Chickpea fries

One of my favorite restaurants in San Francisco is One Market. All of their food is good, but it's one menu item that I keep coming back for: chickpea fries. I just love them, what can I say?

We had lunch at Ubuntu in Napa last month, and guess what was on the menu? Of course I had order them, and it was about that time when I remembered I had a recipe for chickpea fries in Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian book. So I set off to find some chickpea flour to recreate one of my favorite restaurant dishes at home.

I had a hard time finding chickpea flour - I tried a couple of stores, and ended up finding it in the bulk bins at Whole Foods. This recipe is actually quite simple, I can't believe I didn't try it sooner. I adapted the recipe by adding smoked paprika and a pinch of cayenne.

The verdict: these chickpea fries are at least as good as what I order in restaurants. My husband thinks they're better. At One Market, they serve their chickpea fries with harissa aioli; at Ubuntu it's romesco sauce. I had some romesco sauce in the freezer already, so I went with that.

Chickpea fries
Adapted from How to Cook Everything Vegetarian
Serves 4

Neutral oil for pan frying (I used canola)
1 cup chickpea flour, sifted
1 tsp kosher salt, plus more for finishing
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp smoked paprika
a pinch of cayenne pepper
2 T extra virgin olive oil

Line an 8x8 square pan with parchment or plastic wrap, set aside. Bring 2 cups of water to boil in a medium sized pot. Gradually add the chickpea flour, whisking constantly to avoid lumps. Turn the heat down to low and whisk in a teaspoon of kosher salt along with the pepper, smoked paprika, cayenne and olive oil. Cook for one more minute, stirring constantly.

Spread the chickpea mixture into an even layer in the pan. Let cool for about 15 minutes, then cover loosely. Refrigerate for at least one hour, and up to a day.

Heat about 1/8 inch of oil in a large skillet over medium heat. In the meantime, lift the chickpea mixture out of the pan by the edges of the parchment. Cut the chickpea mixture into fries that are about 4 inches long by 1/2 inch wide. Place batches of the fries into the hot oil, turning when browned. After all sides have browned, remove from the oil and drain on paper towels, sprinkle with salt. Repeat with remaining chickpea fries.

Serve with romesco sauce, tomato sauce, or aioli.

Thanksgiving 2008 - the appetizers

I hope everyone had a great thanksgiving! I've decided to recap my thanksgiving over a couple of posts, because I took quite a few pictures. I didn't make all the dishes pictured, so I'll mostly provide details on the items I brought.

It's a family tradition to have a mexican layered dip on thanksgiving. Start with refried beans spread onto a plate, and add layers of sour cream, guacamole, salsa and shredded cheese. You can garnish any combination of chopped tomatoes, olives and green onions.

Here's a vegetable tray my mom made, it was quite colorful.

I made this white cheddar cheeseball. The recipe is from How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, and it couldn't be any easier. It's a block of cream cheese, 8 oz of shredded white cheddar, 2 T butter, 1 T lemon juice, a dash of cayenne, salt and pepper. The cream cheese and butter need to be softened ahead of time. Throw all the ingredients into the bowl of a stand mixer and blend. Shape into a ball and roll in chopped herbs or toasted nuts.

Next up - the main event!

Cheese souffle

On the season premiere of Top Chef, there was quite a bit of discussion about souffles. It then that I realized I have never made a souffle before. I corrected that with a cheese souffle from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. It was actually quite simple. Shredded cheese, egg yolks and seasonings are added to a bechamel sauce to make the base for the souffle. The base is lightened by folding in whipped egg whites. I used pecorino romano and sharp cheddar cheese, which added a lot of flavor. The only tricky part about this dish is the timing - it needs to be served immediately after coming out of the oven, so plan accordingly. Given that the ingredients for this souffle are items that I typically have around the house, this will definitely be a repeat recipe.

Mushroom and garlic flan

This recipe is from Mark Bittman's Quick and Easy Recipes. Thinly sliced shiitake mushrooms are sauteed in a little butter with garlic, salt and pepper. The mushroom mixture is combined with eggs and chicken stock to make a savory flan. The flan is poured into ramekins and cooked, covered, in an inch of simmering water for about 15 minutes.

I really liked the concept, but this flavor combination just didn't do it for us. It was a little bland. I kept fighting the urge to add some parmesan, but since I'm testing this recipe for another cookbook review, I had to make it as directed. I would definitely try this again, but with different flavoring agents - maybe mixed herbs with the parmesan.