Hummous, Falafel and Tahini - A Middle Eastern affair with chickpeas/ Kabuli Chana

I must say, the title of this post, were words I was completely unaware of, till I moved abroad.

‘J’ says it’s all thanks to him, that I’m now enlightened. Hmmph!!  J would always pick up a small pack of Hummous from the ‘Middle East’ shelf, in the supermarket and pita bread to accompany it. I have had no affinity for hummous, sans some flavoured ones. That too, I have never wanted or ‘felt’ like having hummous. Obviously ‘J’ does.

Now that we are in India, he gets ‘Hummous’ withdrawal sometimes I think. Hehe. Just joking. Hummous, is not available in the supermarkets in the city where I stay; Tahini is, though. Each time, we go for a buffet dinner to our favourite restaturant here, J loads up Hummous and some carrot or bread sticks and savours every mouthful.  

When Amma came to visit us in Michigan, she loved the Falafel wrap from a café called ‘Jerusalem Garden’, which specialized in Middle Eastern food. Would Being a vegetarian, Amma’s favourite meal on a weekend would be a ‘Falafel Wrap’. As you can imagine Amma and ‘J’ would be raving about the falafel and the hummous respectively, while I would be left wondering when my shawarma would arrive!!

I recently saw a re-run of Masterchef India on TV, where the chefs were conjuring, much to Amma’s delight, what else!,Falafels! So I looked up a recipe for Hummous, and decided to go with ‘Smitten Kitchen’’s version. The recipes for Tahini and Falafels are from ‘Masterchef India’, the recipe of which has been referred from here.   

I shallow fried the falafels, instead of deep frying as the recipe suggests. It was ok, but J said the consistency was a bit different. So, the next batch was deep fried. I would suggest deep frying the falafel.

As for the Hummous, you could adjust the lemon juice, based on your preference. J added a bit more juice according to his taste. I made only half the quantity of what the recipe suggested. It yielded me 2 standard bowls of hummous. (the green bowl shown In the first pic)

Hummous

Makes 4 cups

1 1/2 cups dried chickpeas, soaked overnight

1 teaspoon kosher salt, divided

3 garlic cloves, peeled

3/4 cup sesame seed paste (Tahini, recipe given below)

1/2 cup fresh lemon juice, and more to taste

Cayenne, hot Hungarian paprika or za’atar

2 tablespoons chopped parsley

2 teaspoons olive oil

1. Rinse the soaked chickpeas well and drain them before putting them in a saucepan and covering them with plenty of fresh water. Bring to a boil; skim, add one-half teaspoon salt, cover and cook over medium heat, about 1 1/2 hours, until the chickpeas are very soft (you might need to add more water).

2. Meanwhile, crush the garlic and one-half teaspoon salt in a mortar until pureed. Transfer the puree to the work bowl of a food processor, add the sesame seed paste and lemon juice and process until white and contracted. Add one-half cup water and process until completely smooth.

3. Drain the chickpeas, reserving their cooking liquid. Add the chickpeas to the sesame paste mixture and process until well-blended. For a smoother texture, press the mixture through the fine blade of a food mill. Thin to desired consistency with reserved chickpea liquid. Adjust the seasoning with salt and lemon juice. The hummus can be kept in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week.) Serve, sprinkled with paprika (or za’atar) and parsley and drizzled with oil. 

(I used some chilli flakes)

Tahini Sauce -

White Sesame seeds - 30 gms

Olive oil - 1/4 cup

Toast the sesame seeds.  Do not brown

Put in blender and make a fine paste with olive oil.

Falafel -

Whole chick pea ( Kabuli Channa) - 200 gms

Onion - 1 medium - finely chopped

Green chilies - 1-2 - to taste - finely chopped

Parsley - I used coriander

Garlic - 3-4 - finely chopped

Cumin powder - 1/2 tsp

Coriander powder - 1/2 tsp

Salt to taste

Oil for deep frying

( I do not know if ginger was used, but finely chopped ginger would add to the taste)

Soak the chickpea ovenight or atleast for 6-8 hours

Drain.  And make a paste in the blender with green chilies and garlic

Add the chopped onions, green chilies, the spice powders

The salt and coriander leaves/parsley

Mix well

Make small balls, flatten and place in hot oil

This does not require any binding, and do not disturb them when frying, only gently turn over when under side is brown

