Baby It’s Cold Outside…Soup and Socca

It snowed in Jerusalem this morning and we had hail this afternoon in central Israel. Spring has not sprung yet. Jerusalem gets snow about once a year, but yesterday it didn’t stick.

I like visiting Jerusalem. I think it is a romantic city with all of the Jerusalem stone buildings and the skyline of the old city. The best way to get an overview of the old city is to climb on the roofs of the houses there. The view is amazing.

I really like going to outdoor markets. They are full of sights, sounds, smells and are also a great place to people watch. You can find some amazing faces in the market, like the amba man and the juice man. Their faces are timeless….just put another period costume on them and it could be the market 2,000 years ago in Jerusalem.

Mahane Yehuda market is just the market to see all of the things I described above. It has also revamped itself with chic cafes, restaurants and other shops. I was always afraid to go there because of the bombings. I only went there last summer, for the first time since I moved to Israel over six years ago.

The market is always busy, but it is very crowded on Thursday night and Friday morning. Everyone is busy finding things to prepare their Shabbat meals.

I found chickpea flour at the market. My husband and I went to Provence last summer for a glorious vacation and every since we tried the Nicoise specialty, socca, we wanted to try and make it at home. We had our first socca at Lou Pilha Levain Nice.

They prepare theirs on a copper pan. They specialize in serving Nicoise dishes and they do a wonderful job.

They have delicious gargantuan tourte de blette (upper left corner of the above photo), which is a sweet tart filled with swiss chard, raisin and pinenuts and sprinkled with icing sugar. Typical tourte de blette are not as thick as theirs.

Socca is a type of savoury pancake made of chickpea flour and water. It is dead easy to make, but not always easy to reproduce. You need to cook it at a very high temperature for a short period of time. It is typically cooked on a large round copper pan over a very hot wood fire or gas flame.

Of course we don’t have the big round copper pan and open fire they have to make this, but I thought I would give it a try with our cast iron plancha in the oven.

The other night, my husband made a delicious pot of minestrone con ceci (chickpea minestrone). He is refusing to give up the recipe. It is basically the farmers market, sans the fruit, in a bowl. Suffice it to say it was delicious and gave me an idea to try to finally make socca so we could say we had a ceci or hummous festival at our house. I decided to add fresh chives and fresh thyme to mine. It reminded me of Nice, but that is for another posting…..

Chive and Thyme Socca
Ingredients
  • 300 g 1 cup + 5 tbsp chickpea flour
  • 500 ml 2 cups cold water
  • 1 tsp salt
  • Pepper
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 tbsp chopped fresh chives
  • 1 tbsp chopped fresh thyme
Instructions
  1. Heat a cast iron skillet in a 240C/475F oven.
  2. Mix together all of the ingredients above and whisk until you have a smooth batter. The batter should be thinner than crepe batter.
  3. Socca batter
  4. Brush a generous amount of oil on the pan. The oil should be smoking. Pour the batter on the hot plancha and cook with the oven door slightly ajar for the first couple of minutes and then turn on the grill (broiler) to maximum so that the socca can get crisp on top.
  5. Socca on the Plancha
  6. Keep an eye on it as it bubbles and rises, but make sure that it doesn't burn. It should only be slightly brown.
  7. It should be slightly crisp on the outside, but creamy on the inside even though it should be about 1/8 of an inch or 3mm thick.
  8. Cut it into squares.
  9. I tried making it on the stovetop and it works, but you have to cook it like a crepe and turn it over. I prefer the oven method.
  10. Socca with Chives
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Written by Baroness Tapuzina

Michelle Nordell (aka Baroness Tapuzina) was a foodie from the womb growing up in the House of Weird Vegetables, so named by a family friend because all of the unusual and exotic food cooked and eaten there. She loves to change recipes using herbs from her garden and spices from the spice shops she enjoys visiting.

5 thoughts on “Baby It’s Cold Outside…Soup and Socca

  1. Michelle, I love the new look of your blog! All the recipes and photos make me very nostalgic. 🙂 My favorite vista of Jerusalem is from the ramparts, where it’s possible to peek into people’s gardens and into schoolyards. Best wishes from Prague!

  2. Great stuff, Michelle! Thanks for letting me know about your blog. The images are terrific and the content is informative and very distinctive. I’ve put you on my regular-visit list and look forward to reading your entries on a regular basis.

    =R=

  3. This is great, I love the photos, and I’ve copied the orange-ginger cake for Pesach. I’ll look in here frequently for more.

    Leanne from Stratsplace

  4. Wonderful photos and recipes, Michelle. The view of Jerusalem brought unexpected moisture to my eyes: I lived there for many years, and thought I was over missing it, but I guess Jerusalem gets into your blood and stays there.

    I used to go through the shuk every day on my way home from work…but everything in Jerusalem has changed so much that I hardly know the town anymore. Except for the gradual change in the way you feel as you approach on the highway, noticing the wild hollyhocks, rosemary, and sprawling grapevines growing almost out of the rocks as you’re rising into the woods and the thinner, cooler air, and the unique energy of Jerusalem. Nothing changes that.

    I’m really appreciating the generous food photos and recipes, too. Every time I visit, I copy a recipe or two. Thank you!

    M.K.

  5. I LOVE your blog, Michelle, not only are the photos evocative (and nostalgic, of course, for anyone who’s spent time in Israel), but also your words blend and work so well with the photos……

    delightful, thank you so much for letting me know about it!

    x marlena

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