more fun with chickpea flour, aka besan

indian snacks made with chickpea flour are plentiful and come in a vast variety, from savoury to sweet.

besan, or indian chickpea flour, is made from the desi variety of chickpea. this chickpea is smaller than the mediterranean one and is an essential staple ingredient in all its forms in indian cookery.

both of the two varieties of chickpea are grown here in canada. pulsecanada.com has information about [and photos of] both these types, as well as the other types of pulses grown here. if you click on the health & nutrition tab, you will find a large variety of recipes for a myriad of dishes using these beans. there is also nutritional information about the benefits of eating beans and legumes.

two snacks i sometimes make which use this flour are called chakli & masala sev.

to make these, both need to be fried in oil. this is something i do only a few times a year and consider it more shallow-frying since it is done in just enough oil to fry them in a shallow pan such as a cast iron fry pan. a shallow pan also gives you a much wider surface and therefore more space. i open all the windows and turn on the fans and exhaust system on my kitchen range to eliminate as much of the smell of the oil as quickly as possible. invariably, i always end up smelling like i was deep fried. no big deal, just change your clothes and take a shower. in the end, you end up with great snacks to be eaten over the course of time when you feel the need for a spicy snack.

chakli

there are various ways to make these crunchy snacks using different kinds of flours. i chose to make them with besan and used a recipe from yamuna devi's most well researched and detailed œuvre, called lord krishna's cuisine: the art of indian vegetarian cooking. these are also fortified with sesame seeds and coconut. this recipes will yield 24, more or less, if the chakli are "properly" extruded to the right size.

ingredients:

145 g or 1 1/2 c. besan flour
80 g or 1/2 c. coarsely ground rice flour
45 ml or 3 tbsp shredded coconut, fresh or dried
40 g or 1/4 c. sesame seeds
0.5 ml or 1/8 tsp asafetida
6 ml or 1 1/4 tsp chilli powder
6 ml or 1 1/4 tsp salt
0.5 ml or 1/8 tsp baking soda
15 ml or 1 tbsp ghee or oil
180 ml or 3/4 c. water [more or less]

oil for frying

method:

briefly cook besan in a pan until it starts to change colour, about a shade or two darker and it loses its raw taste. let cool.

coarsely grind your rice to make a flour which is both gritty and powdery at the same time. do not overgrind or undergrind. do this in a coffee/spice grinder using basmati rice.

measure and add all spices to bowl.

add liquid and mix to make a soft paste.


load this into a chakli press or you can use a pastry tube with a large star tip or a cookie gun.

on a very lightly rice flour sprinkled piece of parchment [to avoid sticking], pipe out streams of dough tightly winding around several times to about 2 1/2 - 3 inches. start from the middle and work your way around slowly. it takes a little practice but is not hard to do. if you do not want to do this, you may also just directly extrude streams of dough into the oil.

while you are forming your chakli, heat your oil for frying. oil temperature should be 335 F or 170C. using peanut oil is best, however with all this allergy to peanuts being so prevalent, use only if you know people who will eat these will not be in any danger.

using a spatula, carefully lift the chakli and put them in the oil and fry til browned on each side about 3 minutes per side. if you fry too long, they will be extremely hard. not long enough and they will be soft and uncooked. test one or two to determine the outcome first, is all i can suggest.

drain the chakli on paper towel. let cool and store for future snack attacks.

masala sev

taken from the same book by yamuna devi, these are very crunchy fried spaghetti type strands of spicy chickpea flour. you break them up and eat as a snack or mix it in with other things to make other kinds of snacks. there are whole shops in india which specialize in these snacks. sev can be made in different thicknesses also depending on what you plan to do with it. note again that if these are over fried, they will be extremely hard. this recipe makes a lot. you can halve the ingredients.

ingredients:

2 1/4 c. besan flour
1/2 tsp chilli powder
1/2 tbsp salt
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1/4 tsp ajwain seeds, slightly crushed
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 tbsp oil
1/2 tbsp lemon juice
3/4 c. water

oil for frying

method:

the method for making sev is much the same as chakli but this time the dough is extruded directly into the oil in a spiraling motion.

measure ingredients into a bowl.


add liquid and make the sev paste.


heat the oil and add the paste to the sev maker or cookie gun. oil temperature should be 345 F or 175 C.


with a spiraling motion, extrude the dough into the oil and cook several minutes until several shades darker on both sides. remove and drain on paper towels. you may make thinner sev noodles. they will cook faster however.

break up into pieces and store.

check out naughty curry, if you love indian food. an interesting site.

chickpea flour & memories of gibraltar

many years ago i ate something at a friend's house made by "savta", my friend's moroccan grandmother. served as a snack item, i found it to be delicious. i really didn't think to ask much about it at the time as this was many long years ago. food was food at that time, something you ate and i didn't exactly have discussions about recipes amongst my gang of friends. one thing i did know was that it had a spanish name and was made from chickpea flour — not your standard "north american" staple.

recently i spoke to a friend and she mentioned this item by its name which i had long forgotten. "calentita", that's it! my friend told me that it was a specialty of gibraltar and was a snack item she used to eat after school. as i confess to knowing next to nothing about this place, i was surprised to discover it was of italian origin and was a "national dish". read this short article for the details. i also found a reference to this dish under the name karantita which says it is of algerian origin. if you understand french it is interesting to read. whatever its origin, it is delicious. for recipes from gibraltar and the calentita [basically the same as what i am posting here], check out the heritage magazine published in gibraltar itself. to learn more & view photos about this famous place, visit gibraltar's official site.

here is the simple recipe for calentita. it really is a "nothing" recipe. it relies on very basic ingredients quickly thrown together, all of which do not look like they will result in much of anything.

after baking, you get a thin product which is cut in squares and lightly sprinkled with fresh black pepper. the consistency of the calentita is that of a thicker baked chickpea layer topped with a thin, custard like top layer.

calentita

makes 1 small 8" x 8" calentita [you may double this and bake in a larger pyrex]

ingredients:

1 c chickpea flour
2 1/2 c. water
1 egg
2 tbsp oil
1 tsp salt
1/8 to 1/4 tsp ground cumin, opt.

method:

in a large bowl, sift chickpea flour with salt & cumin, if using. do not skip the sifting step. slowly add water and mix thorougly with a whisk. set this aside on your countertop for 4 to 6 hours.

preheat oven to 350F. and oil a pyrex on the sides and bottom. add about a tbsp of oil to do this and don't drain it. place the pryex in the hot oven so it heats the oil well.

add the egg and the remaining oil to the chickpea mixture and beat again.

remove the pan from the oven and CAREFULLY add the chickpea flour preparation to the pyrex and replace it in the oven for approximately 1 hr to 1 hr 10 min. or until the sides are crispy and the top is golden brown. the calentita will look not fully cooked on top. that is how it is supposed to be. it will firm further as it cools.

remove and let cool. cut in squares and serve with a sprinkling of fresh black pepper.

for more information about the little chickpea, read this article near the bottom of the page. you will see there are two types of chickpeas — desi & kabuli [indian names]. both the above recipe and the following ones use the "kabuli" southern european/middle eastern type of chickpea [garbanzo] flour. here is more interesting information.

three different european items using chickpea flour are the provençal socca & the ligurian cousin [and predecessor?] of calentita called panissa and the ligurian pancake called farinata.

one company which i really like is bob's red mill. this company offers high quality flours [most of which are kosher, i believe] and there are recipes and further information about each product on the website.

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2 recipes using garbanzo flour [in hebrew] are for panella and delicious looking cauliflower fritters encased in a chickpea flour batter. i may try this one and translate after if it is good.