Saturday, February 7th - Hummous supplement

This is such an easy recipe that there is no excuse to buy over priced mystery hummous. I use canned chick peas aka garbanzo beans, instead of the scarier recipes out there that give you the directions in dried proportions. The only reason I am familiar with these is that having lived in Spain I know how near and dear to their hearts 'cooking' their legumes is to home cooks. I've often heard my friends say that 'I make my own beans'. Meaning that they stew beans with all the aromatics, from dry. That's cool. That's also why I knew that the only reason bicarbonate is listed in the ingredients in most of these recipes is for the inflation of the beans. If you ever make anything with dry beans and substitute canned, leave out the bicarbonate (soda). Anyhoo, dry beans are too much work and time for an urban foodie. That is why so many of us resort to the premade. I mean I remember when we had our flat in the Portal de Angel in Barcelona, just off the Placa Catalunya, there used to be a Marks and Spencer's on the corner at the top of Las Ramblas where there is a Sephora now. Poor Marks and Sparks employees only found out that day when the doors were locked. Clemence (my parisien flatmate) and I used to buy their red-pepper hummous all the time. ALL THE TIME. You can use this base to do varietals like that, Red Pepper, Lemon Herb or Spicy.

A little note about Tahini. Do no fear tahini. It is not as exotic as you might think. It's simply sesame butter like peanut butter. You can now find it in most supermarkets in the 'nutbutter' aisle or 'international foods' aisle. If not, most 'niche' markets will carry many brands. It may seem expensive for the little you'll use (4 - 6 bucks) a jar. But think of it like Peanut butter. It keeps forever and it goes in so many things like Babaganoush which is also super super easy to make. Keep it in the fridge next to all your other condiments and it'll be fine.

Ingredients:
(Now this is a huge batch, when I mean huge I mean enough to fill a salad bowl. Normally, D cuts this in half.)

2 14 oz (soup can sized) cans of chick peas
7 large peeled cloves of garlic
1/2 c olive oil plus a few more T for drizzling after
1/4 t ground cumin
1/4 t paprika (opt)
1/2 c tahini at room temperature.
1/4 c freshly squeezed leon juice
1/2 t salt (salt more to taste)

Garnish: fresh parsley or coriander, paprika, plain yogurt, lemon juice, 1/4 cup of chick peas set aside whole.

Put all the ingredients (not the garnish) in a food processor or mini processor (if you cut down the recipe) NOT NOT NOT a blender, you do not want a chick pea smoothie.

Pulse until roughly smooth like oatmeal, or as smooth as you like. Add more oil if you like it looser.

Serve on a plate or bowl, top with any or all the garnish listed above. I like to keep refreshing the greens and the paprika as people eat through. You can keep in your fridge for at least a week if not more in a covered container.

Now if you wanted to do roasted redpepper, you can either roast redpeppers (either on a gas range, on the BBQ or under the broiler, turning, until the whole thing is charred black black black, place in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap or put in a paper bag until cool. rub off the char and deseed) or you can used jarred. Add 1/2 c to the above recipe into the food processor, you can reduce the amount of lemon juice so you don't end up with a too watery mix.

mmmm See photos on Super Bowl entry on February 2.