Jo posting Friday's Recipe.
Yesterday, Aziza taught me how to make Hummus. Aziza (Im Ibrahim) lives in an Arab village a bit North of us called Kalanswa. She has like 11 kids, the youngest being 10 and also a bunch of grandkids. Every Thursday, she teaches me to cook Arab food (I think she thinks I am a bit useless at cooking) but so far we have made: awesome cauliflower patties, rice with pine nuts, eggplant and tehina salad, a bunch of other salatim (the red pepper one blew our heads off it was so spicy) as well as the tabouleh that I posted last week. Next week we are doing Shakshuka. Am learning a bit of Arabic in the process, whachta whactha. Of course, bare in mind that there are no accurate amounts to anything.
Ingredients
1/2 kilo dry chick peas. Soak overnight.
500 grams good tehina (we used what I had at home and she was NOT impressed- so buy some with Arabic on the bottle)
5 cloves of garlic or more if you like
Juice of 4 lemons, or more if you like
A small handful of salt. (looked like at least 3 Tbsp, I kid you not)
A tablespoon of baking powder- Apparently this helps them to cook fast. (Some people soak the beans with bicarb of soda and or cook them using soda water)
Method
Cook chickpeas with the baking powder for around 45 minutes, in pressure cooker, till the chickpeas are really really soft. Let cool a while.
Add the tehina (a whole bottle), peeled garlic cloves, salt, lemon juice and stir. At this point you can take about a cup out and set aside. Its called musabacha, and is served as a garnish on top of the hummus.
In food processor, process the whole mixture really well, in two batches until super smooth. Adjust the seasoning
Serve with good olive oil drizzled on top, hot paprika, the musabacha and chopped parsley. I didn't have parsley and we forgot to save that cup of Musabacha so they are not in the picture.
(Check out that huge pita Aravi)
4 comments:
OK, that's the recipe, but what's the *secret* to making good hummus? It's like TX BBQ. The recipe is simple. But the secret is low and slow until the meat starts pulling from the bone. Then you turn on the afterburners to get that crispy layer. There has to be a secret to hummus, because that recipe will get me the same thing I buy in Safeway, and not the delectable stuff I'm sure you had after the lesson
Well actually Shawn, I promise it will not taste anything like safeway's hummus.
I did make a couple of mistakes. Firstly, I needed to use really good raw tehina. secondly, I put all the cooking water into mix, which I should not have done. I would add the left over liquid slowly as needed to get the right consistency. You know how it should be. You can use more garlic, salt and lemon juice, But I promise, that is it.
I will ask my Yemenite friend for her mom's recipe and see what the difference is.
Let me know how it turns out ok?
Actually, now that I think about it... I bet she left out the "secret" too. And now I am going to worry about it the whole week. Ok. Have decided that I will ask her daughter, Elana, to tell me how she makes hers, and then see if they are the same.
Fair comment that even w/o the secret it's not going to be like Safeway. I'm just bitter at the crappy stuff I get here, even in restaurants. :-) I'm crazy busy traveling right now, but will try it in a couple of weeks. Let me know if you squeeze a secret out of anyone, though.
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