Garnish with chopped mint, jolts of E.V. olive oil and the ruby seeds of a pomegranate.
I have rapturous memories of warm, buttered hunks of ripped baguette slavered with store-bought hummus, a dip of pureed chickpeas with sesame paste, sharpened with lemon and cumin. They were not cheap then and certainly are not cheap now. But it was curiosity and ambition and not economics that motivated me to rustle it up at home by myself, though you can easily make three times as much with the dough you fork out for a puny tubs that make you feel like a refugee.
Tahini is an oleaginous paste of pounded sesame and comes in either light (hulled seeds) or dark (unhulled seeds). You can use either here, but I prefer the light. It is so thick and rebarbative that it would be forgivable to mistake it for mortar. So I keep it at room temperature instead of the fridge which the protective, arresting layer of oil allows. Should you have a brittle wrist or an impatient and forgetful disposition, please do similar.
Ingredients
Drain the tin of chickpeas and reserve its murky steeping liquid. Put the chickpeas, chopped garlic, tahini, cumin, lemon juice and 2 tablespoons of chickpea liquid into the goblet of a food processor. Blend for about a minute, with a divine smoothness in mind. Steadily trickle the olive oil through the funnel as the motor whirs on. It's not a lot of oil, so if you are hoping to accidentally pass out from hysteria, do augment quantities to feed a battalion or two.
I find that if you just put the oil in with the ingredients and blitz it all in a single swoop, the finished piece lacks a tender moussiness. This brief emulsification makes it more amiable, creamier and lighter. If you want it thinner for whatever reason, add just a bit more of that formidable steeping liquor. I do this when I leave it in the fridge overnight, since it thickens slightly. Lastly, perk up with salt.
Garnish - I hate this word - with chopped mint, jolts of E.V. olive oil and the ruby seeds of a pomegranate which seem to be proliferating supermarkets as we speak.
Story and photo copyright © Bryan Koh, unless otherwise stated. Not to be reproduced without permission from the author.