une recette pour les vrais panisses?

[easternsun]

bonjour!

i was watching a japanese cooking show on marseille. all the dishes contained kasago -tai??(sorry i dont know the word in french, but it is red and has really thick scales)

one of the dishes used panisa. i could not figure this out. it was very delicately fried, then a baking ring was put around it. the panisa was covered in sauteed red & green peppers and finally, it was topped with the sliced fish. the fish was covered in evoo and then it was baked.

any idea what this dish is called? and how do i make panisa?

merci beaucoup

ps - i did a search and i kept hitting thai and vietnamese web pages about a khmer woman who won the miss thailand crown

[easternsun]

i went through almost all 24 pages of the daily nihongo thread and i came up with this picture of kasago.

thanks to kristin in the japan forum!!

i also just checked my french dictionary but i did not find panisa....is it french?

Edited March 30, 2005 by easternsun (log)

[Ptipois]

i also just checked my french dictionary but i did not find panisa....is it french?

←

Yes, it is French. Not panisa but panisse, a specialty from Nice. A dough of chickpea flour and water baked on a tray and then cut in pieces. It does not traditionally receive toppings. It is very good.

As for kasago, it is called a rascasse (precisely: Mediterranean rascasse) or chapon here.

Edited March 30, 2005 by Ptipois (log)

[easternsun]

panisse!

ohhhh....well i guess that japanese pronounciation is a little off

the chef who was preparing the dish cut it from a roll (almost looked like a roll cake) and i thought it was fois gras at first.

what do you normally eat it with?

ps thanks for the french lesson!

[Ptipois]

the chef who was preparing the dish cut it from a roll (almost looked like a roll cake) and i thought it was fois gras at first.

Yes, it may be cut into slices when cold. You can buy packaged panisse in health food stores, it looks like the one you saw. Then you brown the slices in a frying pan with butter or olive oil.

The traditional version is made this way: mix chickpea flour with water and salt, cook for a few minutes like a polenta. Pour into deep, small, round oiled plates and let cool. Cold panisse looks like a flying saucer. It is then fried crisp in oil, whole or cut into sticks.

what do you normally eat it with?

Normally, nothing. They're just fried like French fries and eaten on their own, or perhaps with a tomato sauce.

ps thanks for the french lesson!

←

Any time!

[chefzadi]

Panisse is found in various Mediterranean countries under different names.

In Algeria it's often eaten plain or with tomato sauce or a spicy relish called felfel.

[moosnsqrl]

Please could someone help me? I own an embarrassing number of cookbooks and am [or thought I was] an adept web searcher but I can't seem to find a plausible recipe for panisses.

I'm about to jump in the car, drive to the airport and fly to Nice but it seems rather extreme, even by my standards.

Thanks in advance...if this should be on the "cooking" forum, please move it. I just thought this might get more directly to the source.

[David Lebovitz]

There's a recipe for them in "Made in Marseille" by Daniel Young, who lives in France and NY. I haven't made them. But they sound good.

[Gifted Gourmet]

a translated recipe which looks simple

and then there is this one in English

[ludja]

Joanne Weir has a recipe for Socca in her book, "From Tapas to Meze".

I've always wondered if 'socca' and 'panisse' are the same thing. Is the difference that socca are more like pancakes while panisse are thicker strips that are fried, kind of like fried polents (but made w/a chick pea batter)?

[rjwong]

Voici un "recette provençale" pour les panisses (pardon my French):

http://recettes.provencales.free.fr/Panisses.html

[moosnsqrl]

Merci, grazie, thanks to all....but does this mean I can't go to Nice?

[Jonathan Day]

I have always found panisses somewhat easier to make than socca, since a proper socca is cooked over wood or charcoal on a thin metal tray, and it needs a bit of technique to get it right. There are socca vendors who come to local markets here in the South, with wood burning ovens on wheels; the socca they make is slightly charred and delicious.

Socca are also very good with finely chopped green onions incorporated into the batter; I have not tried this with panisses, though it sounds good.

