and whisk well until no lumps over a medium heat. Bring to the boil, mixing well and boil for about 5 minutes or so.
  4. Stir in the fresh herbs.
  5. Line a dish with baking parchments and pour the contents in to allow it to cool.
  6. Once cool, slice up as wanted. I have kept the pieces larger, and not chip like at all, but you can slice into chips if you want to. But handle carefully else they may break.
  7. Now shallow very in a neutral oil such as sunflower oil or canola oil.
  8. Serve hot.
20250225_175933.jpg
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(Gochujang version is red)

Alternative
An alternative cooking method, is to soak the chickpea flour in cold water (100g chickpea flour to 200g water, plus salt, pepper and any spices) for several hours until it thickens. The shallow fry as a single pancake (I added sliced spring green onions) and cut up to serve.

20250223_180244.jpg
 
I love the look of that!
I've currently got two varieties of chickpea flour in the kitchen. The first is the Mediterranean chickpea; the sort you'd make hummus or socca from. The second is Indian besan flour, made with chana dal flour. Any recommendations as to which one is better/worse or do both work the same way?
 
I love the look of that!
I've currently got two varieties of chickpea flour in the kitchen. The first is the Mediterranean chickpea; the sort you'd make hummus or socca from. The second is Indian besan flour, made with chana dal flour. Any recommendations as to which one is better/worse or do both work the same way?
The only difference is how much water they'll absorb. IIRC besan flour requires slightly more water, but I don't think it will make much difference to be honest. The redder version was 400ml of water. The herb version 450ml of water. Both were very good. I understand that the end result when fried, should have a custard like consistency inside. That was better at the 450ml version with 100g of the chickpea flour we have here. The version here is quite fine, as in baking with it fine. What you're making is effectively polenta with chickpea flour instead of corn meal/flour.

I took one shortcut mostly because I didn't stir the pan correctly with a wooden spoon rather than a spatula and ended up with some unsoaked chickpea flour in the pan when i found it. So I took the immersion stick blender to the gloop. If you don't mind doing that, you can cheat and use boiling water from the get go. Saves stirring it from cold to boiling in the pan. Just increase the "boiling" time by a few minutes.
 
I've been working on various combinations for chickpea flour and water and have finally found the right proportion of ingredients.

Ingredients
100g chickpea flour
450ml water
1 tbsp olive oil (optional)
Salt
Pepper

Flavourings
3 large cloves of garlic crushed
3-4tbsp mixed chopped fresh herbs
1tbsp Aleppo pepper flakes
Or
1 heaped tbsp Gochujang
1 tsp ground cumin
1tsp ground coriander

Method
  1. Sift the chickpea flour into a pan. This is essential if you don't want to end up with a lumpy mix.
  2. I roasted the chickpea flour at this stage until it was just beginning to change colour. This step is optional.
  3. Slowly mix in the water and oil and whisk well until no lumps over a medium heat. Bring to the boil, mixing well and boil for about 5 minutes or so.
  4. Stir in the fresh herbs.
  5. Line a dish with baking parchments and pour the contents in to allow it to cool.
  6. Once cool, slice up as wanted. I have kept the pieces larger, and not chip like at all, but you can slice into chips if you want to. But handle carefully else they may break.
  7. Now shallow very in a neutral oil such as sunflower oil or canola oil.
  8. Serve hot.
View attachment 125285View attachment 125286View attachment 125287
(Gochujang version is red)

Alternative
An alternative cooking method, is to soak the chickpea flour in cold water (100g chickpea flour to 200g water, plus salt, pepper and any spices) for several hours until it thickens. The shallow fry as a single pancake (I added sliced spring green onions) and cut up to serve.

View attachment 125288
This seems very similar to what is known in Genoa and other parts of Liguria as FARINATA and in Nice (formerly Italy's Nizza) as socca.
 
This seems very similar to what is known in Genoa and other parts of Liguria as FARINATA and in Nice (formerly Italy's Nizza) as socca.
It's similar, but it's cooked before frying. La socca isn't cooked before the frying, just soaked. The version with the spring onions in it, that's the 'alternative', is la socca and it changes it completely. This version is closer to chickpea tofu which is known as Burmese tofu only Burmese tofu doesn't have the spices added.

The difference is similar in concept to frying an uncooked potato slice, and frying mashed potato.
 
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I made and server pakoras with besan flour. My d.i.l really loved them. 5 leftover for my friend who's calling shortly.
I owe him $140 for 2 whole beef fillets .
1 for me and 1 for son.
I got 16 fat juicy steaks for the freezer.
Freezer inside this time .

Russ
 
I made and server pakoras with besan flour. My d.i.l really loved them. 5 leftover for my friend who's calling shortly.
I owe him $140 for 2 whole beef fillets .
1 for me and 1 for son.
I got 16 fat juicy steaks for the freezer.
Freezer inside this time .

Russ
Yeah on the inside!!!
 
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