Provence & the Midi · Starter
Panisses de Marseille
- Intermediate
- 30 min
- roughly 1 of 4 for cost
- Vegetarian
- Vegan
Leads with a briny, maritime salinity, acid holding everything up to the light, settling low and earthy.
Ingredients
- 250 g chickpea flour
- 1 litre cold water
- 1 tsp fine sea salt
- 3 tbsp olive oil, plus 800 ml for frying
- Coarse salt and black pepper
- 1 lemon, in wedges
Equipment
Sheet pan
The skills inside
Deep fryingDraining fried food: a rack, never paperChilling to firm: the fridge as binder
Allergen screen
Found: gluten
Screened for: gluten, dairy, egg, nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish, molluscs, soy, sesame, celery, mustard, lupin, alcohol. Not screened: sulphites.
Screened by keyword from the ingredient list, not reviewed by a person; check every label for what the list cannot show.
Method
- Whisk the chickpea flour into the cold water off the heat until not one lump remains; added to hot water the flour sets a skin around each lump and locks it in.
- Bring it to the boil stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, add the salt and the 3 tbsp oil, and cook about 10 minutes, until the spoon leaves a clean trail across the pan floor and the paste pulls away from the sides. 10 min
- Pour it at once into oiled saucers or a shallow tray to a depth of 1.5 cm, smooth the top and leave it to set cold and firm, at least two hours.
- Cut into thick chips and fry in olive oil at 175C (350F) until crisp and pale gold, then drain, salt coarsely, pepper heavily and serve with lemon.
How to tell it is going right
This dish has no standard of its own yet. It is judged on the techniques it exercises: checked at the pan, while there is still something to be done about it.
Chilling to firm: the fridge as binder 48 recipes
- It went cold before it was handled any further, and it went in spread flat and covered rather than as a warm mass that insulates its own centre.
- It is cold through rather than cold at the edge: tested at the middle it is as firm as it is at the rim.
- It holds its shape unsupported; it can be cut, portioned, rolled or lifted without slumping, tearing, or sticking to the hands.
- The fat in it has gone solid: it feels firm and waxy to the fingers rather than greasy and yielding.
- It survives the step it was chilled for, going into heat or a coating or a mould still holding its form rather than collapsing the moment it is touched.
Where it goes wrong It was given twenty minutes instead of the hours it needed, so it is firm at the rim and soft at the core: it slumps out of shape as it is portioned, and everything made from it spreads or breaks apart in the pan.
Draining fried food: a rack, never paper 77 recipes
- The rack was in place before the first thing went into the oil, not fetched afterwards while food waited in a spider over the pot.
- It lands on a rack with air moving underneath it. Anything set down on paper or a flat plate traps its own steam against its base.
- Salted within seconds of landing, while it is still hot enough to take seasoning.
- A minute later the underside is still as crisp as the top: no soft flat patch where it has been sitting.
- Nothing is stacked or piled while hot, however tempting it is to keep it together. A pile steams itself soft from the inside out.
Where it goes wrong It was drained on paper, or piled up to keep warm. Steam leaving the food has nowhere to go but back into the crust, so the underside softens within a minute: the crispness the frying just bought is gone before the plate reaches the table.
At the Table
- The Pour
- Grüner Veltliner
- Also Right
- Vermentino or dry Chenin
- From the Taps
- Saison
- Zero-Proof
- Sparkling water with citrus & herbs
The vegetable whisperers: peppery, high-acid whites that flatter greens, roots, and grains without bullying them.
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