Like a lot of people who enjoy cooking, I own a few cookbooks. Over Christmas and my birthday, I got given several to add to my collection.... plus I did buy a few myself!
I tell myself that I don't need to feel guilty about my cookbook collection since I do read each one I own. I'm sure I'm not the only one who takes cookbooks to read in bed!
The other weekend it was just Alastair and I at home for brunch. I had seen a recipe for pancakes or fritters using chickpea flour, but couldn't remember where I had read it. I tried flicking through a few of my newest cookbooks and online through my usual recipe websites but with no success. Gaaah! Don't you hate it when that happens? In the end I couldn't track down the recipe and had to wing it. That's the problem with reading so many books and food magazines - you get ideas and inspiration but then you can't remember where those ideas came from!
I ended up with corn and chickpea flour fritters. I bought the chickpea flour from an Asian grocery store to make onion bhaji and have used it a few times since. Plain flour would work as a substitute, but the chickpea flour gives a unique nutty depth of flavour.
On a side note, I have discovered that indian style chickpea flour is made from chana dal, which is a cousin of the chickpea, not an actual chickpea. There's lots of alternative names for this flour: chana dal flour, gram flour, dal flour, or besan flour to name a few. Actual chickpea flour (ie made from actual chickpeas) is popular in Italian cuisine and is called farina di ceci.
Corn and chickpea flour fritters
Makes about 6 medium fritters
1 cup frozen corn kernels
2 cups chickpea/besan flour
1 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons baking powder
2 tablespoons chopped chives
2 eggs
1 cup of milk (add a tad more if you think it's too thick)
Pepper
Oil spray
Cream cheese
6-8 cherry tomatoes, quartered and tossed with a dash of olive oil
Extra chives to garnish
Put all the dry ingredients together in a bowl.
Mix together the eggs, milk, onion, and chives, season with pepper, then stir in the dry ingredients and mix lightly until combined.
Allow to stand for 10 minutes.
Heat a nonstick frying pan on medium heat, and lightly spray with oil.
Drop 1/4 cup measures of mixture on to the frying pan, allowing room for spreading, and cook over medium heat. Turn when bubbles come to surface, and cook another minute.
Put a dollop of cream cheese and some cherry tomatoes on top of the fritters, and garnish with some extra snipped chives.
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