Serves 4
Ouzo
Hummus
- Makes 350g - plenty for 4 dippers
- 230g canned or bottled chickpeas [drained weight - and save the cooking liquid]
- 75g Tahini [as well as ½ tsp of oil from the top]
- 3tbsp chickpea cooking liquid
- 1 large garlic clove crushed to paste with 1tsp sea salt
- 2tbsp lemon juice
- ½ tsp ground cumin
- Best olive oil
- Cayenne pepper
Toasted pitta bread
- Put the chickpeas into a tea towel, fold it over and rub the chickpeas together to partially release their skins. Sadly, however, this will not be enough to remove every single skin and, infuriatingly, it seems that each pea has more than one! That which one needs to achieve is a shiny look to the peeled pea; any opaque skins remaining need removing with the fingers using a quick pinch. 10 minutes deleted from one's life for the best, most smooth hummus ever.
- Add the chickpeas, garlic/sea salt paste, cumin and tahini into a small food processor and blend together, occasionally scraping down the sides as necessary. Loosen the mixture with a couple of tablespoons of the liquid drained from the chickpeas and blend again until smooth and no longer sticky.
- Decant, using a rubber spatula, into a pretty, shallow dish, creating a bowl shape with a wall around it. Trickle some olive oil over the surface and sprinkle with a touch of cayenne pepper.
- Hand round some toasted pitta bread cut into soldiers, for dipping.