Happy Thanksgiving to all my Canadian readers!
I am my Mother’s daughter; case in point, Mom was famous for bringing unusual food items into our home. Often we would stand around whatever ‘it’ was wondering what on earth we were expected to do with ‘it’, definitely not eat it! But yes, we were obliged to try it and sometimes it worked out very well (kiwi in the early 70’s (see notes) for example became a fast favourite and sometimes it did not. Lychee fruit for example, or what we sarcastically named “Eyeball Fruit” did not have a happy ending. Mom was pretty sure you could eat this raw, right out of the peel but we made her try it first anyway. She didn’t die immediately and wasn’t offended by it but my brother and I (under 10) were skeptical and hesitant to try it. We did eventually try it but it wasn’t a favourite — although we had some good giggles with the name, Eyeball Fruit.
JT and I were out grocery shopping and I came across Chickpea Flour Twigs and true to form, I grabbed a pack and tossed it into the cart. By now (almost 30 years) JT has learned not to question, just accept it — more often than not, it will become something tasty for him, anyway. Upon my return to the house I did a little investigating and discovered that this unusual treat is a snack food; to be honest, I wouldn’t know how to eat it…it’s so tiny and crumbly (if any of my readers know how to eat this, please let me know in the comments). But it reminded me of an elusive Greek dough called kataifi (shredded Phyllo dough which I haven’t been able to find) so I thought breading shrimp with it would work out well. Also I got a new social media client and they dropped off a bunch of their product so I decided to use coconut flour in the breading instead of all purpose flour. It worked out very well. It turns out that the Chickpea Flour Twigs are deep fried so they are quite rich and rolling the shrimp in them made a nice crunchy textured batter with a mild chickpea flavour.
Shrimp Bundled in Chickpea Flour Twigs
A Kitchen Inspirations Original Recipe.
Makes 8 shrimp bundles
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup coconut flour
- 1 egg whisked with a splash of water
- about 1/2 cup of chickpea flour twigs
- 8 shrimp, tails off, cleaned
- salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
- Pre heat an oven to 375°F and line a baking pan with a silicon mat.
- To three separate bowls, add the coconut flour, the egg whisked with water and the chickpea flour twigs.
- Lightly dredge the shrimp in the coconut flour and then soak in the egg wash, back to the coconut flour an again in the egg wash. Now roll lightly in the chickpea twigs. Lay onto the silicon mat. Repeat until the shrimp are all bundled nicely in the chickpea twigs.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the twigs are even more golden and the shrimp is cooked through.
- Serve with a tamarind dipping sauce (I combined store bought tamarind sauce with rice vinegar, green onions and chopped cilantro).
Notes
- I usually repeat the flour dredging and the egg wash because it makes a nice crispy batter, particularly when baking in the oven instead of frying.
- Toronto in the 70’s (I can only attest to this point forward) was fairly mungie-cake; exotic meant spaghetti and meatballs for most. Chinese takeout was pretty much the only asian food out there, fortunately, we have evolved and we can source any ethnic food on any day of the week and it’s likely to be quite authentic.
- To be entirely honest, I don’t think I’ll make these again, the nutritional content of the chickpea twigs is not in my healthy realm but it was a fun treat.
This is a really interesting recipe. So crunchy these shrimps. It’s new for me these chickpea flour twigs. So I can’t wait to make it.
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Thank you kindly Chef Devaux, welcome to my blog. I do hope you enjoy it.
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Yes, I also thought of kadaif the moment I saw these! I have never seen chickpea flour twigs, but your shrimp look irresistibly good. I must search for this mysterious product. (By the way, I also buy constantly strange products I then wonder what to do with…).
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Thank you kindly Sissi, it’s fun to experiment isn’t it?
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These look so delicious and I love your shots of the lake in this and the next post. (I’m late catching up.) Know it’s hard to close down the lake house.
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Thank you Betsy, it’s always sad but then I’m relieved in not having to run two households.
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A truly wonderful amazing tasty recipe & so special too! I love it! x
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That’s a winner of a recipe. I haven’t seen chickpea flour twigs but now I’m going to have to find some. I love the peek through the window at the lake.
