Carrot and Saffron Socca

I’m in mourning. That’s the only way to describe it. I received a note in the mail informing me that Martha Stewart Living magazine will no longer be published. It was a shock because no announcement had been made in the magazine; I hadn’t seen anything about it on social media; and Martha did not call me personally to discuss the matter. How has this happened? I subscribed for at least 23 years and maybe longer. I’ve learned so many things from Martha’s tv shows, books, and especially the magazine that I read every month. Trust me, the jokes about Martha are not lost on me, but I’m a fan and have a huge appreciation for her expertise and ability to teach. I have a special file system just for pages I’ve cut from the magazine and kept over all the years of subscribing, and now nothing more will be added to it. I guess I have to try to move on. On the bright side, a lot of people have worked with Martha over the years, and they will continue to share what they learned from her. For instance, Jess Damuck worked with Martha in various roles including in the test kitchen of the Martha Stewart Living tv show, and her book Salad Freak is clearly influenced by this experience. I read my review copy with delight to learn of how Damuck made lunches for Martha by “preparing each component with more focus and attention that I even knew I had in me.” She became enamored with salads for freshness, flavor, and composition. The recipes are organized by season, and the photos display all the lovely colors and textures of each dish. Some are hearty salads as meals in themselves and some are lighter. There are salads with fruits and fruit-only salads. I’ll be turning back to the Winter chapter for all the uses of citrus, but there’s also a Caesar Salad Pizza in that chapter that I’m sure to try before the season arrives. In the Spring chapter, you’ll find the Martha’s Mango and Mozzarella with Young Lettuces salad that I want to try and not just because of the story about Martha in the head note. I made the Simple Egg Salad with Lots of Dill but made it a little less simple with some added pickled jalapeno and green onion. There’s an Ode to the Scuttlebutt salad that I loved seeing because it’s based on a sandwich from the former Saltie restaurant. I have the book of that name and made that sandwich for this blog once upon a time. And, there are lots of terrific salads with tomatoes for summer like the BLT Potato Salad and Snoop’s BBQ Chicken Cobb Salad with All the Good Stuff. Damuck mentions serving cut fruit and vegetables on ice and how refreshing that is in the summer. She also uses a melon baller in more than one recipe. I felt so validated by that. I love using a melon baller. So, of course, I made the Balled Melon as a Snack and served it on ice. When fall arrives, I’ll be making the Shredded Kale and Brussels Sprouts with Roasted Squash and Pomegranate salad and the Crispy Calamari with Carrots, Frisee, and Ginger salad. For today, I want to tell you more about the Carrot and Saffron Socca. 

Saffron was steeped in warm water and then was mixed with chickpea flour and olive oil to make the socca batter. A cast iron skillet was warmed in the oven as it pre-heated. The warm skillet was then placed on top of the stove, oil was added, and sliced scallions were cooked before the socca batter was added. The skillet went back into the oven for 10 minutes before the broiler was turned on for a few minutes to brown the top of the socca. Meanwhile, I had some local carrots and daikon radish that I sliced on a mandoline. The slices were crisped in ice water before being drained and dried. The recipe suggests making pesto from the carrot tops, but mine didn’t come with tops. I used basil and parsley from my herb garden instead. The cooked socca was topped with the shaved vegetables, dollops of pesto, crumbles of local feta, sunflower seeds instead of sliced almonds in my case, and crushed red chiles. 

I loved everything about this dish. The saffron in the socca was divine and so was topping socca with a crisp, fresh salad. The ice water bath gave the shaved vegetables nice shapes and crunchy texture. And, the feta and pesto brought richness and great flavor. Maybe I’ll find a way to go on without Living magazine in my life--but only if I keep coming across books like this full of really good ideas.

