I <3 chickpeas flour!
My flight to Singapore was bloody delayed by two hours. The total duration of the travelling between Alicante and Singapore sums up to 25 hours: more than a day wasted in connections! But I have to look at the bright side, as soon as I'll find one of course :(
Plenty of time to talk about pending recipes in my "food" folder. This is another starter that I tried out for my future Eatwith guests, born during my efforts to reduce the amount of meat consumed during the week. The idea of using chickpeas flour came to me one evening in Calpe, while talking with a couple of true foodlovers who were trying to cope with their vegan child. Now, being vegan is probably cool in NYC, but quite hard in Spain where ham is called red salad and no meal is considered respectable without some fried pork fat.
But the two said that one of the vegan dishes that they also liked (maybe the exact word was "tolerate"... but anyway) was the vegan tortilla de patatas, made with chickpeas flour instead of eggs. Now, I have mixed feelings about the habit of calling vegan dishes with the names of something non-vegan, especially when they do not resemble the original recipe at all. Like vegan carbonara, please, PLEASE! But, as I wrote many times here, my stomach do appreciate vegetables and legumes, and then the idea of chickpeas flour remind me the farinata, which is a sort of flat pizza made with chickpeas flour only.
To give a twist to the mix water+chickpeas flour (which can be quite dry in the mouth) I have tried different additions, like steamed chard or asparagus, but the one I like the most was:
FARINATA WITH CARAMELISED ONIONS AND ROASTED PEPPERS
for the caramelised onions:
a few small flat onions (3-4 are needed for the recipes, but make more the night before and use it as a side)
5 spoons balsamic vinegar
5 spoons oil EVO
5 spoons of water
1 spoon honey
for the farinata
100 gr chickpeas flour
300 gr water
15 gr oil EVO
ground pepper
Start with the onions. Peel them and place them in a pot, add vinegar, oil and water and cook at very low fire for 1 hour or more. Add the honey and adjust the salt halfway. Let it cool down (better if used the day after)
Mix water and chickpeas flour, add salt and pepper and half of the oil. Mix it well. Put the onions chopped in small pieces in a baking tray and pour the chickpeas mix on top; add the remaining oil. The width of the farinata should not be more than 1-2 cm. Cook in the oven at 250 degrees until golden. Decorate with roasted pepper and balsamic vinegar reduction.
