Shrimply Delicious Chickpea Pancakes

In March, my roommate and I threw our first big dinner party. I'd always wanted to throw a dinner party, and we may have gone a little overboard, seeing as there were twenty people in our large-but-not-really-that-large Brooklyn apartment. It was everything I thought adult life would be; lovely people having witty conversation, delicious food, and of course copious amounts of alcohol.  I fretted for at least two weeks over what kind of food we should serve. For someone who reluctantly acknowledges herself a perfectionist when it comes to these things (hem hem), there is nothing simultaneously more exciting and more nerve-wracking than a dinner party. I think my unhealthy obsession with them stems from my wish to have everyone in my life that I love meet everyone else in my life that I love. To feed them food they will like, to see them meet other people who are just as amazing as they are and just enjoy being, to drink with them...Dinner parties are my version of hedonism. 

When it came time to choose a menu for these twenty lovelies, my roommate wisely encouraged something that would be easy to make in large batches, like lasagna. Instead we went with something only slightly more involved--daal and rice, and chickpea pancakes with cucumber raita. Being hella neurotic (or maybe just a good planner if I'm not being hard on myself), I did a test run of the chickpea pancakes since I'd never made them before, using raw chickpea flour. They were unspeakably delicious, and were inspired by a Mark Bittman recipe (naturally). I had a feeling they would be a dinner party success.

Of course after the test run of dreams, I created a nightmare for myself when I realized 10 minutes into the dinner party that I had bought an insane amount of the wrong kind of chickpea flour. It was toasted, not raw, and so absorbed less of the water and made a flatter, less crispy pancake....fortunately, I was assured they were still pretty damn good. This is me setting things right...and in the process creating a fairly delicious Dara dish. 

I'm sure there are worse things than buying an insane amount of an ingredient you will never use. I just can't think of any right now. What you see above is half of the toasted chickpea flour that I bought (what was I thinking?). Chickpea flour is just ground-up chickpeas, and when cooked tastes a little bit like falafel. For the dinner party I made a large batch of a similar pancakes, which was the basic batter with onion and rosemary. Having so much leftover, though, I knew I needed variety if I was going to use up all of it. Luckily I was craving egg foo young earlier this week, and decided to give these pancakes a little spin. Credit to my lovely roommate for the punny post title! These are actually both simple and shrimpy... Shrimply delicious!

The basic batter couldn't be easier (notice how I didn't say shrimpler--oh wait, there it is!)--water, chickpea flour, salt, pepper, and oil. You could just stop right here and have a delicious pancake...but that would be too easy.The original recipe uses olive oil, but I wanted some sesame oil for a little "wow" factor.

All this recipe requires is dumping and mixing. I recommend sifting the flour into the water first to remove some of the lumps, but feel free to skip this and just give it a good going-over with a whisk.

Stir in the oil, salt and pepper. If you bought raw chickpea flour, like the master chef I'm sure you are, your batter will benefit from a little sitting on the counter for anywhere from 10 minutes to 24 hours. It will let the batter firm up a bit so that it creates a firmer, puffier, crisper pancake. If you're like me and already messed up by buying the wrong kind of flour--well then what more could possibly go wrong?! Just have fun with it. It will be a loose batter, and you might want to try what I did, which was to accept that it would be a thin batter and so absolutely pack it with tasty things to create more of a fritter than a pancake.  

Enter the tasty things! We have: savoy cabbage, red pepper, onion, garlic, shrimp, and an obscene amount of ginger. Whenever I'm stressed about a cooking project, I always think obscenity is the way to go. 

Whatever ingredients you decide to add, I suggest they be pretty finely chopped since you won't be cooking them before adding them to the batter. Here we have some shrimp...

Some shredded cabbage...

Some diced red pepper...

And some onion, garlic, and ginger. 

You get to mix it on up into a big ol' bowl of color. I love giving you colorful recipes, and I am always jealous of other food bloggers who do it so well so consistently...especially Pioneer Woman, whose Watermelon Pico de Gallo photos improved my mood immediately the other day.  

Let's make some magic. Now pretend there's a picture here of me combining these ingredients--thanks much!

I let the pan get quite hot, so that the pancake/fritters would get nice and crispy. Here is the first pancake, which is always a little terrifying.

And flip!

