This
is one of the recipes I have found in "For the love of Food" by
Denis Cotter, one of the most talented vegetarian chefs. I have been looking at
some recipes for a long time but only recently I decided to actually make one
of them. Some of them are quite complicated, but the dishes look gorgeous. I
will try to write a separate post about the book itself some time.
I
read that farinata is Italian
street food – a pancake made with chickpea flour
with some topping. I have never tried it, so I am would be most happy to read
your comments on how the real farinata should be. This is only Denis’ take on
this dish.
I
could not find any information how big the pan used for this dish was, so I
used my large 28cm pan and doubled the amount of the butter. It came out about
1cm high – so was started in the book with the original quantities, so he must
used smaller pan.
This
has very specific favour. Its consistency is similar to polenta, yet it has
slightly fermented flavour. You suppose to leave the batter for at least 2
hours, and the longer you will leave it the more sour and yeasty flavour it
will get. I left mine for longer than I expected (had to leave home for a
while, not planned at all…) so it rested for 18 hours and had very yeasty
flavour. It doesn’t bother me, but I can imagine it can put some people off.
Next time I will leave it for about 6-8 hours in room temperature.
It
is tasty when warm, but cooled down was still very good; I think this would
make lovely finger food when cut into small pieces. Denis Cotter suggested serving this farinata
with peperonata – it was very good indeed!
For farinata
Serves 2-4
Serves 2-4
200g
gram flour
about
500ml water
6
tbsp olive oil
1
tsp salt
2
large, red onions, peeled, halved and sliced
6
sage leaves
For peperonata
2
tbsp olive oil
4
garlic cloves, peeled and roughly chopped
1
fresh red chilli, deseeded and finely sliced
2
large red bell peppers, deseeded and sliced into 1cm strips
20
black olives, pitted, halved
2
tsp salted capers, rinsed thoroughly under running water
First
prepare the batter. Mix the chickpea flour with water until smooth, cover with
a cloth and leave it to rest for at least 2 hours. Next remove the froth on the
top and add 2 tbsp olive oil and salt. Mix well and heat the oven to 230C.
Now
prepare the peperonata. Heat the pan and add 2 tbsp olive oil. Next add the chilli,
garlic and fry for about 1 minute. Add the peppers, capers, olives and reduce
the heat. Cover and simmer for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Heat
the frying pan that you can use in the oven and add 2 tbsp olive oil. Next add
the onions and fry over a medium heat until soft. Remove from a pan and set
aside. Wipe the pan with some paper towel. Add 1 tbsp of olive oil and fry the
sage leaves until crispy. Remove from a pan and set aside. Next add the remaining
1 tbsp olive oil to the pan and when it is hot pour the batter into the pan. Place immediately in hot oven.
Check
the farinata after about 3-4 minutes – the bottom should be firm already. Then
add the onion and crush the sage leaves in your fingers on the top. Put back in
the oven and bake for about 8-10 minutes, I used frill for last 2 minutes.
Remove
from the oven and accordingly to Denis you should be able to slide this pancake
onto a chopping board. Well… This seemed impossible with mine, to I turned this
upside down onto a chopping board lined with some paper and then again – upside
down onto another chopping board.
Cut
into wedges and serve with some warm peperonata on the side.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please, feel free to leave a comment. Thank you!