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Your shrimp look DELISH! Worth the calorie splurge. Lucky you that JT will try some of your unusual finds. Bill is less than adventurous as you well know by now 🙂 Have a wonderful weekend!!! xo
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Thanks so much Liz, it was a nice treat.
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These look perfect Eva! So crunchy. I’ve never seen chickpea flour twigs before, let alone heard of them. So interesting. I love the shot of the lake with the cocktail and shrimp. That looks like a perfect afternoon!
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Thank you kindly Kristy. I’m sure that Indian place that Chgo John shops at has them, they are quite interesting. Sadly we have closed down the cottage for the season.
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I’ve never seen chickpea flour twigs. I wouldn’t have known they were a snack! I think you came up with a fantastic recipe and the shrimp coated in the ‘snack’ looks wonderful. I love the image from the lake house xx
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Thanks Charlie, I honestly don’t know how to eat them as a snack, such an unusual shape. Sadly we have closed down the lake house for the season.
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I hope the photographer drank your cocktail. 😉 And hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Never heard of chickpea flour twigs. And can’t imagine how they’d work as a snack. Like how you put them to use, though — really good recipe. Thanks.
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Thank you kindly John, indeed, the photographer may have had a sip or 10 of that lovely cocktail. I agree, the shape of the twigs would make it really difficult to snack on — I’d likely have twigs everywhere but my mouth!
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Yum!
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Thanks Liz.
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“By now JT has learned not to question, just accept” — best line :D. Love it. I have never come across chickpea twigs – what a revelation and I think you put them to great use here Eva, this recipe sounds seriously good (or as we say, gooood). I like that you serve these battered shrimp with a dipping sauce too — before coming across that in your notes, I thought maybe adding some spice/seasonings to the flour but tamarind sounds delish. I love seeing pictures of your cottage Eva and I hope you had a splendid lake-side Thanksgiving weekend. Really enjoyed this post.
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Thanks Kelly, after almost 30 years one does get to know the battles to fight and those to accept! The tamarind sauce was quite tasty. We had a lovely thanksgiving weekend but it’s always bittersweet as we close down the cottage.
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Happy Thanksgiving lovely! And I can just picture you all crowded around a table wondering what things were. I can’t say that I’ve ever had chickpea flour twigs though! 😮
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Thank you kindly Lorraine, we had a lovely thanksgiving. Yes, indeed we had several head scratching incidents over food my Mom brought home.
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Ahhh this is interesting reading this post because I’ve learned 2 things:
1- What chickpea flour twig are.
2 – Your mom is the s***! I love that she experimented with new food on your guys 😀
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Thank you kindly Dana, my Mom was truly a wonderful woman from whom I learned so much. Chickpea flour twigs are indeed unusual.
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I know your shrimp are delicious cause I’ve had other versions/shapes of those chickpea snacks before. In fact, I’ve brought them home several times, especially the spicier versions.
Look or ask for ‘sev’ if you ever go shopping in an Indian grocery store or on line. As to how they’re formed. There are metal disks or ‘dies’ through which the chickpea (besan) batter is forced into hot oil to fry it. Then the crispy straws are broken into smaller pieces.
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Hi Maria, I did eventually google the method to make the twigs, kind of a smaller version of Hungarian nokedli maker but they are deep fried. I didn’t see spicier versions but I’m sure they are quite tastyl
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I just googled spicy sev … I guess the gadget is used to make something called chakli as well.
http://www.flavorsofmumbai.com/besan-sev-diwali-snack/
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Chickpea flour twigs, wondering how the twigs are formed. Since it was deep fried don’t think I would try it but glad you did. Like your tamarind dipping sauce bet it would go with many other dishes. Need to get tamarind sauce next time I am in NYC.
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Hi Norma, I was a little disappointed that they were deep fried but I baked the shrimp so at least I didn’t add bad to it. I can’t wait to visit NYC again, it’s been such a long time.
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They look so beautifully golden and crunchy. The chickpea twigs sound really interesting.
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Thank you so much Angie.
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