Provencal Chickpea Crepe - Socca | Provencal French Recipes Guide

First, please note that Socca is healthy as it is gluten-free, allergen-free, low-carbohydrate, high protein and I forgot: delicious!

For those who do not know, it is like a crepe made of chickpea flour (garbanzo bean flour).

I see all the times two reactions when people having it: they love or hate it.

I hope you will be in the first category!

La Socca (it is a local name) is a traditional Provencal Recipe from Nice.

It is like a savoury pizza-like crepe.

It baked in an oven, often on a copper or a cast iron pan more than a meter in diameter, it is seasoned generously with freshly ground black pepper and eaten with the fingers while hot.

Its primary ingredients are chickpea flour and virgin olive oil, like its cousin the Italian Farinata. Farinata (it is called picha sometimes) is very popular.

Farinata is a large “pancake” made from chickpea flour, water, virgin olive oil and a lot of freshly ground black pepper like the Socca, with a difference: Socca is thin like a crepe.

Bakers in Genoa often add onion and rosemary.

There is no real translation for Socca in English as it is unique; I just try here to give you an idea of what it is.

Well, I will call it in English Provencal Chickpea Crepe which is I think the closest I can go.

Considering also that the preparation and consistency of the batter is similar to the crepes.

This thin chickpea flour “crepe” hails from Nice, but it is rarely seen outside the French Riviera - Cote d'Azur.

I think Provencal Chickpea Crepe merits wider recognition!

Once I had delicious Provencal Chickpea Crepe in Australia made by French friends from Nice living in Sydney.

As the Pan Bagnat, Niçoise Salade or Ratatouille our cuisine from the French Riviera exports well, but still need to be better known.

With my little corner of the web (my website) this is one of those things I try to do: Promote our Provencal Cuisine.

What I have To Say About it

Have Fun with Chickpea Flour (garbanzo bean flour)!

Back when I was young (yesterday!), my grand-mother made Provencal Chickpea Crepe that was absolutely delicious: crispy, salty, peppery and oily (in a good way) all at the same time.

So, I tried to make it…

I went through a big Socca phase last month, I tried to make it here in Bali, four different times and I did not like the way any of them came out.

It was not like the ones from my grand-mother, not even close.

I have actually been looking for a good Provencal Chickpea Crepe for quite some time now! ...

In the Old Nice I have also so good stuff for years and mine were not as brown and bubbly.

So I decided to add the recipe in this guide as now I have the right tips going with it!

My last attempt??? I made it right finally…!

Thanks to Fabienne (my sister) for her tips!

Chickpea flour is sold in a few supermarkets, it can be easily found at Indian, Middle Eastern and natural foods shops.

I am in Bali while writing this page; I found the flour in my local supermarket here to make my delicious Provencal Chickpea Crepe!

If there is a drawback it will come when you serve it to a well travelled person who will tell you that to make it properly you need a wood oven and a copper or a cast iron pan.

Such a person may also say that the combination of Mediterranean chickpea flour, water and virgin olive oil is unique, so that

That Socca cannot possibly be duplicated anywhere else.

That even the Liguria (Italy) version is inferior (or, if the guest is an Italian, that the French Riviera version is no good); and so on and so forth.

Forget it!

I have eaten hundred times both Socca and Farinata in Nice and in Italy, it is foolproof and 90 percent as good made in your oven or in a non-stick frying pan as when whisked from the wood ovens of Nice to the street stands in the markets.

To be complete I will add that baked over a fire in a wood oven Socca has a different taste. Better? No just different.

Provencal Chickpea Crepe is something one can make at home, from scratch.

It does not require any yeast, cook very fast; so when they are done, they slide right out onto your plate.

It is so simple and its flavours are so pure that unless you buy rancid chickpea flour you will get it right the first try.

SO very easy, and tasty!

I did not make it right the four times I tried as I did not have the right tips, now I do!

When the Provencal Chickpea Crepe is done, put the pan on the table, cut it into random shapes, hand out napkins and eat it as it is.

This is the way I like (love actually!) it! I like the rustic flavour

It can be eaten alone or topped with any number of savouries topping you like.

My choices will be:

• Adding a flavourful filling as fresh goat cheese and lots of freshly ground black pepper, fold it up and just eat it!
• Try it with Tapenade (Olive Paste) or Ratatouille (Vegetable Stew).
• You may top it with things like caramelized onions and grilled rosemary chicken breast.

If you have more than six guests, make another one.

Use your imagination to make your own, adding on top whatever you like!

Adding your own ideas have fun with your Socca!

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Tips from my Sister Fabienne

• A very hot oven.
• Excellent virgin olive oil.
• Do not skimp on freshly ground black pepper (lots and lots) or virgin olive oil; the pepper should really hit you when you take a bite.
• Edges have to be crispy like for a crepe.
• You have also to make sure that your chickpea flour truly browns; undercooked chickpea flour is way gross tasting.

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A Little Bit of History

Socca goes back at least to 1860.

It is from Nice on the French Riviera - Cote d'Azur. , but is most likely an import from Northern Africa, where they eat a lot of chickpeas.

