Cooking with chickpea flour?

Ever had a socca cake? It's a savory chickpea pancake and it's fantastic! You can eat them with a little goat cheese and honey for an appetizer or use them as a base for vegetables as a main course. Last night I had socca cake with chard/chick peas (redundant, but great), tomato/bell pepper confit and feta cheese. Killer!

Socca Cake

1 cup garbanzo flour, sifted

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

4 to 6 tbsp olive oil (divided)

1 tsp to 1 tbsp fresh rosemary, chopped (your preference)

1 cup lukewarm water

Mix sifted flour, salt and pepper. Slowly whisk in warm water. Add 2 tbsp oil and the rosemary. Cover and let sit at least 30 minutes and up to several hours.

Preheat oven to 450 WITH a 12 inch non-stick (or cast iron) pan IN the oven.

When hot, carefully pull pan from oven, pour in 2 tbsp oil and swirl. Then pour in batter. Bake 12-15 minutes (for me, it usually goes the full 15) until firm and the edges are set.

Turn on broiler, brush top with more olive oil and brown - careful not to burn it.

Then you just dump it out of the pan and cut into pieces to serve or put on a big round plate and put out with a knife. You can do all kinds of stuff with it.

Chickpea flour is great. What you're going to need is to look at a gluten substitute if you're baking. Xantham Gum is a good one. You might also consider a blend of white and brown rice flours.

Pakoras -- Fried veggie fritters in a yummy chickpea-flour batter.