Gino's Hummus

Hummus is not hard to make. After making it a zillion times I've found some shortcuts that I'll share with you here. The day before you make this, go to a chinese restaurant and buy a quart of soup. At Oriental Pearl here in Haddonfield you'll get a tall plastic container. Eat the soup and then you can make your hummus!

Equipment

• 1 Quart plastic chinese soup container.
• A Cheapo ($10 or so) Immersion Blender.
• Citrus juicer
• measuring spoons

Ingredients

• 15 oz (or so) can of Ceci (chick peas, garbanzo beans. same thing)
• A medium lemon
• 1/4 cup (4 Tbs) Tahini
• Clove of fresh garlic
• 1/2 tsp ground coriander
• 1/4 tsp ground cumin
• 1/4 tsp cayenne
• 1/4 tsp paprika

Here is a photo of all the stuff you need

1. Drain the ceci (pronounced cheh - chee - or "chick peas") and save the liquid. Put the drained ceci into the plastic container.
2. Juice the lemon. You should have around 1/4 cup. More or less won't hurt. Put the juice into the container with the ceci.
3. Add 1/4 cup tahini to the ceci. Measuring 4 Tablespoons is easier since you won't have to scrape it out of the measuring cup.. You need to stir up the tahini anyway with a spoon. If it's at room temperature it will be easier to stir.
4. Add everything else to the ceci!
5. Mince the garlic. Add it to the ceci. Like this
6. Blend it all together with the immersion blender like this. You may have to add some of the ceci liquid. I usually add around 2 tablespoons. (the same spoon you used to add the tahini). When it's all smooth and it's the viscosity you like, you're done! Let it sit for a few hours in the refrigerator for the ingredients to get to know each other. Notice that it is already in its storage container? This should make it about half full. This is what it looks like.

Notes

I've tried this with fresh ceci. I taste no difference and the canned stuff is easier. I've tried a food processor and a blender to puree this. Major pain in the neck! It can be done but you have to keep scraping out the blended ceci. With the immersion blender you can move it up and down and reach everything. I use the quart container since the ingredients jump around at the beginning. If you like Baba Ganouj, bake 2 big eggplants, peel them and use that instead of the ceci.

Serving

It's best at room temperature with some extra virgin olive oil on top. Maybe some paprika on top before the oil just for color. Pita bread will do, but greek bread is a lot better. That's the kind of pita-like bread you get with a gyro. I heat them up in a dry hot frying pan for about a minute per side then cut into quarters. The only other thing you need is olives. A mix like oil cured, kalamata, sicilian etc would be nice. Here's how I ate this batch.