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.
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| 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.
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| 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...
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| Chichpeas and water... |
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| In the pressure cooker... |
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| 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... :)
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| 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...
