Blame it on my infatuation with Kasol (touted as Mini Israel of India) or fascination with things Arab-Lebanese (don't insist on knowing the exact items on the list), HUMMUS becomes the first dish that appears here in the list of experiments. For those not really conversant (as I was till a few years ago) with the dish, it is a dish made of chickpeas (or सफेद चने), olive oil and Tahini (a paste of sesame seeds). It makes a great dip with roasted or tandoori meat/chicken or even cutlets and patties. As a food, it is a great add on to Lebanese dish of Falafel (that is fritters loaded with chickpeas and served with pickled salad and Hummus, usually wrapped in a Pita bread or Taboon). For lesser mortals like me, it makes a good spread inside a plain chapati or a slice of bread.
The well established way of creating Hummus is as under (Blue is what is accepted internationally; Red is what I chose to have; Black is the undisputed part).....
1. Ingredients
a. White Chickpeas Canned (soaked for a few hours, boiled in minimum water) - 2 Cups (reason for variation is my preference against processed foods)
b. Tahini Readymade Paste (White sesame seeds, powdered through dry grinding ) - 1/2 Cup (1/4 Cup) (Reason is same as above; homemade Tahini can be made by roasting the sesame seeds and then blending with some olive oil.But I chose to simply grind the seeds dry. Quantity reduced to check too much of chalk-like texture/flavour that comes with higher quantity of sesame seeds).
c. Extra virgin olive oil - 1/4 cup (does no harm!).
d. Garlic cloves peeled - 02 (06) (Two is too less and anything more will depend upon your own taste preference; six worked well for me).
e. Salt (Sea/black salt) to taste (wanted to break the blandness).
f. Pepper, freshly ground - half (one) teaspoon (depends on tolerance level)
g. Paprika (dry red chilies - 4 to 5, freshly ground) (Didn't have Paprika at home since I no longer order Pizzas that would have enabled me to stock up a sachet or two of the condiments that come along☺☺☺)
h. Chopped fresh parsley for garnish.
j. (Did you notice the 'i' missing? Ask me the reason separately). Cumin Powder - 01 teaspoon.
k. Fresh lemon juice of One (Two) lemons (adds the extra zing).
2. Preparation.
a. Standard Way (using processed food ingredients).....Everything, as above except parsley leaves, goes into a food processor. Run well till a smooth paste is churned out. If required, add some water (the one left in the can)
b. My Way......Soaked the chickpeas overnight. Shifted these into a pressure cooker and boiled for 30 minutes on low flame and with water just enough to cover the peas. The trick, I discovered, lies in making sure that peel or skin of the chickpeas must get as soft as its core or else the end product would be coarse and grainy. Since I didn't use Tahini, I dry ground the pepper, sesame seeds and dried chilies first and then put everything in a bigger jug for grinding. With olive oil in, there was no need to add any water (so drank the leftover water from the pressure cooker as a cold soup, straight up!). But please note that I had made no attempt to fully drain the water from chickpeas while shifting these from the cooker to the blender jug; I kept on casually scooping chickpeas while allowing whatever little water that came on board every time the ladle was put into and pulled out of the pressure cooker. Just about a minute and half of machine work and there it was - soft, creamy Hummus with a tinge that suits my taste buds better than its purely international but bland counterpart.
3. The End Result....
(Don't see the parsley garnishing? Well, I did not have any and it was too late to buy it. In any case, with demonetization on, small change is bit of a problem!)
Some More Recipes.....HERE
Some More Recipes.....HERE
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