Socca and a "Sort Of" Waldorf

During his visit last Tuesday morning, Costin told me he’d made Socca. I love Socca; I frequented the old town often to get some when I lived in Nice, France. Nice is full of people whose families fled the former French colonies that are now Tunisia and Algeria and my friend, Marie-Claude, is one of them. She introduced me to Socca.

In Nice, Socca sellers have booths with crepe irons and they make thin Socca crepes that they sprinkle with pepper. It’s made with chickpea flour it’s

a fabulous and healthy snack food.

Costin told me the recipe was in Yotam Ottolenghi’s cookbook so I looked it up. That was Tuesday morning. This (Friday) morning and I decided to look up the recipe; I knew it was on page 224. I did not need to look it up.

I took Math 101 at my local university (UBC) at age eleven when I was in grade seven. People thought I was a genius but I’m not. All I am is a fellow with acute visual perception; I have an uncanny visual memory. I could remember all the numbers and patterns in math but I did not know the theory.

I tell people that they have new clothes; I don’t ask if what they are wearing is new. And once, having not seen a friend for many months, I noticed that he’d narrowed (not closed) the gap between his front teeth. My Dad could show me a photo when I was a kid and I’d be able to tell him if it had ever been published in either of our local newspapers. My Dad worked for the Vancouver Sun and so he had his own personal photo librarian; he’d encouraged me to read the papers, cover-to-cover, ever since I’d learned to read.

Anyway …. Dwight is about to arrive for lunch. I've gotta get going.

The onions are cooked in olive oil, salt and tarragon —
lots of tarragon. And once cooked, a little vinegar.
They go no top of the Socca.

The tomatoes are baked first, separate from the Socca
and then they go on the onion.

Cooking the socca pancakes. They are crepes in France but
these are thick like North American pancakes. They are made
of chick pea flour. Next time: More pepper.

Finished product.

Ready to eat.

Okay, that went well. And I added a "sort of" Waldorf salad to the Socca for lunch. The "sort of Waldorf" is my first recipe out of my second cookbook by Yotam Ottolenghi called, Plenty More.

The first mayonnaise I have made from scratch.

Granny Smith apple, red onion, red cabbage, roasted and
crushed filberts, mayo. lots of dill, sour cream and dried
cranberries. Delicious! And roasting the nuts is essential.