KITCHEN ADVENTURES: SOCCA STAR. Socca (soccas? socci?) are fried chickpea pancakes, stupidly easy and tasty. I posted about them here and here.

Tonight, for dinner, I had THE BEST SOCCAS SO FAR. They came in three batches, which I will detail from least-awesome to stellar.

1. Thin soccas flavored only with minced jalapeno and a bit of salt, topped with habanero jack cheese and fresh tomato slices. I loved the thin crispiness–these were almost like quesadillas, really–and they were really tasty but not outstanding.

2. Slightly thicker socci, basically like slightly-too-large versions of silver dollar pancakes, flavored with “Moroccan mustard” (I still don’t know what makes it Moroccan, but okay), minced jalapeno, salt, and some juice from a can of tomatoes. I let these cook in a very hot pan and was afraid I’d burnt them when I saw their very dark patches. Fortunately, they weren’t burnt at all. The tangy mustard worked really well, although I was glad that these were the smallest batch as the flavor is strong. You don’t need a lot of these to get the point.

3. THE BEST SOCCA. These were thicker than the “quesadilla” socca, and flavored with tomato-can juice, minced jalapeno and ginger, cumin, a tiny hit of cinnamon, garam masala, curry powder, a sesame-ginger dressing-type thing, and a bit of salt. These were ridiculously good, slightly exotic and spicy but not too hot (the chickpea flour is good at gentling the hot peppers) and just irresistible.

Once I’d minced the minced things, each batch took about 5 – 7 minutes I think, making socca a terrific choice for a quick, refreshing meal. Just be aware that the pancakes are a bit denser than you’d expect: Even small ones will fill you up fast.