Panizas, Andalusian chickpea fritters and a Taste of Yellow

I've made this recipe for the lovely initiative Taste of Yellow 2009, hosted by Barbara of Winosandfoodies with the aim of supporting the Lance Armstrong Foundation and raising awareness of cancer issues worldwide by... cooking yellow food! Check her blog for more information. I found her via the blog Use real butter, one of loveliest food blogs in the net and one of my favourites.


It didn't take very long for me to decide what to make, as I'd been wanting to cook this appetizer for a while. Yellow Panizas are typical from the Cádiz province in Andalusia, where the Sherry wines are made. They are made from yellow chickpea flour, boiled in water, made into a yellow dough thicker than potato mash and then sliced in yellow small pieces and fried. They look suspiciously similar to yellow Provençal panisses, that I first heard about in David Lebovitz's blog (one of my favourite blogs too). I have no idea of how they are connected, but the recipe is almost the same and the name is quite similar. I've found no information about their connection though.


Well then, to the point!

Panizas

• 250g chickpea flour
• 750ml water
• 1 tsp sea salt
• Pinch of turmeric (optional, to boost the yellow color)
• Virgin olive oil for deep-frying
  

Put the water in a pot or deep pan and bring to the boil. Add the chickpea flour and the salt and stir to avoid any lumps. You can use a hand mixer to break the lumps. Cook while stirring continuously, until the dough starts to come off the sides of the pot and is as thick as a good potato mash. It can take 5 minutes at least. You can add a pinch of turmeric like me, to enhance the yellow color, or any other flavouring of your choice. I'm sure they must work very well with curry powder, paprika or even some chilli.



Pour the mixture while still hot in an oiled shallow dish or large plate. Be quick, as it solidifies the moment it starts cooling down, preventing you from spreading it properly (trust me, that's exactly what happened to me... I found myself wrestling with the dough, ahem). Then leave it to cool.


Once the dough is at ambient, cut it in small slices or French fries-sized pieces, then deep-fry in olive oil until golden. The original recipe calls for frying in pork fat, but I didn't have any. Olive oil is perfect. I sprinkled them with some additional salt after frying, but that depends on your personal taste.


And... enjoy! Even though I tried to cheat my kids telling them that the yellow fingers on the plate were some kind of Fritos, I had to pay 2 euros each for them to try the panizas... they're difficult. On the other hand, I loved them and ate most of them... the panizas, I mean, not my kids nor the euros... So what? Pulses are very healthy, so they say...

One last thing, it's traditional also to eat them as sweetmeats, with cinnamon, sugar or honey! I guess you need to decrease the amount of salt then, but the recipe I found doesn't give any hint on that.

And last but not least, I want to remember here my husband's eldest sister, Carmen, who died in 2000 of colon cancer.