Chickpea & Coconut Flour Zucchini Pancakes

Last of the home-garden zucchini was waiting to be used. It felt like a pancake kind of day. Not the boring old flour-and-eggs kind served with butter and syrup. But, the loaded-with-veggies savory kind that I've passed off as "pancakes" since kids' infancy.

For the longest time, both kids rejected the traditional pancakes; and, when offered at friends' place the morning after her first sleepover, the then 6 year old came home and wondered why the pancake she was offered was so buttery, soggy, and sweet.

No surprise, as the title says it all, these are griddle pan cakes made with a mix of chickpea flour and coconut flour that has been infused with a generous amount of grated zucchini.

Since the batter is easy to make, I did not measure it out with any precision. Just a bit more of chickpea flour than coconut flour, salt, turmeric, chili powder, plus grated zucchini, and enough water to make the batter thick.

Served with spicy herb green dip and sweet-sour red dip, plus a dollop of thick plain Greek yogurt, these zucchini pancakes get polished off quickly, much like... hot (pan) cakes.

Buckwheat Oat Chickpea Flax Pancake with Collard Greens, Asparagus, Leeks

Growing up with an array of dosai made from the traditional rice and urad dal, as well as chickpea and sooji and anything else my mom felt like throwing together for an amazing experimental dish, I love quick pan fritters and pancakes and pan breads for a weeknight meal, along with vegetable curries and chutneys.

This time, I went with a combination of quarter cup each of buckwheat flour, chickpea flour, rice flour, oat flour, flax meal, and fine cream of wheat (sooji). To boost it a bit, I also added some cooked brown lentils leftover from making Mesir Wat.

For the vegetable side, wilted collard greens with leeks, zucchini, yellow squash, and asparagus  turned out perfect.

Ingredients:
¼ cup each of:
buckwheat flour
oat flour
rice flour
chickpea flour
cream of wheat
flax meal
¼ cup cooked seasoned brown lentils
¼ cup finely chopped radish greens or beet greens
¼ cup finely diced onions
salt to taste
water as needed to make a thick batter

oil for pan-cooking

Preparation

1. Combine the dry ingredients, mix well; add a little water at a time stirring gently to make a thick pancake-like batter
2. Heat a seasoned cast iron skillet to medium, and cook like pancakes
3. Serve warm with any favorite chutney or the Wilted Collard Greens-Leeks-Asparagus side

Wilted Collard Greens Leeks Asparagus Zucchini Yellow Squash 

Since there is no rigid combination here, use as much or as little of each of the above, chopped or sliced to desired size/length. Heat a couple of tablespoons of olive oil and wilt the collard greens; then add the other vegetables and saute till desired doneness. Season to taste.

Ruby Chard, Green Chickpeas, Eggplant and Tofu

Swiss Chard, Ruby Chard, Rainbow Chard... they have good flavor and go well with other vegetables.

I had about half a long Chinese eggplant, a bunch of chard, some cooked green chickpeas and some marinated baked tofu. They came together to make a wonderful chunky and colorful dish that is just juicy enough, rather like a stew.

The dish is flavored it lightly with some garlic cloves, coriander powder, paprika, sautéed in olive oil.

Add the chard, green chickpeas, and eggplant chunks, some salt and water/stock. Cover and simmer till vegetables are done to your liking. Top with marinated pan-fried tofu chunks and serve warm.

Yeshimbra Injera: Chickpea Flour Injera

Yeshimbra Dabbo, a bread made with fermented chickpea flour, is the inspiration for this dish. Injeras are Ethiopian thin pancake-like fermented flat breads usually made from flours like t'ef, sorghum, barley, maybe even corn, wheat, or a combination. I like making injeras as it is a great alternative to my favorite Dosai that I grew up with.

The idea behind Dosai and injera seems similar to me - fermented flour, spread thin on a griddle or pan, cooked over medium heat till required done-ness, served with some wonderful sides, torn by hand and relished slowly.

I like to make injeras with buckwheat, rye, spelt flours sometimes. Chickpea flour is another great option for soft fluffy injeras and they are quite tasty.

It does need some planning ahead as the batter is not ready till well-fermented - and that could take up to 36 or 48 hours depending on the season, how warm the place is to allow good fermentation. Usually, if I start the batter tonight, it is fermented and ready for dinner the day after tomorrow.

Ingredients
2 cups chickpea flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tsp rapid rise yeast
2 cups warm water (more if needed before cooking)

1 tsp baking soda and salt to taste, to be used just before cooking

Preparation

1. Combine the flours, yeast, and water, stir well, cover loosely with a cheesecloth and allow to ferment in a warm place for 24 to 36 hours; stir once every 12 hours or so
2. When it develops a slight pleasant sour smell and bubbles when stirred, it is ready to be made into injeras
3. Heat a non-stick pan or griddle over medium heat, brush or spray with oil if preferred
4. Stir in the salt and baking soda, add a little water if needed to make a thin batter like for crepes, which can be poured into the pan and spread around by simply picking up and tilting the pan
5. Holes form on the surface as it cooks; I usually cook only on one side till the raw batter turns color as it cooks through; but, can flip and cook the other side if preferred

Roll up the injera one by one as they come off the pan and stack them for serving. Perhaps lay a few of them flat and overlapping on a large plate and scoop small mounds of sides on top. Serve warm with sides like mesir wat, y'abesha gomen, yekik alicha or bamya alicha, maybe even some Yeqey Sir Qiqqil, some Selatta...

