Versitile and healthy, a dip and a spread, I can always find ways to use up any hummus I have knocking around my fridge. But is it really worth going to the effort of making your own hummus. For me it's the total opposite of Marmite, I neither love nor hate it. The only time I have ever really been wowed by a hummus was in my favourite Turkish eatery 'Troy', on City rd. They import, I've been reliably informed, white chickpeas from Turkey. It completely blows away any shop bought or even deli counter competitor.
Still , after hand peeling roughly 130 chickpeas this evening, I feel a little more justified than I did 3 hours ago to comment on task v taste. I am aware that at least some of you have instantly lost all interest in anything other than 'she peeled them???' I did indeed. This was down to watching the human teddy bear, that is Simon Hopkinson recently, who insisted peeling is perfection as far as hummus goes,.This notion was like fly paper to me and I knew there was only one way to free myself.
Looking at the mound of tini tiny balls in my sieve, I certainly wasn't excited by the task ahead. Heroically I dived in. I could see nothing but beige and my mind wandered away. They were far easier to peel than I imagined and with a quick grab and pinch, I settled into the task, hips swaying side to side as the pile of skins slowly grew larger and the end was in site. The purpose of this is to create a hummus with a smoother texture.
To be fair, if I hadn't peeled the chickpeas this recipe would hardly of involved any effort at all. It called for jarred chickpeas and you really need to buy the best you can get your hands on. There are very few ingredients and the better they are the more flavour the hummus will have. Pick up a posh jar of chickpeas the next time you pop into a deli somewhere, perhaps a good tahini too.
Drain the chickpeas and reserve their liquid. Weigh out 230g of chickpeas and get peeling. I would suggest singing Queens 'don't stop me now'. Place the chickpeas in a food processor with 1/2 tsp of ground cumin, some of the oil from the top of the tahini jar, 75g of the brown tahini paste, 2 tbsp of fresh lemon juice and one clove of garlic crushed to a paste. Roughly chop the garlic clove then add 1 tsp of coarse sea salt, carefully use the side of a wide knife to squash the garlic, place your finger on one side of the blade and rub over the garlic. Whizz all the ingredients. Mine was to dry and this is when I added some of the chickpea juice, a little at a time until I had the correct consistency. Be cautious as you can always add more but you can't take it out if its to runny.
To serve, spoon the hummus into your dish of choice. With a spoon swirl around the middle of the hummus, creating a wall around the edge (see about picture), drizzle with some extra virgin olive oil and sprinkle with some cayenne pepper.
So, to peel or not to peel? The hummus was beautifully smooth and a real treat. I would definitely go through the effort whenever I had the time. There may have been alot of them but they were very easy to peel and it didn't take to long. More so the flavour and texture of homemade hummus is far more pleasurable than those plastic tubs from the supermarkets. There's only one thing for it. I will have to make it again with the skins on. If it still tastes much better I may never buy ready made again
No comments:
Post a Comment