Shiny Blue Fish for the Win!

For a month now, I've been experimenting with making home made hummus. Up until now, I've poured three can's worth of chick peas down my garbage disposal. Fail after fail! I bought a jar of organically-produced tahini made right here in southwestern Missouri from a local natural foods store. This was the first time I'd ever actually heard of that substance. Turns out it's made out of sesame seeds...and not some magical potion brewed by celestial priestesses on Tahini Island, somewhere in the mysterious South Pacific. Who knew? I'm not a chef; I am clearly to be forgiven for my ignorance. :-) My hummus either kept coming out super-duper bland or much, much too garlic-ey. And worst of all, it was so, so lumpy! Trying to blend and mash chickpeas by hand with a fork is something I cannot recommend...it just Does. Not. Work.

Then along comes the Fourth of July on Saturday (yesterday), and I'm sourly brooding at home about having to work all afternoon & all night on the holiday while most everyone at the office is home enjoying a cook-out and a fireworks display. It was most unfair, I tell you. Suddenly, there's a knock on my door while I'm packing up my lunch box. Just a loud, quick knock, and suddenly Assistant Editor Maggie's furious barking (she is also in charge of The Busted Nib's household security) sends the offender fleeing. I opened the door, and there's an unexpected surprise: a package from Amazon!

For all I know, it was delivered by the Tooth Fairy, for all the delivery person's desire to stick around after being warned off by a vicious dogosaurus. But I appreciate the Tooth Fairy's willingness to work on the holiday, though! I was taken utterly by surprise. :-) It was an electric hand-held food mixer/blender, with a note that said "Now you can make hummus without the lumps! --Shiny Blue Fish" Wow!

This required prompt experimentation! I still had to work, though...so it waited until this morning, when I unpacked it, washed it up and went to work...I still had ingredients in my kitchen for one last go at a bowl of hummus, and I double-checked the instructions online on what proportions of which ingredients are needed, etc...and got started.

The result was VICTORY!

It was delicious! No lumps! Proper ingredients measured! That mixer (shown in the left of the above photo) obliterated the chick pea lumps! The flavor was at last released! I did this as follows:

1 15-oz. (0.44 kg) can of chick peas. Do not discard the liquid; drain it into a separate bowl and set it aside.

3 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil

3 tablespoons of the exotic, magical tahini

1 1/2 tablespoons of freshly squeezed lemon juice (this is from basically half of a lemon; use a little more juice if needed)

1 small clove of garlic, finely chopped. This essentially converts to one teaspoon of crushed garlic from a jar, if you're too lazy to crush your own garlic, as I was.

1 teaspoon of salt. (I don't recommend this, but did as instructed.)

1/2 teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper

1. Drain & rinse the chickpeas with a strainer. (I happened to have a small plastic dollar-store strainer!) Keep the liquid from the can & set it aside. If time allows, pinch the skins from the peas, which will make the hummus smoother. (I actually did this! It took me a good 45 minutes to do this to the entire can, but it was worth it for, you know, science.)

2. Combine all the ingredients, seriously; all of them, into one's awesome new food blender, except for the liquid from the chickpea can. Blend it for at least 5 minutes until it becomes very smooth, scraping down the sides of the mixer's container as needed to blend out any big chunks...except the awesome new Blue Fish Mixer did this in half that time!

3. Taste and adjust seasonings, as needed. I rather wish I'd been able to "adjust" the teaspoon of salt to zero teaspoons of it; it made it taste almost too salty, but that's okay. If the hummus is to stiff, add 2-3 tablespoons of the liquid from the chickpea can to your hummus mixer, and blend some more to make it creamier without compromising flavor. This actually works great!

4. Optional: add a bit of cumin or other spices or flavorings if desired. This was also not a bad idea. Your end result will keep for a week in the fridge, if covered. However, it tasted SO GOOD that it likely won't last that long. :-)

Thank you SO MUCH, Shiny Blue Fish! You are amazing! I promised a pen related post; my new Conklin Mark Twain replacement from Yafa's warranty center should be here tomorrow, so we are not far from that, I promise. Right now, I'm just thrilled that I've finally figured out my much-loved hummus. Get some fresh carrots, cut them into carrot sticks (this tastes better than baby carrots, I've decided) and dip them in that lovely, healthy food and enjoy. Much mad gratitude to my good friend, the shiniest of blue fishes! (I'm suddenly really hoping I didn't mess up her totally amazing internet handle; if so, expect a quick and chagrined edit. :-)

Have a good evening!