You don't have to deep-fry panisses -- a bit of olive oil in a pan works fairly well.

The peanut/chickpea recipe for panisses above looks completely bogus to me ... but perhaps this is a side of Nicois cookery that I have yet to discover.

You can often buy chickpea flour in stores catering to Indian customers, but be careful because it becomes rancid if stored too long.

Most traiteurs (delicatessens) here have panisses, which you can take home and fry up or grill. They are usually moulded in a round shape.

Even if you do figure out how to make panisses and socca, get on that plane! It's worth the trip...

Edited May 30, 2005 by Jonathan Day (log)

[moosnsqrl]

I never cease to be amazed...what seemed like an innocent craving is going to become a lengthy study, it appears. I don't recall ever seeing or hearing of socca, yet this exercise just keeps leading me down that path. How have I missed out on this all these years? C'est bizarre.

I thought the peanut flour version was interesting (/bogus), too, but as it was on the peanut association website, I figured they were just encouraging the use of peanut products.

After all of this, turns out my chickpea flour was 'off' as Jonathan mentions, and neighborly duty prevented me from getting to the grocery, so I'm going to try again today. And my faith in my cookbook library was restored...Madhur Jaffrey had a recipe but it was not indexed as panisses, rather under 'chickpeas' so, again, thanks to all and I will try to post a scholarly journal on socca, panisses and their pivotal role in the history of southern France one day soon but, for now, I must pack and head to the airport. I have research to do.

[aliénor]

i just spoke to my daughter in law in nice. they buy the prepared molded panisse at the local supermarket. when i attempted to make them at home i used the same recipe that was posted above in french . after the chick peas flour mass thickens, i pour it into litely greased saucers and let it cool. i then unmold them and slice into strips and fry in a little oil. no need to deep fry or bake. but do remember to serve with kosher salt or feur de sel. and generously add the freshly cracked pepper.

yesterday was fete de nice in the cimiez park and the socca man was there as he is every year.my grandsonproudly reported that he ate an entire socca (i don't believe him but at 7 one likes to exxagerate from what i have seen at the fair, it does look as tho the batter is very similar to panisse but it needs a hot oven and a very large pan into which a fairly thin mix is poured and spread and then put into a wood fired oven. i have not tried to do it here in the usa but always eat it either at the fair or in vieux nice.

[chefzadi]

The peanut/chickpea recipe for panisses above looks completely bogus to me ... but perhaps this is a side of Nicois cookery that I have yet to discover.

You can often buy chickpea flour in stores catering to Indian customers, but be careful because it becomes rancid if stored too long.

The peanut flour sounds vile.

chickpea flour is also available at Middle Eastern or North African markets depending one where you are. In LA we usually go to the Indian market for alot of Algerian pantry items.

fried chickpea or chickpea fritters are found in some form throughout the Mediterranean.

[Jonathan Day]

my grandsonproudly  reported that he ate an entire socca (i don't believe him but at 7 one likes to exxagerate

Bravo to your grandson -- I always eat an entire socca!

from what i have seen at the fair, it does look as tho the batter is very similar to panisse but it needs a hot oven and a very large pan into which a fairly thin mix is poured and spread and then put into a wood fired oven.  i have not tried to do it here in the usa but always eat it either at the fair or in vieux nice.

←

Right -- the batter is similar but thinner to the one used for panisses. In both cases it's important to avoid lumps (grumeaux). The chickpea flour must be fresh, or the socca will be bitter, and the flavour of the olive oil comes though, so it's as well to choose a good one.

Cooking in a wood fired oven gives the Socca a pleasantly crisp and slightly charred quality. But there are also Socca vendors on the roadside and in the Nice flower market who make a very good socca over a charcoal fire -- a large pan of thin metal heated over coals, without an oven.

Franck Cerruti (now the chef at the ultrafancy Louis XV in Monaco) used to be in charge at Don Camillo, which was once a lovely little restaurant in Nice. Some of his dishes at Don C. featured socca -- a bit like serving crisps (potato chips) with some 3-star haute cuisine dish, but tasty nonetheless.