Hummus with Tahini Recipe

100g or 4 oz of dried chick-peas.
4 tablespoons olive oil.
1 large clove garlic.
4 tablespoons of lemon juice.
4 tablespoons of tahini paste.
Salt.
Freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon of paprika
A few spigs of fresh parsley and lemon wedges, to garnish.

It's best to start the process the day before you serve.
Allow an overnight period for the soaking of the chick-peas.
You'll need around 20 minutes preparation the next day.
1 hour for cooking and cooling.
And then a further 1 hour for chilling.

1. The very first thing to do is put the chick-peas into a large deep bowl and then cover with plenty of cold water. Leave this to soak for several hours, preferably leaving it overnight. It's ideal to plan ahead therefore if you are expecting guests the next day.

2. Drain and rinse the chick-peas, then put them into a saucepan and cover with fresh cold water. Bring to the boil, then gently simmer them for around an hour until tender. If the chick-peas become too dry during the cooking process then add more water. It's important not to let them dry out.

3. Drain the contents of the pan but keep the liquid. Leave to cool.

4. Keep a dozen chick-peas for garnish and put the remainder into a blender with half of the olive oil, the garlic, tahini paste, salt & pepper and if you so desire, some optional lemon juice. Blend to a smooth puree whilst adding some of the liquid kept behind from stage 2 if necessary. You want to try and get the consistency of thick mayonnaise.

5. Place in the fridge for a minimum of 60 minutes.

6. When serving, spoon the mixture into a shallow dish or 4 small individual ones. With the remaining olive oil, pour it into a small bowl and add the paprika to make a smooth paste. Once this is done, drizzle some hummus over the top and garnish with the 12 whole chick-peas, lemon wedges and parsley springs. Serve the dish chilled.

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Many cuisine-related sources carry forward a folklore which describes hummus as one of the oldest known prepared foods with a long history in the Middle East which stretches back to antiquity, but its historical origins are unknown. The historical enigma is such that the origins of hummus-bi-tahini could be much more recent than is widely believed. One of the earliest verifiable descriptions of hummus comes from 18th-century Damascus and the same source claims it was unknown elsewhere.

Meanwhile some cookbooks repeat the legend that hummus was first prepared in the 12th century by Saladin. Sources such as Cooking in Ancient Civilizations by Cathy K. Kaufman carry speculative recipes for an ancient Egyptian hummus, substituting vinegar for lemon juice, but acknowledge we do not know how the Egyptians ate their chick-peas. Similarly, no recipe for hummus has been identified among the many books on cooking surviving from ancient Rome. (Read More)