hummus

Mom writes…

So, I have knitting group tonight, and just made up some hummus to take. One of the flavors turned out so good that I thought I’d share it with you!

So, basically I followed Bittman’s Hummus recipe in HCE pg. 93.

I like to make my chickpeas/garbanzo beans this way: soak a one pound bag overnight in salted water. (Read somewhere recently that salted water will soften the skin on beans as some of the sodium will replace calcium or something else, and that helps. Whatever). OK, so then I put them in the pressure cooker with fresh water, teaspoon of salt, water just barely over the top of the beans. Bring to pressure and cook 18 minutes, then let cool down on its own. You could do this in the morning and let it sit on the stove during the day until you get home. If you don’t open it, they’ll stay ’til evening with no concerns at all. This will make about 6 cups of beams, enough for 3 recipes–which is why I got to try different flavors. You can make just one big batch, but I really like having different flavors.

OK, so Bittman puts everything in food processor and lets it blend:

• 2 cups beans (drained)
• 1/2 cup tahini (sesame paste)
• 1/4 cup olive oil, 2 cloves garlic
• juice of one lemon, salt & pepper
• 1 Tbsp cumin or paprika
• parsley garnish

Very tasty

I used less tahini (1/3 cup) since I didn’t have enough for 3 batches at 1/2 cup each, 1 Tbsp chopped garlic instead of cloves, 1 tsp salt, and extra Tbsp of lemon juice since my lemons weren’t very juicy, and a little very fine lemon zest, and some fresh toasted & ground cumin.

Awesomely tasty

As above, without the cumin. Add 1/4 tsp chipotle powder, 1/2 tsp dulce paprika (Spanish), about 8 pieces of sun dried tomato (the jar I had had pieces that were halves of tomatoes, but they were small tomatoes – I used 8 pieces), and some extra liquid. Blend. Adjust salt. AWESOME! The chipotle powder really adds a lovely smoky depth to this flavor.

Really tasty

As above, without the cumin. Add a couple tablespoons of the ‘rooster’ chili/garlic sauce. I had some home made sweet/hot pepper sauce that I added some of too, but I don’t think it made much difference. Add some bean liquid if you like. Adjust salt if needed. Garnish with a tiny dollop of the chili garlic sauce to make it pretty!

Each of these makes about 3 cups or a little more, depending on how much extra bean water you add. Flavors are better a couple hours after they’re made, but are good even immediately if you don’t have time. I love the sun dried tomato/chipotle/paprika one the best. It’s what inspired me to send this to you, and thought that the pressure cooker directions might be helpful – but you can just buy canned chickpeas, too, and make this up super quick. Canned chickpeas are probably a good pantry item to have. Tahini is less likely to be found in your pantry.

David’s note on flavors

We’ve also had great success with this hummus recipe. However, when we use paprika, we typically leave out the lemon. This is because once when we made smoked paprika hummus, it was merely “ok”, and I ascribed that to a flavor clash between the lemon and the smoked paprika.

kaddo bowrani (Afghani pumpkin)

I got a recipe for kaddo bowrani from a Chowhound forum post by Allstonian. I never did find the original recipe that they referenced. Because it was so delicious and I want to be able to replicate it in the future, I will duplicate the post exactly below.

This dish came up on the Boston board – it’s one of the standouts on the menu at the Helmand. I adapted my recipe from one I found on boston.com – don’t know if it came from an article about the restaurant or not, but that’s where I found it.

We eat it a lot in the fall and early winter when sugar pumpkins are available. I’ve done it with other winter squashes such as acorn or butternut – it works, but it’s best with pumpkin. Butternut, especially, makes for a notably wimpier dish. (Nonetheless, we’ve been known to do it with butternut squash after the fresh pumpkins disappear from shops.)

One 2 to 2.5 pound sugar pumpkin
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 cup plain yogurt
1 clove garlic, crushed
Salt & pepper to taste

2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 medium onions, chopped
1 pound lean ground beef
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 cup tomato sauce
1/2 cup water

Set the oven at 350.

Cut the pumpkin into quarters. Remove seeds and strings, peel the skin with a vegetable peeler, and cut down into about 2-inch chunks. [DH, who usually gets this job, points out that a harp-style (or "Y-style") peeler works best on the hard pumpkin - the straight vegetable peeler is much more difficult to use.]

Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a skillet [I actually use a cast iron dutch oven, which saves transferring to a different pan later on.] Brown the pumpkin pieces, turning frequently, until golden brown (about 5 minutes.) [I brown the pumpkin pretty aggressively in this step, while taking care not to scorch it.]

Transfer pumpkin to a roasting pan. [Since I use the dutch oven, I don't do this!] Mix sugar and cinnamon, and sprinkle over pumpkin. Cover [with foil if using a roasting pan] and bake for 30 minutes, or until tender.

