HUMUS - WIPER

1 cup dried garbanzos (chickpeas)
(you may substitute 2 cups of canned garbanzos)
1/2 cup tahina
1/2 cup lemon juice, or to taste
fresh garlic to taste
salt & pepper to taste
3 T EVOO
a pinch of cumin

Garnish:
paprika, sumac or ground cayenne pepper.
chopped parsley, cilantro or dill.
roasted pine nuts or sesame seeds
(brown them in frying pan.)

1.
Put the raw chickpeas in a bowl with cold water to cover and
soak overnight. (You may soak a larger quantity which you
can than freeze - one cup per baggie, for convenience.)

2.
Drain and rinse the chickpeas, then place them in a pot and
cover with cold water. Bring to a boil, then simmer ‘til
chick peas are soft (about an hour.) Add more water if
necessary.

3.
Drain the chickpeas, but keep the cooking liquid.

4.
In food processor process everything - except garnish -
with 1/2 a cup of the cooking liquid. Add more liquid as
necessary.

5.
To serve, dish out a couple of spoons of humus, into a
deep plate, then with the back of the spoon, create a round
indentation that will leave a little mound in the middle of
your plate and the rest of it close to the rim (kind of
like a castle with a moat around it.) Fill the moat with
EVOO and sprinkle with paprika, cayenne, parsley, cilantro,
dill, pine nuts or any combination thereof. I find the EVOO
absolutly crucial, the cayenne very enticing, at least one
green herb very important and the rest quite interesting but
optional.

Ernest:
I landed in Israel with my parents at the age of 13 or so.
It was during the Passover week of 1961 and we totally
surprised my paternal uncle in that we did not want to
burden him, prematurely, with the information that we were
immigrating to Israel (it's supposed to be the Jewish thing
to do.) Anyway this is about food, Let's skip to the part
were we got to my uncle's house and it was time to eat.
They were not expecting anybody, and there was no bread in
the house (Passover you know?) for a quick sandwich, so my
uncle may have said something like this:
"Coca (that was my cousin Sarah's nickname - it means baby
in Romanian,) take Puiu (my nickname - pronounced Pooyou,
- chickie in Romanian,) and go get get some humus and pita
from the Arab on Jaffo Road." So we did that and I thought
the humus really sucked. Then, again, my family is one of
Ashkenazi Jews so most of them, have no idea about humus
serving procedures. After a few years of
hanging out with my buddies (broke, like me) in cheapo
eateries to realize that humus can be really tasty when it
is made well, but only if it is served the proper way.

T = tablespoon
EVOO = Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Wiper = a dish that makes you want to wipe your plate clean

Copyright © 2006 by Ernest Samuel Leibovitz