This and That
Recipes and recommendations, not all of them totally normal
Hi! Hi! I have been home for 3 days and am just jumping right in here with a recipe! It’s socca! Which is a kind of French/Italian tender pancakey chickpea flatbread (also known as farinata) that I make it all the time—usually to pressure a salad into becoming a meal. Basically, the only ingredient is chickpea flour, which I always have. It’s quick, easy, filling, inexpensive, perfect for gluten-free folks, and liked by everyone because it’s delicious.
Socca
As shown here, I often use socca as the basis for a quick pizza. After you bake it, just spread it with a couple of tablespoons of tomato paste thinned with a little olive oil, then top with shredded mozzarella or Monterey Jack or whatever cheese you like and pop it under the broiler until the cheese bubbles and browns a bit. (The way I used to make it, with the onions and rosemary a la Mark Bittman, is still here.)
1 cup chickpea flour
1 ½ teaspoons kosher salt (or half as much table salt)
1 cup lukewarm water
4 to 6 tablespoons olive oil (divided use)
Heat the oven to 450 and put in a well-seasoned 12-inch cast-iron skillet to heat. (Spray it with a nonstick spray if you’re not confident about the pan’s seasonedness.)
Put the chickpea flour in a bowl with the salt. Whisk in the water and 2 tablespoons of the olive oil. Cover and let sit at room temperature while the oven heats, or for as long as 12 hours. The batter should be about the consistency of thin pancake batter; thin it with a little water if it seems too thick.
Remove the pan from the oven, pour 1 or 2 tablespoons of the oil into it and swirl, then return it to the oven for a minute or two before pouring in the batter. Bake for 10 to 13 minutes, or until the pancake is firm and the edges are set. It might look cracked on top, and this is fine!
If you’re not following the pizza instructions in the headnote, then heat the broiler and drizzle the top of the pancake with another tablespoon or 2 of oil. Set the pancake a few inches away from the broiler, and broil just long enough to brown it in spots—a minute or two. Cut it into wedges, and serve hot or warm.
Another easy, nourishing, I-always-have-all-the-ingredients-for-it recipe I’ve been making a lot is this Riceless Fried Rice, which is essentially fried cabbage and eggs. I often season it at the end with a bloop of vegetarian stir-fry sauce (or oyster sauce) and a spoonful of Mama Teavs. Last night I made it with a bag of Trader Joe’s Cruciferous Crunch, which felt extremely wholesome. Briefly boiled edamame make a fine sub for the peas, although peas are sweeter and burstier.
Okay, here’s a much weirder recommendation from me, of all people, honestly.
It’s the Makeout Club Soft Blur Lipstick in the color Legend from Feck(?). I have been looking for a dark matte lipstick from a relatively groovy company, and this one fits the bill and is my perfect shade of plummy brown. Plus, even though it’s matte, it goes on in a creamy way, not like you’re waxing skis or trying to write your name with a crayon on the skin of an old onion. It’s also vegan, gf, and made in CA without some of the obvious offenders in terms of chemicals. I’m embarrassed to recommend a beauty product? For all the obvious reasons. But I really love it, even though it seems suspiciously small for a lip color that costs $24.
While I’m at it, I also got and LOVE their Shadow Slide Long-Wear H2O Shadow Stick in the dark purply-grey color Deep Dive. It goes on so dreamily liquidy, even though it’s not a liquid. And it doesn’t irritate my poor sensitive eyes, which is very unusual. It, also, is an astonishing $24. (I am offsetting the cost with these thrifty handy DIY makeup remover scraps!)
These are not affiliate links or anything. Just true bona fide recs because I’m sure every time you see me you’re like WHERE ON EARTH DID SHE GET THAT LOOK ha ha ha ha. I seem to be putting more stuff on my face than I used to. [Shrugs.]
Finally, are you sore? Of course you are. Put 2 tennis balls in a sock and knot it, then roll around on it on your back on the floor or up against a wall. Ahhhhhh.
That’s it for now. Come and find me on the last leg of my tour, if you’re in the Northeast this week, starting tonight! (Some of these events are technically sold out but you can get on the waitlist because people always flake at the last minute.) I had a spectacular time in Toronto and the Midwest and the Mid-Atlantic. Thank you so much to everyone who came out and laughed and cried with me. (You got Wreck already, right? I’m pretty sure you did! Thank you a million times over.)
Monday, November 17th
7:00 PM
Porter Square Books with Joanna Rakoff
Cambridge, MA
More information
Tuesday, November 18th
7:00 PM
Booked Author Series with Vanessa Lillie and Nora Dahlia Zelevansky
Providence, RI
More information
Wednesday, November 19th
6:30 PM
An Unlikely Story with Meghan Nesmith
Plainville, MA
More information
Thursday, November 20th
6:00 PM
Barnes & Noble with Beck Dorey-Stein
South Portland, ME
More information
Friday, November 21st
6:00 PM
The Toadstool Bookshop
Peterborough, NH
xo
trying to write your name with a crayon on the skin of an old onion
This made me laugh out loud because it is so accurate!
Thanks for the yummy recipes (and mentioning edamame for those of us who hate peas in things)!
Also, the cosmetic company is Freck (as in short for freckle), not "Feck" - their claim to fame is making a makeup pen that can be used to put on faux freckles . . . which is hilarious, as we old redheads remember when as young folk, we would get teased/harassed for having those spots.