Panisses

How to make panisse chickpea fries from scratch. Recreate the classic street-food fritter from Provence and enjoy the crispy outside with a creamy, soft inside that can be flavored with herbs, spices or simply salt and pepper.

5 from 4 votes

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Prep Time: 5

Cook Time: 30

Servings: servings

Calories: 257kcal

Author: Milena Perrine

Ingredients

2 ¼ cups chickpea flour Garbanzo bean flour
1 teaspoon sea salt or kosher salt
2 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
2 teaspoon each of chopped fresh thyme parsley, chives*
1 quart vegetable broth OR water
neutral cooking oil for frying sunflower, vegetable etc.
salt and black pepper to taste, to season just fried panisse

Instructions

Lightly grease a quarter sheet pan (13x9 inches) and set aside.
In a deep, mid-sized sauce pan combine the chickpea flour, salt and pepper, olive oil and chopped herbs. Place over a meadium heat stove and add half the vegetable broth (or water) while whisking constantly. Once there are no lumps, add the second half of the liquid and stir until a homogenous mixture results once again.
Bring to boil and while constantly stirring cook the batter until it thickens to the consistency of a thick porridge or slightly loose mashed potatoes. Transfer it to the greased sheet pan.
Smooth the batter over the sheet pan, you can also press down with another identically sized sheet pan to affect smoother and better packed surface. Cover with plastic wrap making sure it closely adheres to the surface and there are no air pockets. Refrigerate the sheet pan with the batter for at least 5 hours and ideally overnight.
Once the batter for the panisse has set, unmold it from the sheet pan. Run a silicone spatula along the sides of the pan to release it and turn it over onto a cutting board.**
Slice into thick-cut fries shapes (batons). These are going to be your chickpea fries.
Place a skillet or other heavy bottomed pan over medium heat and fill with neutral cooking oil to about ½ inch deep. When the temperature of the oil reaches 350 F fry a few panisses at a time (do not overcrowd) until they are golden brown on all sides (flip often, all sides need to be crisped up). Drain the pan-fried panisse over paper towels.
Serve immediately, seasoned with salt and pepper or a dipping sauce from the suggestions in the post.

Notes

You must allow sufficient time for the thick batter to set and become firm. The batter should have the consistency of slightly loose mashed potatoes and once it sets will be easy to cut with a knife and hold its shape confidently.

*You can use as little or as much herbs to season the batter. Rosemary is a great contender as well as oregano. If you do not have fresh herbs on hand you can use dried. You can also season the batter for the panisse with ground cumin, garlic salt, onion salt etc.

**Once you have loosened the sides you can simply place a large enough cutting board over the sheet pan and flip them over together so that the set batter drops to and remains on the board once you lift the sheet pan.

Panisse do not reheat well. They taste at their VERY best as soon as they are fried. Enjoy them with any of the dipping sauces suggested in the post or simply seasoned with salt and pepper.

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