HUMMUS - MY OWN VERSION

There are probably so many versions of this dish around the world and each country has its own composition of spices. I learned mine from a lebanese lady whom I met while we were expats in Lagos, Nigeria in the late 80´s. She had a bakery and she sold her home made Hummus in her shop . At that time, Nigeria had been under Martial Law thru the rule of Gen. Babangida. Goods in supermarkets were scarce and you needed to be always on the lookout for sources where you can get goods to fill your pantry. Even toilet papers were scarce.

We had a strong community of multinational expats that were grouped together... and any info on latest shipments from the western world became viral thru words of mouth. The same expats met each other during festivities, embassy parties , any sports undertakings or even on boat rides going to the beaches. We had fun cooking together, learned new recipes as well. Lagos had a very colorful market where all fresh produce are sold and exchanged.

For my version, I added lots of fresh garlic, ground beef and topped the dip with lots of freshly cut onions. This is normally eaten with pita bread or flat bread. Flat breads are always available in Vienna thru turkish supermarkets. And if not available, freshly baked baguette would also be fine as alternative.

HUMMUS

Ingredients:

200 gms (1 cup) chickpeas, soaked in cold water with 1 tsp of bicarbonate of soda
3 cloves crushed garlic
1/2 cup of tahini paste (sesame paste)
juice of 1 lemon
4 tablespoons olive oil to add to the paste and a bit for garnishing the top.
1 tsp. ground cumin, a dash of cayenne pepper ( optional if you want to make it a bit sharp).
1 tsp sweet paprika and a bit to garnish the top
fine salt to taste.2 tbsp chopped parsley, 1 thinly slice onion to garnish
150 gms. ground beef..

Preparation:

1. In a container filled with enough water, soak the chick peas overnight, drain and put in a large saucepan covering the peas with water. Bring to boil and reduce the heat to low and cook for 1 hour until the peas are very tender. It will take about 30 to 40 minutes if you use the pressure cooker.

2. Drain the cooked chick peas and reserve some liquid for later use. Blend the chick peas + the juice of the lemon in a food processor until it resembles a paste, add the tahini and the olive oil and crushed garlic, blend well until a very finer paste is achieved. If the paste is still too thick, add a bit more of the reserved liquid to make it thinner in consistency. Add the salt, paprika, cayenne pepper (optional) and cumin and adjust seasoning according to your taste.. set aside.

3. In a pan with 1 tbsp olive oil, stir-fry the ground beef til meat looses its pink color, season with salt and pepper.

4. Arrange the hummus paste into a platter leaving the middle portion of the plate free to add the cooked ground beef... add the sliced onion and parsley and sprinkle the olive oil all over so it gets the yellow color. Serve with pita or Baguette/ white bread or flat bread (turkish bread) Serve hot or cold.

That´s just about my recipe, hope you enjoy doing this at home. Thanks for reading me and for visiting. Hope to see you around next time.

Mers
https://steemit.com/@mers

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