Panisses
I wanted to title this post, “Mes Panisses,” but the rules of SEO forced me to choose a much less cutesy title.
Ingredients
- 1 quart
water
- 2 tsp
olive oil
- 3/4 tsp salt
2 1/4
cups chickpea flour- salt and pepper
Falafel Sticks
- 1 t ground cumin
- ½ t hot paprika
- ½ cup chopped cilantro
- 2 cloves minced garlic when you add the flour
Instructions
- Lightly oil a 9-inch square cake pan or casserole. A round pan works, too. In France I’ve seen them cool the stuff on a slab, even.
- Heat the water with the oil and salt in a saucepan. Once hot, but not boiling, whisk in the chickpea flour. If there are some small lumps, don’t worry. This is a very forgiving process.
- Whisk over medium heat until the mixture thickens, about three minutes.
- Switch to a wooden spoon, and continue to cook, stirring constantly, for 10 minutes until very thick and the batter is very thick.
- Scrape into the oiled pan and let cool. You can let sit on a counter until stiff, or refrigerate for a couple days, covered.
- To fry the panisses, unmold on a cutting board and slice into French fry-sized sticks. Again, this is your call. Thinner seems to be more popular.
- In a heavy-duty skillet—I use cast iron— heat 1/4-1/2 inch of olive oil. When hot, fry the panisses in batches, not crowding them in the pan. Once the bottom is nicely browned and crisp, turn with tongs, frying the panisses until they are deep-golden brown on each side.
- Remove from pan and drain on paper towels, sprinkling them very generously with salt and pepper.
Falafel Sticks
- serve with tahini thinned with water and lemon juice
Notes
After you sauté them, serve them. If you want to make a batch and have them wait for you, keep them warm in a 250-degree oven for up to an hour.
For a pseudo-Middle Eastern variation, you can add chopped cilantro, chopped garlic, paprika and cumin to the batter to make falafel-like sticks, which you can serve with a tahini dipping sauce. But I like them with salt and ground pepper.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