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Socca with Butternut Squash

I first heard about the restaurant Sqirl in Los Angeles from a magazine article reporting on the long lines of people waiting for toast. Of course, this wasn’t just any toast, and of course, they serve lots of other things too. Sqirl started as a jam company, hence the amazing toast, and now serves breakfast and lunch. The story of the restaurant and all the recipes are in the new book Everything I Want to Eat: Sqirl and the New California Cooking, and I received a review copy. There’s a mention in the introduction about how guests at the restaurant often order items and request all sorts of substitutions, and as it happens, the dishes adapt easily to various, little changes. Several items are already gluten-free, and adapting dishes to make them vegetarian or vegan is very doable. The recipes cover Eggs and Toast, Grains and Beans, Vegetables, Meat, Fish, Jams, Desserts, and Drinks. For the famous toast, there’s actually not a recipe for the bread itself, but one inch thick slices of brioche are suggested for toasting and spreading with ricotta and jam or ganache and nut butter or almond hazelnut butter and jam. There’s a nice mix of decadence and nutritious options throughout the book. I’ve marked the page for a grain bowl with mung bean sprouts, crunchy buckwheat, and roasted squash with pomegranate seeds, labneh, and cilantro pistou. A few pages later, I’ve marked a salad made with a rich and lovely Southern-Style Fresh Cream and Black Mustard Dressing. Every dish is balanced mix of flavors and textures, and in some cases there are sub-recipes to prepare before pulling everything together. But, you can pick and choose the parts of a dish you wish to make and skip elements if you like. I love the look of the baguette toast shown a few times in the book. It’s a long slice from the full length of a baguette. For the Squid Toast, that long, skinny piece of toast is topped with aioli, roasted tomatoes, and seared squid. It looks pretty and delicious. The first recipe I tried was the Socca or chickpea flour pancakes. They’re made with grated vegetables depending on what’s in season. Winter squash is one suggestion, and I had a local butternut squash ready and waiting. 

Step one is to peel, seed, and grate the butternut squash which looked curiously like a pile of grated cheddar cheese. The grated squash was tossed with a little salt and left to drain in a sieve. Cumin, coriander, and fennel seeds were toasted and then ground in a mortar and pestle. Eggs were whisked and the drained squash was added with minced garlic, chopped oregano, cilantro, and basil in my case since I don’t have any mint growing. Chickpea flour was added with the ground spices along with salt and pepper, and the mixture was stirred to combine. Large pancakes were cooked in a hot pan with melted butter. Meanwhile, some arugula leaves were tossed with lemon juice, olive oil, and salt and pepper. I had started straining some thick yogurt the day before to make labneh, and I seasoned it with salt and a little sumac. The pancakes were served a dollop of labneh, the dressed arugula, and optionally with a fried egg added. 

This was a hearty and flavorful brunch dish. The herbs and spices in the socca added a lot of interest, and the arugula and labneh were just the right added components. Seeing how well this dish came together made me eager to try more things from the book. I’ve got my eye on the Brown Rice Horchata sweetened with dates to try next.

Socca (chickpea flour pancakes) made with your choice of zucchini, carrot, or winter squash 
Recipe reprinted with publisher’s permission from Everything I Want to Eat. 

Since Sqirl is open for breakfast and lunch, the majority of our customers order one dish, not an appetizer followed by an entrée and a cheese course. So we are always trying to come up with ways to create a single dish that really satisfies. This socca pancake stemmed from that quest. It’s traditional in that it is a flat pancake made of gluten-free chickpea flour, but it’s also not so traditional in that it is filled with lots of vegetables and topped with greens and creamy labneh. 

Serves 4 

1 pound (455 g) zucchini, carrot, or winter squash (see Notes), peeled and coarsely grated 
Fine sea salt 
1/4 teaspoon cumin seeds 
1/4 teaspoon coriander seeds 
1/4 teaspoon fennel seeds 
4 large eggs 
1 clove garlic, minced 
1 tablespoon chopped fresh oregano 
2 tablespoons chopped fresh mint 
3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro 
2/3 cup (80 g) chickpea flour 
Freshly ground black pepper 
Pinch of ground cinnamon (optional; use with winter squash) 
Pinch of ground ginger (optional; use with winter squash) 
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus more as needed 
1/2 cup (120 ml) labneh 
3 cups (60 g) spicy greens (such as watercress, arugula, or baby mustard greens) 
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice 
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil 

Toss the grated vegetable with a few big pinches of salt, then put it in a fine-mesh sieve and let drain, squeezing every so often so that the vegetable releases its water, for at least 15 minutes. 

