Chickpea “Quizza”

[Delicious as a pizza–stellar as a quiche.  This recipe has many talents!]

Have you heard that Hugh Jackman, that alluring Aussie known best for his role as a latter day wolfman, is performing a one-man cabaret-style show here in Toronto right now?  That’s right: Wolverine’s tricks span beyond giving manicurists nightmares or saving bald-headed professor-types from magnetized death, all the way to singing, dancing, and delivering one-liners.

In the olden days (ie, when I was a tot), entertainers were required to have it all:  Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Vera Ellen, Ginger Rogers, Judy Garland et al–each one of them could sing, dance and act (with varying degrees of aptitude). Today’s all-in-one players like JLo, Beyoncé, Justin Timberlake and their crew just don’t cut it the way the old-timers did, in my opinion.  If you keep in mind that the stars of eras gone by had to actually do it all at once–no lip syncing or pre-taped music!–today’s feature players simply pale in comparison. Back then, an orchestra played live while the thespians sang and danced.  Get something wrong, and they had to film the entire scene over again.  Now, that’s entertainment.

Similarly, the notion of the true, multi-talented “Renaissance Man” seems to be in short supply these days.  Although I didn’t realize it when we first met, I think of the HH as just that kind of fellow (see, he even incites my use of Renaissance-era words like “fellow”!).  It was the height of summer when we started dating, and having just emerged from a divorce, the HH was still in party mode.  At the time, I assumed that he would be perpetually a scruffy guy in jeans and a T-shirt, who seemed to like nothing more than spending time on patios or smoky jazz bars, soaking up mindless movies, or reading magazines about expensive race cars.

When winter hit, I tried a new tactic: I invited him to the ballet (The Nutcracker, as I recall).  “Sounds great!” he enthused, totally unphased.  “I haven’t seen it in a few years. Always a good time for Tchaikovsky.”  Huh?! Not only was he entirely familiar with the ballet and all of the music–he had  actually been friends with one of the National Ballet of Canada’s principal dancers back in the 1980s! I quickly ascertained (and time has proven) that the HH was one of those rare individuals who could mingle with anyone or go anywhere, equally at ease in tattered Levis and sneakers, or a Hugo Boss suit and brogues (though, to be fair, he only wears his suit about twice a year).  Whatever the habidashery, though, the HH is comfortable in just about any context.

[Does this pie sing to you?]

I think of the chickpea flour in this recipe in much the same way: it’s also a kind of “Renaissance Ingredient.”  (What a minute here.  Did I just compare the love of my life to a dried legume?  Don’t answer that.)

One of the great things about chickpea flour is how well it can serve so many different purposes, equally delicious in all of them.  It’s a great high-protein flour to add to your all-purpose gluten free flour mix.  It works beautifully in pancakes and other breakfast foods, in savory  dishes, as a thickener in sauces.  Alone or within a group, chickpea flour plays well with others. It’s multi-talented.

Used as the base of this “quiche,” chickpea flour is simply unrivalled.  Now, I’ve written about my love of the Lucini brand’s Cinque et Cinque before (a specially milled chickpea flour) and how I used the mix to create a stupendous “pizza” crust.  I do try to get the mix when I can, but when I ran out, I used regular chickpea flour (since that’s the only ingredient in the “Traditional” flavor) instead. I’ve found that the store-bought flour works almost as well. In fact, if you don’t have the Cinque right beside it for comparison, you’d swear they were identical.

The last time I mixed up some cinque (also known as farinata or socca), I decided to try something different. Rather than pile all my “extras” on top of the pie as a pizza, I folded all the chopped veggies right into the batter and cooked it all together.  And oh, my goodness–what a difference that made!

The result really did remind me of a true quiche, albeit a crustless one (which made me think of my friend Shirley, who is prolific with all things GF and crustless). Who needs crust when you have a rich, custardy filling punctuated throughout with shreds of dandelion or chard, roasted garlic slices, oven-dried tomatoes and any other chopped veggies you fancy?  The beauty of this method, as well, is how it saves preparation time: this way, instead of stopping to place your toppings strategically over the “pizza,” they’re baked right into it.  Magically, the baking time is just right to cook those veggies to perfection–including those raw garlic slices.

The HH couldn’t get enough of this pie.  He ate 3 slices for dinner, and remarked how “this is way better than that other chickpea pie you used to make” (I didn’t tell him that it contained exactly the same ingredients, just presented in a different format).

Who knows? Maybe he felt a kinship to the multi-talented, multi-faceted chickpea flour, and that’s why he loved it.

Me, I love them both.

[And speaking of yummy gluten free eats. . . the fabulous Alta of Tasty Eats at Home has adopted me for this month’s Adopt a Gluten Free Blogger!  I am totally honored!  Check out her wonderful post and stunning photo.  Then go look at Wendy’s roundup at Celiacs in the House, where you can see all of the adoptions from this month!]

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