About two years ago, The Frenchman and I stumbled upon a Burmese restaurant on East 7th street, largely ignored middle sibling of Uber-cool East 8th/St Marks and Ethnic Wonderland East 6th.
If I had had a blog then, I would now be able to tell you what I had that night but alas, that information is lost to memory. All but for the deliciousness that is Fried Chickpea Tofu: golden-brown crispy triangles with creamy polenta-like insides.
I tried twice to recreate this discovery from a recipe on the web, each time ending up with irredeemable chickpea-flavored jello. But the other day, faced with 5 lbs of chickpea flour bought for an intended socca* orgy, I decided to try again..and this time success was mine.
I don’t know if success will be mine twice in a row, though, so leave me to try it again. If success is mine once more, then the secrets of Shan (Chickpea) Tofu will be here revealed.
After the success of the Chickfu, I knew I was going to deep-fry some golden triangles of goodness, but I needed to balance that out with some healthy. What could be more obvious than a great big salad?
The dressing here is a simplified Thai salad dressing, usually used for grilled steak and shrimp salads which can be an alternative for you until I push you on to Chickfu-making greatness. Thai cuisine places great importance on the balance of the sweet, sour, salty and spicy. Don’t be afraid of the fish sauce. It may seem strong coming out of the bottle, but the different elements of the dressing mellow it out and give you a nice tangy dressing with a kick!
Salad Dressing:
* 2 garlic cloves
* Pinch of salt
* 2 tablespoons fish sauce
* Juice of half a lemon
* 2 tablespoons sugar
* Half a red onion, chopped
* A squirt of sriracha (to taste)
* 2 tablespoons cilantro, chopped
In a mortar and pestle or food processor, mash the garlic with the salt. Add the cilantro, sriracha and sugar and moosh some more. Add the rest of the ingredients. Leave to let the flavors mingle while you prepare the fried chickfu.
Dressing and Chickfu of Greatness
Cut the chickfu into half-inch slices, then diagonally into triangles. My chickfu had rectangular slices, so I cut them in half before cutting diagonally.
Bring a half-inch of peanut oil up to temp. You’ll know it’s ready for frying if, when you drag a wooden chopstick through the oil, little bubbles follow it around like tweens on the Jonas Brothers. I suppose a plastic chopstick would tell you the oil was hot enough too, but the chickfu won’t taste as good.
Ah, the splatter of hot oil on kitchen tiles.
Fry until golden-brown (about 5-10 mins), flipping over once during the process. Lay on paper towels to drain.
Toss some mesclun salad with about a tablespoon of the dressing. Top with some slices of crispy chick-fu, then drizzle some dressing over the top. Enjoy. I did.
*Socca is a chickpea flour pancake traditionally from Nice. Variations of it can be found in other Mediterranean cities.
[...] can cut it into triangles and fry it in the traditional manner and serve it on a salad like I do here. Cut it into sticks and make chickpea fries or croutons. Cut thin slices straight from the fridge [...]