Food Sunday

By votes of comments, emails, and @replies via Twitter...

HUMMUS
[don't worry, the losers will get another chance]

Ingrediants
16 oz cooked chick peas
about a TBS of Tahini
about 3-4 TBS of Olive Oil
2 1/2 small lemons or 1 1/4 lemons [give or take]
Salt to taste
Paprika [optional]
A note on ingredients;
Organic canned chick peas are the easiest to deal with, however you can soak half a cup of dried chick peas and cook them in a pot or slow cooker. However, while they aren't the best for you, the Kroger brand reg chick peas have the best consistency for hummus. To achieve the same consistency with organic [it has to do with how much salt is in the can] try cooking in water for a little while, and when you cook them from dried, add some salt [if your not scared! hahaha]
Tahini is hit and miss. I have tried several brands. From Arabic Grocers, to the fancy specialty markets, I have found my favorite for price, color, and flavor in "Biladi Tahina" at Kroger for $4.69 for 16 oz.
When choosing lemons, pick lemons that you can tell have very thin rinds. This will ensure you have the maximum amount of liquid to work with.
You must add salt! Don't be scared! Your hummus will be buh-land without it.
Paprika is for garnishing.

Preperation

1. 1. In your food processor add chick peas and pulse untill ALL beans are coarsely chopped.
2. Add tahini, some salt, about 2 TBS of olive oil, half of your lemons, and start to pulse again.
3. Once you can tell all of your ingredients are coming together, start pureeing.
4. Add a little more olive oil and lemons, slowly
5. Once it starts to become an emulsion, stop adding olive oil but keep adding lemon. You really want you liquid to come from the lemons, not the olive oil, trust me.
6. Let that baby run! Keep your processor or until it is the thick, creamy consistency we all know and LOVE
7. *Edit* I have taken some advice [for some reason, I've been SO stubborn and didn't want to do this?] and started adding water at the end! As it's spinning, add about a third of a cup of water slowly. This makes for a more restaurant quality hummus :]
   

Remember, THIS TAKES PRACTICE! All of these measurments are guesstments based on many experiments. I have been making this on my own [Eamon used to be in charge of this, hehe] for about 6 months and really hit my stride about a month ago. It was good before then, but it takes A LOT to impress me now these days. I used to envy Cafe Medi's hummus, but I can honestly say this makes it so hard for me to buy it from them for 6 times the price[!] when mine is better.

Now go out and try it!
mae