[This seems like an awful lot of sugar, but go with it - the dish doesn't really come out sweet in the end, and it just isn't as tasty if you cut down on the sugar.]

While the pumpkin is baking, make the yogurt sauce and the meat sauce.

Yogurt sauce: mix together yogurt with one clove of crushed garlic in a bowl; season to taste with salt and pepper.

Meat sauce: in a skillet, heat 2 tablespoons of oil and cook the onions until lightly browned. Add ground beef, the second clove of crushed garlic, and salt and pepper. Mix well and cook until beef is browned. Add tomato sauce and water, mix thoroughly and bring to a simmer, lower heat, and cook about 20 minutes until it cooks down to a thick sauce.

To serve: spoon yogurt sauce onto dinner plates, add a portion of the cooked pumpkin, and top with meat sauce. Serves 4.

This is so tasty, and really easy. It’s one of those meals where the different steps fit together really well – knocking out the yogurt sauce and the meat sauce fits just perfectly into the time that the pumpkin takes to cook in the oven.

apricot or raisin and walnut balls

BRW, Middle East, p 625

I followed Bittman’s recipe exactly, except I replaced the dried figs or dates with apricots or raisins. The balls were easy to form, and I rolled them in confectioners’ sugar.

The apricots and walnuts worked ok, but not great or even good. The apricots completely overwhelmed the walnuts, so we ended up with nice apricot balls.

The raisins and walnuts worked much better. The flavors were much more balanced–very tasty! I’m looking forward to trying this recipe with figs or dates..

synopsis of the past month

Though I took a leave from posting, we didn’t take a leave from cooking. Foods we’ve prepared in the last few weeks include:

• blackberry jam
• blackberry cobbler (2x)
• corn on the cob
• roasted peppers (2x)
• biscuits
• steak w/ Peruvian seasoning
• Peruvian mayonnaise
• pineapple-coconut rice
• Mexican steak and mushroom stew
• caramelized onions
• hummus
• fried rice
• ganache-frosted brownies
• truffles
• huevos rancheros

Also, we had friends over and tried the ratafia that I started at the beginning of the summer. It was slightly thick, boozy, and tasted of peaches and honey—delicious! Finally, I have some plans for the future:

• use the rice cooker for grits and oatmeal
• make Bittman’s new no-knead bread recipe
• make a soaked cake
• to make something with butternut squash

Descriptions are below.

chicken thighs with chickpeas

We were given a fresh zucchini from one of our neighbors, so Juliana looked through The Best Recipes in the World for a recipe to use it. What she found was maybe the best dish we’ve made, period: chicken thighs with chickpeas (Morocco, BRW, p 298). Because we followed the recipe (a few more onions, a little bit less chicken), there really isn’t much more to say. We had the dish with whole wheat couscous. The meal was amazing!

Bittman double feature – changua and spinach cooked in yogurt

Last night we made not one, but two Bittman dishes, one from each of his cookbooks that we own.

• changua, a.k.a. egg drop soup (Colombia, CEV, p 154)
• spinach cooked in yogurt (Middle East, BRW, p 463)

The Best Recipes in the World, part i

Just last week, Mom got me a cookbook: The Best Recipes in the World, by Mark Bittman. I’ve already made a number of the dishes.

• sauteed spinach with sesame (Korea, BRW, p 33)
• fleica (Romania, BRW, p 346)
• pasta with tuna sauce (Italy, BRW, p 555)
• hummus (Eastern Mediterranean, BRW, p 19)

They were uniformly delicious! I especially liked how easy the hummus was to make; I’ll a) never buy hummus again and b) always keep a can of chickpeas in the pantry.

tagine-ish chicken breasts

This was my first attempt at making a spice rub from scratch. Since I have Costco-size amounts of some spices, I figured that I should get good at it. I just mixed some spices that looked good together, mostly from familiarity with some Indian spice mixtures. With my limited pantry and expertise, I combined turmeric, cumin, paprika, and salt. When I googled those spices together, I got a spice mixture being sold as “fish tagine spice mixture”, which is Moroccan. Interestingly, the “chicken tagine spice mixture” was very different, which is why I say that these chicken breasts are “tagine-ish”. Also, I think I need to look up what “tagine” truly is before I start using it as if I mean it.

I admit that, when I prepared this, I did not exactly follow the directions below. Because the chicken breasts fell apart while I was thawing them, I had to tie them back together. This resulted in tubes of breast, 2″ in diameter, rather than nice, 1″ thick breasts. The inside therefore took longer to cook, and the total grilling time was actually 22 minutes (10 minutes on each side at full heat and then 2 minutes with all vents closed).