A large chickpea flour pancake from Nice, baked in a searing-hot oven until crisp and blistered at the edges and tender in the middle.
·
AI-generated image, not a photograph of the dish
In Nice, socca is eaten standing up at the market, served in torn pieces in a paper cone. It wants lots of black pepper and above all must be eaten straight away.
An estimate computed from the recipe quantities and the USDA food composition database. Real values vary with the products used.
Chickpea flour hydrates slowly. One to four hours of rest lets it absorb the water fully, which gives a tender centre rather than a gritty one, and brings foam to the surface that you can skim off.
What matters is that the surface is searing hot before the batter meets it: preheat a heavy tray in the 250 °C oven, exactly as you would the cast iron. Poured onto a cold pan, the batter cooks slowly, sticks and never develops crisp edges.
About 5 mm, no more. Thicker and the middle stays pasty before the edges colour; thinner and it dries right through, losing the contrast between the crisp rim and the soft centre.
The chickpea’s four states — raw ground, cooked whole, puréed, milled to flour — what each one makes possible, and why a tin cannot stand in for them.
The kitchens that never needed wheat, from nixtamalised maize to teff and cassava, and the places gluten hides where nobody thinks to look.
What actually saves time on a weeknight: a hot pan instead of an oven, rinsed tinned pulses, one loud aromatic, and a starch cooking while you work.
No ratings yet.
Give it a rating
France⏱ 45 minA simple, smooth carrot soup: carrots, onion and one potato simmered in vegetable stock, then blended into a silky French velouté.
France⏱ 25 minCeleriac remoulade: raw celeriac cut into fine matchsticks and dressed in a homemade mustard mayonnaise with lemon. A French bistro starter.
France⏱ 55 minFrench cherry clafoutis, whole cherries set in a soft baked batter of eggs and milk, served warm with a dusting of icing sugar.