ES Llime - Singer/Songwriter   
 
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Middle East in NYC
  • Hummus with prosciutto
  • Tomatoes
  • Cucumbers
  • Onion
  • Moroccan style pickled carrots
  • Moroccan style pickled eggplant
  • Cracked olives
  • Yemenite hilbe
  • Toasted baguette
I've been craving a good homemade hummus for a while now. Looked at my recipe, got the missing ingredients and went to work. Putting together the hummus, I didn't feel like walking to my computer to check every time, so I just winged it. I forgot to add the cumin that the recipe called for. It came out a little bit too watery, but it tasted great, so I didn't mess with it. I had previously bought a chunk of prosciutto that looked nice. As I didn't have any knife good enough for the required thin slices, I decided to cook the prosciutto according to an Hungarian pork belly recipe. I didn't realize that it was a piece of meat held together by a plastic pin. Got rid of the plastic and cooked the Hell out of that pork until it started falling apart. Used it to top my hummus. To give it that Middle Eastern feel, I sliced some veggies, and served little portions of pickles and some cracked olives. The hilbe is not traditionally served with hummus, but I just had to have some. I didn't have any pita bread and didn't feel like driving to where I can get some decent ones, so I toasted a piece of artisanal French baguette that my wife had bought earlier. Everything in those dishes was prepared by yours truly, except the olives. To serve I buttered the baguette and sprinkled everything else liberally with extra virgin olive oil and chopped dill. The fresh veggies got a bit of salt and the hummus and the hilbe got sprinkled with some sumak and cayenne powder. As they say in Israel 'Be'teavon.'
The drinks were a Magners hard cider (my wife had previously had dinner somewhere, so there was no point in opening a bottle of wine,) and for a digestif a Stock '84 Italian brandy.
P.S. - I made enough hummus that we both enjoyed the next couple of days with some yummy Turkish pide.
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