Drain and keep aside

Recipe Source:
Hummous - Smitten Kitchen
Falafel and Tahini - Masterchef India, A Liberal dose of Masala

Pulissery -

After shifting to the UK post nuptials, one of the major things, other than the country, the people and the dreadful homesickness, I had to get accustomed to, was cooking for myself and the better half. I still feel sorry for poor J.; to say I was terrible is an understatement!!!  I still laugh about the days, where I used to stand next to the stove, waiting for the onions to brown, not realizing really dark brown can mean burnt, or the days when I added 2 cups of water into the chicken curry only to have water flooding out from the pot. (now you realize what I meant when I said I wasn’t exactly good. )

That’s when I realized chicken produces it’s own stock, and onions have to be stirred!

I consoled myself saying everyone starts off like this. Then, I happened to speak to one of my friends, who had recently shifted abroad after her wedding. I took upon myself, the noble task of advising and reassuring this friend.

The conversation went like this after the usual banter and gossip

Myself: how is the kitchen management front?

Friend: It’s going ok..

Myself: (thinking in my head)..poor thing! I must tell her all what I learnt!

Myself:  It’s ok…It will only get better, trust me (Really! This was the next day after the chicken fiasco). After all it’s only been a week since you arrived. So what did you try today?

Friend: Just some vellappam , mutton stew, ginger chicken, egg fried rice and aloo jeera…

Myself:  quite obviously Blank and speechless!!!

Friend: Hello?                                                                                           

 Myself: You have got to be kidding me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  (I can’t tell you how bad I felt for J that moment; It’s worse coz J, to this date has never complained about what is on the table, and he always has whatever I make, without the slightest wrinkle. And I don’t get a chance to try and not produce a wrinkle when I eat his food, because he cooks much better than me! Thank God!)

Haha! It still makes me laugh.                         

One curry kept getting repeated mention during occasional conversations was pulissery. I must say I had never been a huge ‘curry with rice’ fan. I always though pulissery and moru kootan are synonyms. But, seemed it wasn’t. One day as I sat wondering about the next day’s menu, I thought why not pulissery? Since my friend lived on the other side of the pond, I looked up a recipe on ‘pachakam.com’, a messiah for amateurs like me. This is way before I discovered the existence of food blogs.

This is absolutely an easy recipe! Takes minutes to put together and the Result is spectacular! It is a ‘My mum-in-law took the recipe down’ recipe…hehehe..

It’s what I call an easy to make favourite.  The flavor is quite traditional. The original recipe doesn’t call for vegetables in it, but you could use the veggies traditionally used in moru kuttan like, ash gourd (kumbalanga) or the raw green plantain (kaya). It tastes even better with fish curry, specially, fish cooked in coconut milk …..Y_U_M!

 

I make it quite often, and It comes well each time. I’ve made it for guests and they have loved it too. It’s the kind where you want to keep on helping yourself only to the curry, even after your meal.  Try and make your favourite fish curry with it and works together like a dream.

Pulissery

What you need:

Curds (Thick and Sour) – 2 cups

Grated Coconut – ½ cup

Green Chilles -  2

Garlic pod – 1

Jeerakam (Cumin Seeds) – 1 & ½ tsp

Small Onions – 1-2

Turmeric powder – ½ tsp

Coconut oil – 2 tbsp

Mustard Seeds – 1 tsp

Cumin seeds – 1tsp

Fenugreek seeds – ½ tsp

Curry leaves – 2 tbsp

Sugar – ¾ tsp

Salt to taste

Water -1/2 cup

Here’s How:

Grind coconut, green chillies, garlic, ½ tsp cumin seeds, small onion and turmeric powder into a fine paste

Beat the curd by adding this paste, salt and sugar

After beating, the mixture should be of medium consistency. If needed, add ½ cup water, along with the curd mixture

Splutter mustard seeds, and add 1 tsp cumin seeds along with fenugreek seeds and curry leaves and mix well

Pour the curd mixture into the pan and keep it on medium flame, stirring continuously, until it becomes warm

(Never allow the curd mixture to boil)

Remove from fire and sprinkle roasted fenugreek powder over pulissery and mix well

Ta…da

Recipe Courtesy: Pachakam.com