Some of the sides can be prepared ahead of time, refrigerated, and warmed up before serving.

Dhokla

Dhokla is a Gujarathi dish that can be served throughout the day, as a snack, at mealtime, or even at dinner.

As it is steamed, like south indian idlees, it has a shiny top side and a textured underside.

Besan is chickpea flour. As far as I understand, Khaman Dhokla uses rice, urad and moong dals, soaked, ground, even fermented a bit before cooking. But, Besan Dhokla simply uses chickpea flour. I use the terms Khaman Dhokla and Besan Dhokla interchangeably.

Typically, Dhokla is only about an inch thick, cut into squares or diamonds and served warm or at room temperature, with chutneys. But, I made a dhokla cake-of-sorts close to 2" thick, cut into wedges and served warm.



The ratio that has worked for me is roughly 2:1 chickpea-flour:sour-yogurt, but, adjust as needed to get a thick pancake-like batter that steams well. The besan batter for this needs to be left overnight or so to develop, before it can be steamed.

A greased cake tin or a shallow bowl can be used for steaming the dhokla. Also, some sort of steaming equipment is needed: pressure cooker without the weight on top works - place the pan on a smallish bowl to keep the bottom of the pan about 3 inches or so above the bottom of the pressure cooker liquid. Or Idlee steamer works well too, if you have it handy...

Ingredients:
1 cup chickpea flour, measured after sifting
½ cup sour yogurt (maybe a little more)
2 Tbsp finely grated ginger
1-2 green chili finely minced
½ medium onion finely chopped
1 tsp baking powder
2-3 Tbsp canola oil for greasing
salt to taste
water as needed, for steaming
for garnish:
¼ cup fresh or dry grated coconut
1 Tbsp canola oil for tempering
½ tsp mustard seeds, for tempering
½ tsp cumin seeds, for tempering
½ Tbsp chana dal, for tempering
some chopped cilantro

Preparation

combine the sifted chickpea flour, yogurt, ginger and some salt, stir gently to remove lumps to make a fairly thick pancake like batter; cover with a breathable kitchen towel and leave overnight in a warm place

when ready to cook, get the steamer apparatus ready, grease the cake tin or plate; keep handy

add the chilies, onion, and baking powder to the chickpea batter and stir gently till well incorporated

pour the batter into the prepared greased dish, steam for 10-15 minutes; check for doneness: insert a toothpick, if it comes clean, good, else, let it steam longer as needed till cooked through (the dhokla cake pictured above took me about 45 minutes of steaming time)

meanwhile, as dhokla is steaming, prepare the garnish: heat oil for tempering in a pan, when hot enough, add the chana dal, when it turns golden brown, add the mustard seeds and when they pop, add the cumin seeds, turn off heat, add the coconut and stir well and let it brown in the residual heat of the pan; set aside

when dhokla is done, remove from steamer, allow to cool a little, release carefully from the pan, garnish with the tempering, coconut and cilantro

cut into wedges or squares and serve warm with curry leaf chutney or mint chutney or tamarind chutney or coconut cutney

Kadhi (Karhi) with Naan

This is a Gujarathi dish that I have sort of adapted to my taste. I added pakoras to the kadhi, but, any other vegetable like bell peppers or even chick peas would be good, or just leave it plain and unadorned.

The pakoras can be made ahead and then simmered with the karhi, with a few crunchy ones added as garnish right before serving.

Kadhi/Karhi is a versatile dish: it can be served as a side with any of the Indian flat breads, especially good with home-made naan; or even with rice; or even used as a dipping sauce for chips and fresh veggies.

Ingredients
3/4 cup chick pea flour (besan)
1 cup yogurt
3 cups water (more if you want the kadhi thinner,less if you want it thicker)
2 Tbsp lemon juice
10-12 pieces of pakoras
1/2 cup finely chopped medium yellow onion
1 Tbsp finely chopped green chilies (optional)
2 tsp turmeric powder
1 Tbsp canola oil (or ghee)
salt to taste
5 curry leaves (murraya koenigii) for garnish

Preparation

1. In a large enough bowl, mix the chick pea flour, yogurt, water, turmeric without any lumps and set aside
2. heat oil in a pan, sautée the (chilies and) onions till onions turn translucent
3. add the mixture from step 1 to the pan, and some salt to taste
4. boil the mixture on medium heat for about 15 minutes, stirring constantly, till it thickens and the raw flavor of the chick pea flour is gone
5. the consistency is sort of close to a white sauce, but, you can have it thicker or thinner as you like
6. now add the pakoras (or steamed veggies or cooked chick peas) and cook till pakoras/veggies soften a little
7. add the curry leaves and cook for a minute or so
8. remove from heat, add lemon juice and stir
9. serve hot with home-made naan