Here's a little bit of the pancake that fell onto the stove as I was flipping it. I share this moment of weakness with you because I'm actually sort of proud of it--it reminded me of that very memorable Julia Child moment (at 2:26) where she drops half of the potato pancake as she's flipping it: "When you flip something, you have to have the courage of your convictions...but you can always pick it up, and if you're alone in the kitchen, who is going to see?" Wise words.

And then we reach that point...where the pancakes are coming out nice and crispy in batches, the amount of batter in the huge bowl is finally starting to shrink...and yet I'm not quite satisfied with how messy my kitchen is. Sure, chickpea flour on the floor and a very full sink is all well and dandy. But wouldn't I rather dirty a couple more dishes to try to make a sauce to go with these pancakes? Obviously yes. I make some odd tahini-soy sauce-ginger dipping sauce that I was fairly happy with--the best part was definitely watching the sauce take on that gorgeous marbled look as I stirred it. I would also suggest serving these with raita, or mango chutney, or even hummus if you're so inclined. When in doubt, make a mess. Between that and obscenity, you should be fine.

But I digress. There are many more pancakes to be made! I used a non-stick skillet so I would not have to street about these delicate lil things any more than I had to. They have oil in the batter, so they're actually quite easy to flip. But you know me--why take a risk when you don't have to? 

Mm. Lovely. I preferred these smaller pancakes, but the larger ones are good as well. 

And honestly, sometimes you just get tired of flipping tiny pancakes. That's okay. 

In sum: do what you want. I will always support your culinary and life choices. Just know that I highly recommend making a mess and being obscene--in essence, throwing a dinner party.   These pancakes are a little soft, a little crispy, and lusciously fragrant with ginger and sesame. So make some food, invite some friends, crack some wine--dinner parties are shrimply the best. 

Savory, Shrimp Studded Chickpea Pancakes

Adapted from Mark Bittman

Note: I ended up making a crazy amount of these, which was an excellent choice. I give my recipe here for what you see in the photos above, and include Mark Bittman's original version below. It's too hot to turn on the oven, which is why I made these like pancakes on the stove. Either way they come out amazing. 

For the batter: 

3 cups lukewarm water

2 cups chickpea flour (raw or toasted! raw if you can get it!)

2 tsp salt 

2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

4 Tbsp sesame oil

For the filling: 

1 1/2 cups chopped shrimp

2 1/2 cups shredded savoy or napa cabbage

3 Tbsp chopped ginger

3 cloves garlic, chopped

1 red pepper, chopped

1/2 small onion, chopped

1. Sift chickpea flour into the water to eliminate lumps. Stir in salt, pepper and oil. 

2. Combine all filling ingredients, mixing well for even distribution. 

3. Mix the fillings into the batter.

4. Using a ladle, spoon batter into a non-stick or very well oiled pan--it should be so hot that the pancake sizzles immediately. For smaller pancakes, cook 5-7 minutes per side, then flip and cook for another 5-7 minutes. Larger pancakes take 10-12 minutes per side on high heat. A little browning and color is good. 

5. Serve with or without dipping sauce. 

Socca or Farinata (Chickpea Pancakes by Mark Bittman) 

1 cup chickpea flour 
1 teaspoon salt 
1 teaspoon, at least, ground black pepper 
4 to 6 tablespoons olive oil 
1/2 large onion, thinly sliced, optional 
1 tablespoon fresh rosemary leaves, optional. 

1. Heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a well-seasoned or nonstick 12-inch pizza pan or cast-iron skillet in oven. Sift chickpea flour into a bowl; add salt and pepper; then slowly add 1 cup lukewarm water, whisking to eliminate lumps. Stir in 2 tablespoons olive oil. Cover, and let sit while oven heats, or as long as 12 hours. Batter should be about the consistency of heavy cream. 
2. If using onion and rosemary, stir them into batter. Pour 2 tablespoons oil into heated pan, and swirl to cover pan evenly. Pour in batter, and bake 12 to 15 minutes, or until pancake is firm and edges set. Heat broiler, and brush top of socca with 1 or 2 tablespoons of oil if it looks dry. 
3. Set socca a few inches away from broiler for a few minutes, just long enough to brown it spottily. Cut it into wedges, and serve hot, or at least warm.