My Take on Hummus

I have been making hummus for a while now. I picked up the basic recipes from a number of places on the net and a book or two. I have taken the common elements and have added a few things to my version of hummus. After describing how I made hummus I have been at the receiving end of long tirades about how this is not the proper way to make hummus yada yada yada... So... This is my way... To make sure you feel happy please make changes after the first batch. Hummus IS comfort food :) 


Anyways...

I usually take a sesame (তিল/तिल) and chickpeas (কাবুলি ছোলা/छोले) in the same proportion (dry weight) to begin. For this lot, I took 250gm of each. 

I first roasted the sesame (তিল/तिल) in a pan and then cooled it spread on a newspaper to get rid of the moisture. I just can't seem to find the interestingly strong sesame that Chandan brothers sell in Pune as गावरान(gaoran) til in Mumbai. I just get strange looks when I ask and am shown the standard white sesame. So I just went and bought it when I was in Pune... This is a nice and brownish looking till with a very robust flavour compared to the standard sesame you get.

Sesame roasted...

I had soaked the  chickpeas (কাবুলি ছোলা/छोले) overnight and once I drained the water it was a few grams over double the dry weight.

Chickpeas soaked overnight...

To be honest before I bought the digital scale I just did all this by eye and it worked fine. I just went to the grocer and asked him to give me the stuff in multiples of quantities he/she could measure, and hence the 250gm multiple thing. Just made my life easier then :)
Anyways... I dunked the entire thing in a pressure cooker with just enough water to cover the chick peas and cooked it for a few whistles...

Chichpeas and water...

In the pressure cooker...

A few whistles later...

While the chick peas were cooking, I got the garlic in place to make the tahina...

And rough ground it with some sesame...

Then I took the rest of the sesame and ground it into a powder. Then I added the garlic mixed rough ground bit and blended the entire thing with gobs of olive oil... 
Tahina ready... :)

Tahina

By this time the chick peas had cooled enough for me to pop them into the food processor. This has really been a good buy in Mumbai. I've done this for a long time on my trusty Pune grinder but this is just brilliant for things like hummus.

After a quick whirl and before I incorporated the tahina I added the juice from a lemon and a bit of dhannia and jeera powder. This is where I deviate from the purists' version of hummus.

After another whirl in the blender with the tahina, I laced the thing with some more olive oil and my hummus was ready.

The hummus stays for ages in the fridge so it is really worth the effort. Especially since I can do a whole lot of different things with it while it is there... 

Cholay Palak

I met my favourite 'leafy veggy seller' in Mahim bazaar today on my way back home after meeting Peter. Since it was evident that sales had not been good, I felt sorry for the guy and bought two bunches of palak (spinach) just as he was shutting shop and starting on his way back.


I came back and remembered that I had soaked cholay (chick peas or garbanzo beans). So I started by putting out some spices. I tried a different combo that would have a "sweetish" taste with a jhal/tikha/fiery undertone...

I had soaked 250gm of chickpeas. After a day of soaking in the fridge, they now weighed in at 526gm after draining the excess water.
I kept the water and the soaked chickpeas aside for the while...

I ground the roasted whole spices in the pestle and mortar ...

Next I tended to the tomatoes, ginger, and garlic...

 A few whirrs in the grinder and I had some ginger-garlic paste

I added this and the ground spices to the tomatoes and  puréed the mix a bit to work everything in.

Till I got it to this consistency...

I added this to the chickpeas and added the water that I had set aside from the soaking phase of the chickpeas and used it to wash down the remains of the purée from the grinder. I pressure cooked the mix for about 20 minutes (four whistles). I did not want too much liquid for the next stage and wanted to save some gas as well. 


So, I turned of the gas and let the chickpeas cook in the pressure cooker while I worked on the palak...


I thought that there was a lot of palak and I wanted the cholay to dominate, So I took one and a half bunch and roughly chopped the palak, leaving quite a few large bits in. I prefer palak that you can feel while you eat instead of the green paste that you get in restaurants when they serve you anything made with palak.

The ginger and garlic went into the oil with a few bay leaves (tej patta)

I wanted to taste the ginger even after I'd cooked things through, so I did not bhunno it too much, besides I wanted the palak to absorb the garlicky-gingery taste, and lose its own intrincic typical 'acridity' in the process... Anyways, then, the palak joined the ginger and garlic.

I par-cooked the palak till it wilted just a little bit and started releasing water...

I then added the chick peas (cholay) from the pressure cooker and let everything cook and combine.

I covered everything and let things cook till it looked like this...

The cooked cholay and palak

Now, it is 1 AM, the cat has woken up to try and play with the chapptis while I eat 'dinner'... Hmmm.


The morning update... Now this is how the leftovers look in my lunch box :)