As I am working up to the Chickpea

Challenge dinner party I took a stab at making chickpea flatbread.  I liked the idea of grinding my own chickpeas.  And chickpea flour mixed with water seemed like a reasonable enough endeavor.

I started by grinding dried chickpeas in my food processor.  By the way it is the loudest noise that has ever come out of my food processor (so turn it on, run out of the room, and close the door).  When the sound dies down, race into the kitchen and turn it off.  You should have a bunch of chickpea dust in the bowl as well as a bunch of chickpea chunks.  Sift the flour and then take the chunks and grind them in a coffee grinder.  Viola!  You made chickpea flour.

On to the bread.  It was a little hard to settle on a recipe.  Chickpea flatbread actually is enjoyed in many different cultures and so Italy’s version was different than India’s version, than France’s version.  What to choose.  As is my comfort zone I started with Italy.  The idea of putting rosemary into the bread sounded pretty good to me.  So as instructed I mixed up my flour, water and olive oil and let it sit for a few hours.  I then poured it into a cast iron skillet and threw it in the oven.  Easy, peasy?  Wrong.  It was a gooey mess and did not at all look like what I expected.  It never did really set.  It did really go in the garbage.

Take 2.  A french take.  Same ingredients (no rosemary, but cumin).  And just let’s say the pressure was on.  I was going to a friend’s for a little gathering and had agreed to bring an appetizer.  Same steps, mix, rest, cast iron skillet….BUT, this time I made them more like crepes.  I used just a ladle-full of the “dough – which is more a liquid” and then put the skillet in the oven.  They browned up really nicely and got crispy on the ends.  They stuck to the pan unfortunately so they didn’t really look that great, but they tasted OK.

Here’s what I did with them.  Goat cheese and parsley. And a carrot and beet salad with tahini.  Wrap up the cheese and salad in the flatbread. An appetizer was born.

Not sure this will make it to my Challenge Dinner, but let’s just say “It’s On”!