Meanwhile, combine the cumin, coriander, and fennel seeds in a dry skillet over medium-low heat. Toast the spices, shaking the pan often, until fragrant but not burned, about 3 minutes. Using a mortar and pestle or a spice grinder, grind the toasted spices to a powder. 

Crack the eggs into a large bowl and whisk to break them up. Add the drained vegetables, along with the garlic, oregano, mint, cilantro, chickpea flour, and toasted spices. Season with 1/2 teaspoon salt and a few grinds of black pepper, and mix well. If you are using winter squash, stir in a pinch each of ground cinnamon and ground ginger. (The pancake batter can be made up to 2 days ahead and stored, covered, in the fridge.) 

Heat a large skillet, preferably cast iron, over medium-high heat for a minute or two. Add the butter, then spoon in two overflowing ½ cupfuls (120 ml) of the pancake batter, pressing each to 1/2 inch (12 mm) thick. Cook, rotating the skillet occasionally for even browning, until the pancakes are nicely browned, about 3 minutes. Flip, then cook the second side for another few minutes. Transfer the pancakes to a plate. Repeat to make two more pancakes, adding more butter to the skillet, if needed. 

Season the labneh with salt. 

Just before serving, toss the greens with the lemon juice, oil, and some salt and pepper. Top each socca pancake with a huge dollop of labneh and a tangle of greens. 

NOTE ON THE WINTER SQUASH You can use any kind of winter squash that you like. We usually go for kabocha. If you’re having a hard time grating the squash on one of those handheld box graters, try cutting the squash into 2-inch (5-cm) pieces and then shredding them in a food processor. 

WANT TO MAKE IT HEARTIER? Add a fried egg on top. 

SPICE UP THE LABNEH Have fun with the seasoning. Try mixing in ras el hanout or za’atar. 

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Mushroom Socca Stacks

Chickpea flour flatbreads with cheddar, slow-roasted tomatoes, and herby sauteed mushrooms had me thinking about this dish since October. It appeared in that issue of Vegetarian Times, and I have to tell you about my subscription. This is one subscription that I don’t receive in the mail. I subscribe to an online version that arrives in my email inbox. I flip through the pages on-screen, and they look exactly the same as the printed version. I can print pages if I want or go back to the issue at any time. I’m definitely a fan of having physical magazines and books to read, and I don’t think I’ll ever entirely switch to e-reading, but having a subscription here and there in electronic form is a good environmental option. So, when I saw this ‘page,’ it immediately became part of my to-try list.

This is very easy to prepare, but you need to plan ahead for roasting the tomatoes. Since fresh, ripe tomatoes aren’t a February crop, I opted for canned, whole tomatoes instead. They worked great. Just cut the tomatoes in half and place them on a baking sheet. Sprinkle them with chopped thyme, rosemary, oregano, and garlic. Then, drizzle them with olive oil and season with salt and pepper, and roast them at 300 F for two hours. Once roasted and full of concentrated flavor, half of the tomatoes were pureed to form a sauce, and the other half were reserved for garnishing. The socca were made by whisking together chickpea flour and salt and pepper, and then lukewarm water and oil were added. That was left to sit while finely diced onion was sauteed with thyme. The mushrooms were added to the onion, and then some dry white wine was splashed into the pan. That was left to cook until the wine evaporated. The socca mixture was poured into a loaf pan, and it was baked for about 10 minutes. Grated cheddar was sprinkled on the socca, and it was returned to the oven just to melt the cheese. The socca wasn’t as firm as I expected, so I may bake it a little longer next time.

The stacks were formed with a base of tomato sauce topped with sauteed mushrooms, then one piece of socca, and all the layers were repeated with whole roasted tomatoes scattered here and there. This was hearty and rich-tasting, and those tomatoes were bursts of incredible flavor. A little more crispness from the socca would have been nice, but it was still delicious just as it was.




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