Socca with sautéed red peppers and onions

Socca Bread is a popular street food in Nice France. In Italy this bread is known as Farinata. The recipe is basically the same on any website you pick. For the most part it’s half chickpea flour and 1/2 warm water with a little salt, pepper and olive oil. The batter needs at the very least one half hour to sit out. But some people make the batter a day in advance but pull out the batter to warm at room temperature. Most people bake the batter in a preheated cast iron pan and then broil the top to brown. I don’t have a cast iron so I just used a 10 inch pot and sprayed it with non-stick spray because I almost never use anything nonstick. You can make your Socca Bread plain or add tomatoes or peppers and onions like I did. I know that chickpeas are delicious with these spices so I topped my Socca bread with a pinch of sumac, pinch of za’tar, 3 pinches of urfa pepper (it’s really delicious you need to buy some) and Persian blue salt (maybe the most delicious salt I’ve ever tasted). This is really very easy for anyone to prepare and can be done without a cast iron pan. Use any pan and if you happen to have a pizza stone place your pan on the pizza stone for extra heating. The only thing I would have done different was to cook my peppers less so I could brown the top some.

Ingredients

1 cup chickpea flour

1 cup warm water

1/2 teaspoon course sea salt

1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil plus a little extra to drizzle on the top

non stick spray (if you don’t have cast iron pan or two tablespoons more olive oil if you are using cast iron.

Directions

Set oven to 450 degrees F and put pizza stone in oven if you are using a pan that isn’t cast iron.

In a medium bowl mix together the chickpea flour,  water, salt, pepper, and two Tablespoons olive oil. Let sit at least one half hour.

Put your 10 inch pot or fry pan sprayed with non-stick spray on a pizza stone in your 450 degree F oven for about ten minutes to heat up. Then carefully remove from oven. Add chickpea batter. Put back in oven about 15 minutes. Broil if desired. You really want a little brown on the top.

Top and season as desired.

Socca Bread

Lighter and healthier than a pizza…you might want to give it a try!

The Forking Truth

Really Terrific Banana Bread

I saw a big bag of really ripe bananas and thought I haven’t made a banana bread in a while so here it is. Banana Bread might have been the first thing I ever baked that I free styled. I used to bake a few loaves every week and shared the bread with my co-workers. It’s pretty basic and easy and you can make the banana bread in one bowl. This recipe makes two loaves or about 24 servings. You must use really ripe bananas like as ripe as photo for the banana flavor. The bread comes out sweet (but not too sweet), moist and almost caramelized. It’s a tasty treat that seems almost healthy.

Ingredients for about 24 servings

4 oz sweet butter – melted

2 cups sugar

1 cup dark brown sugar

3 XL eggs – slightly beaten

12 bananas

4 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 Tablespoon cinnamon

pinch sea salt

non stick canola spray

Directions

Set oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large bowl add butter, then sugars, mix well, add eggs, mix well.

Add bananas and mash with potato masher till pretty smooth.

Add rest of dry ingredients and hand mix till combined.

Spray two bread loaf pans with non stick spray.

Divide the batter between the two pans.

In my oven the loaves were done in 45 and 50 minutes. remove from oven when the top of loaf in the crack feels cooked.

Let the loaves rest on a counter and pop them out when they cool to just warm.

Slice and serve.

Really Terrific Banana Bread

Really Terrific Banana Bread

Came out great I just winged it. You might go ape over it.

The Forking Truth

Indian Inspired Spicy Cauliflower with Pistachios and Grapes

This cauliflower is wildly flavorful and also is spicy. I’ve been told a number of times that I cook cauliflower really well. People always ask me how I make cauliflower. My secret to delicious tasting cauliflower is to cook it at 350 degrees F and drizzle the cauliflower with extra virgin olive oil. I leave the cauliflower in till it looks browned. When you cook cauliflower this way it turns sweet. This dish is easy to prepare. Feel free to substitute a different hot pepper of your liking if you don’t keep hatch peppers in your freezer.

Ingredients for about 6 servings

1 med-large head cauliflower – broke down to florets

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

2 teaspoons turmeric

2 teaspoons cumin

2 teaspoons caraway

2 teaspoons coriander

2 teaspoons yellow mustard seeds

1 Tablespoon course sea salt

2 Tablespoons unsalted butter

1 large garlic clove – ground to paste

1 fire roasted hatch pepper (not canned…never use the canned hatch peppers) – seeds and stem removed and chopped well

3 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar

3/4 cup pistachios (I went a little heavy with pistachios you can go down to a half cup)

1 cup seedless grapes – cut in half

fresh ground sea salt to taste

fresh ground black pepper to taste

2 Tablespoons fresh cilantro – chopped

Directions

Turn oven on the 350 degrees F.

Spread out the cauliflower florets on a baking sheet(s) and drizzle the cauliflower with the olive oil and place in oven for about 45 minutes or until the cauliflower is golden brown on the edges.

I used 1/2 white and 1/2 orange cauliflower

45 minutes latter

While the cauliflower is roasting get out a small fry pan and add turmeric, cumin, caraway, coriander, salt and butter. Turn the pan on medium high heat and use a spoon and move the spices around on the heat to wake them up a little.

After the butter melts into the spices lower the heat to low and add the garlic and the hot pepper.

Add vinegar and pistachios. You can shut the heat off and leave on burner to keep warm.

Pull out the cauliflower when it is done and add fresh ground sea salt and black pepper to taste.

Put the cauliflower in a large bowl with the grapes. Pour the fry pan contents over the cauliflower and mix gently. Lastly add the cilantro and serve.

Indian Inspired Spicy Cauliflower with Pistachios and Grapes

If you enjoy spicy flavorful food you should love this cauliflower.

The Forking Truth

Kobocha squash is very low in calories and high in nutrition and fiber. It is also naturally very creamy and sweet with a rich almost chestnutty taste. I thought it might be a perfect ingredient to add to ice cream. I also used fat free sweetened condensed milk instead of full fat to help lower the fat content some. Feel free to use either fat free or full fat…I picked up the fat free but had trouble finding it again so you might have that trouble too….I think the full fat will turn out even creamier and better…This ice cream came out delicate tasting.  It tasted just like the squash…..It’s slightly chestnutty. It would be yummy to candy some chestnuts with this flavor ice-cream or add yummy toasted coconut or a white chocolate drizzle. I think the flavoring and sweetness is just right if you want it to taste like Kobocha Squash…. But feel free to adjust to your preference….If you want sweeter add 10x sugar…..If you want more spice…add more spice…I wanted to taste the squash…so here it is….

Ingredients for about 8 servings

1 1/2 cup kobocha squash (cooked till soft and mashed)

2 cups whipping cream

14 oz can of sweetened condensed fat free milk

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon (I used a good quality Vietnamese)

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

pinch sea salt

Directions

In a large bowl whip the whipping cream till whipped and then put to the side.

In a medium bowl whip the remaining ingredients.

Add medium bowl contents to large bowl and whip till incorporated.

Place in a plastic tub with a top and place in the freezer for over night freezing.

Got some Happy Yappy ones that are fascinated with the Kobochca Squash Ice-Cream.

This flavor strongly attracts my dogs….(I note not all dogs can digest milk…only some can)

Kobocha Squash Ice-Cream

If you like Kobocha Squash then you should enjoy this Ice-Cream……While it’s not my top favorite flavor of ice cream I do think it’s much better than many of the lighter or healthier ones I tried from the store…….It’s far better than the popular packaged…something like 350 calories a pint ice cream that’s very popular…….My husband is waiting for me to do a chocolate flavor.

The Forking Truth