In the 19 th Century, there was Provencal Chickpea Crepe sellers at the markets and at work sites where they provided the favourite morning meal of the workers.

The Provencal Chickpea Crepe sellers used special wagons with built-in charcoal ovens to keep their wares hot while they announced them with the appropriate cries of Socca! Socca! Socca!

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I Can’t Talk about Socca Without Talking about Thérèsa

In the midst of the daily Cours Saleya market on the beautiful Place Charles Félix (right in front of the Church), in the Old Nice , stands an overly made-up woman, serving Socca.

Thérèse (her name) is just as glamorous as the painting that is hanging in her stand.

It looks like it was painted in her prime years …

Thérèse is the Queen of Socca, you cannot miss her!

I add pictures of Thérèse in this page (also one with the delivery guy and its motorcycle!), when will you come here you will already know her.

She opens her stand from Monday to Sunday (not on Mondays as it is the Antiques Market on the Cours Saleya) early in the morning until 1 pm all the year round.

Thérèse sells Provencal Chickpea Crepe, our street food, but also drinks (as rosé!) and other local specialities as pissaladière (Onion Pizza), Pan pagnat (Provencal Sanswich).

Prepared by the most famous lady in the Old Nice, the Socca is baked in her kitchen just a few blocks away.

Sometimes you have to wait for the delivery guy to drop it off to Thérèse's stand.

The Provencal Chickpea Crepe comes to her stand via motorcycle with a wagon attached to it.

Inside the wagon is a big pizza pan which holds the Socca.

Once it is sold out, you have to wait for the next delivery.

Her Socca is so delicious that people do not mind waiting, they queue up! I do!

Queues can be a bit long but that's just a testament to her quality and value Socca.

Find Thérèse serving the best Socca on the French Riviera when you come here, It is a must try.

Be sure to arrive early. Thérèse leaves at 1pm and when she is done, that's it for the day.

Très provençal!

One day, eager for more, I arrived at 1:05 and had just missed her last batch.

Buy your Provencal Chickpea Crepe from Thérèse and eat it as you explore the market.

The drink of choice is well-chilled rosé from the Var served in plastic cups available at her stand.

Be sure to request a double order, since you will eat every bite.

I cannot imagine a better way to spend my first morning when I am in Nice!

Lately, I heard bad comments about her Provencal Chickpea Crepe (mainly made by grumpy French people actually!) saying that it is not the way it used to be.

I do not totally agree or disagree with that.

I have to honestly say that her Socca has changed a little bit over the years.

I had Pie (beef pie with warm potatoes and gravy and nice dollop of mashed peas on the side) at Harry's Pies in Sydney a couple of years ago.

It was nice but not the top of the range, I did have better pies with mash potatoes elsewhere.

At Harry’s Pies in Woolloomooloo in Sydney or Chez Thérèse in the Old Nice the differences are the atmosphere, the kindness and the beautiful locations!

The food is important and is good in both places but having in the same time food and conviviality makes a huge difference, isn’t it?

Many places sell Socca on the French Riviera - Cote d'Azur you can even find it at one of our Arabic Corner Shops, but the Socca is average and the atmosphere?

Well, quite different!

Chez Thérèse is still the best place for me to eat Socca on the French Riviera and that advice comes from a local: me!

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Ingredients

It is a very Simple Recipe but?... Please read again the tips paragraph above!

Serves 4

• 1 1/2 cups cold water.
• 3 tablespoons virgin olive oil.
• 2 cups chickpea flour.
• 1 teaspoon salt.
• Freshly ground black pepper.

That’s all you need!

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How to

• Preheat the oven on maximum temperature for ten minutes.
• Sift the chickpea flour into a bowl.
• In a large bowl, whisk energetically together water, olive oil, and salt.
• Add chickpea flour, a little at a time, whisking in completely, the batter must be smooth! The dough should have the texture of un-skimmed milk.

• Add a bit of water and mix the dough if it is too compact.
• Once you have added all the flour, and whisked it so it has absolutely no lumps, set aside.
• Preheat an 11 1/2 inch cast iron skillet in the oven, 4-5 minutes.
• Remove with an oven mitt as it is very HOT.
• Put a little olive oil in the pan, swirl it around.
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.
• Then, working quickly, add a heaping 1/2 cup of the batter to the pan, swirling it around to fill the pan in an even thin layer.
• Put in oven and cook 5-7 minutes, till browned a bit around the edges and some parts are a bit burnt.
• Remove from oven. Flip. It should be golden brown on the bottom.
• Remove to plate, add a little more olive oil to the pan, another 1/2 cup batter and cook, and so on.
• Eat hot.

You can cut it into wedges and dip it into olive oil, or drizzle olive oil on top, and sprinkle with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Notes: to add herbal flavour, you my heat 1/2 teaspoon of dried herbs like rosemary or thyme in the olive oil for 2 minutes over medium heat. Let the olive oil cool before making recipe.

You may also make these on the stove top.

I like the texture slightly better in the oven, but the stove top is much quicker.

To do so, heat your cast iron skillet over medium high heat.

Add a little olive oil. Once hot, add batter.

Cook about 1 minute, flip, cook 1 minute more. Remove from pan.

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