Homemade Hummus Recipe

• 1 pound pan chickpeas
• 1/2 cup chopped parsley
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 tablespoons lemon juice
• 3 tablespoons whipping cream
• 1 tablespoon pimento, chopped

Drain and discard liquid from chickpeas. Place the chickpeas in a blender or food processor along with parsley, garlic, olive oil, lemon juice and whipping cream. Cover and blend until smooth. Place in a container, cover and refrigerate. To serve, garnish with finely chopped pimentos. Use slices of raw cucumber, slices of turnip, pita bread or toasted bread to eat.

Did you forget the tahini, Greg? Or did you leave it out intentionally?

I've never made hummus with tahini. I've looked up tahini and it sounds interesting. I like the taste of sesame oil in Asian recipes. Can you tell me if tahini adds a similar taste to sesame oil or is it stronger/weaker?

Classic hummus is made with chickpeas and tahini, plus the other stuff. Here's a Lebanese version:

Hummus Bi Tahini

After soaking and cooking a cup of chickpeas, press them through a sieve or food mill, adding 2 tbls of the cooking liquid to separate the peas from their skins.

Slowly blend in 1/3 cup tahini, a scant half cup lemon juice, and 2 cloves garlic crushed in a mortar with some salt.

Tahini doesn't taste anything like sesame oil (which, most times, is toasted). Think of peanut butter made from sesame seeds instead of peanuts, and you'll have an idea of what it is.

Tahini is a staple of Mid-eastern cookery. Hummus is just one of many familiar dishes made with it. Baba Ghannouj (baa baa ganush) is another.

Ana Sortun, in her "Spice" has an interesting recipe for avocado hummus, which is used as a base for fried squid. I don't care for her squid recipe--it uses cornmeal for the breading, which makes a crunchy breading that's all about the coating instead of the calamari. But the avocado hummus is great. I've used it with my own fried calamari, and with other seafood dishes.

Recently I saw a variation on the theme that used black beans instead of chickpeas. It sounded real good, and I want to give it a try.

I love to try different foods, especially those with interesting tastes, and seasonings. Indian, Filipino and Vietnamese cooking is where I venture more often. So personally, I haven't had much Middle Eastern meals, except for at a kabob place near my office. What I'd love to know how to make kabobs that taste as good as they make. We have the skewers but have never been successful at making a nice kabob.

I searched the web for the Ana Sortun reference and it's a printed cookbook. Here's the link Spice by Ana Sortun.

You can also read my review of the book here:

Spice: Flavors of the Eastern Mediterranean

I re-read your review today of this book, and now I really need to get one. When I first read your review (which you did an excellent job on) I was not that sold on the book, but reconsidered after I read it again today.

Thanks, Cathy

Cathy, given your proclivities (we all know you're a spicy wench) you might also want to check out Andreas Viestad"s "Where Flavor Was Born." To my mind, the best cookbook published in 2007.

Viestad explores the cuisines of the Indian Ocean, using, as his starting point, the fact that there's a similarity of the spices used, but different cuisines. Many of those spices are the same basic flavors as used in the Mid-east.

It's arranged like "Spice," in that the chapters are dedicated to individual spices. And his text is nothing short of incredible. Here's a sample. He's describing Stone Town, in Zanzibar, and says:

"And it is all about secrets and semi-secrets, about what is hidden and what lies in the open, about the lies that serve noble causes and truths that can hurt. There are rumors and gossip, more so than other places, one should think.....In the space between truths and lies, between what is public and what is secret, everything happens."

For those like you and me, who read cookbooks like others read novels, that's pretty heady stuff.

One to avoid, on the other hand, is Amy Riolo's "Arabian Delights: Recipes & Princely Entertaining Ideas from the Arabian Peninsula." In my opinion it contributes nothing to the literature on the subject except bulk.

OK you got me pegged

And you can bet I will be buying my own copy of "Where flavor was born" it sounds like my kind of reading!

Thanks for the tip, Cathy

P.S. I meant to ask, if it's not a top secret project, re: this research you're conducting - will the ending result maybe be a book authored by non other that yourself? If maybe I have stumbled onto a tabo subject please forgive; if not I want to know as soon as it becomes available!

No, it's not a book. I'm booked out, thank you very much. Two was two too many.

It's not really a secret. We're developing an additional department in the Cheftalk.com reviews section. Basically, if we can make it work, it will be essays that include multiple-title book reviews.

A little nebulous sounding, I know. But once the first one is ready (there are three in the works) all will become clear.

Sounds Cool!

Thanks for sharing, Cathy