Positively golden
My dear and slightly mad friend ebourne recently discovered that King Midas, he of song and story, was buried with the remains of his funereal feast. Some enterprising researchers recreated the recipes of the delicacies served at the meal and have posted said recipes to the web. Here's where the slightly mad part comes in: she decided that a delightful Friday night might be spent trying to recreate this feast with a dozen or so friends nearly as mad as she is.
I found this idea completely awesome. Apparently, I am mad as well.
The feast is tomorrow night (or, rather, by the time anyone reads this, tonight). I spent this evening creating my contribution to the feast: a garbanzo and olive spread, otherwise known as hummus (the olives are a garnish to be used on the side--they are optional). I have never made hummus before. I've always purchased it at the grocery store. Hummus-lover that I am, I thought I ought to give it a try. Here are some things I learned:
1. Tahini is hard to find in Seattle. I hit three grocery stores before I found it. (I found it at Ballard Market, if you're local and you're wondering. I tried QFC and Trader Joe's first.)
2. I never bothered to investigate what tahini was made of before; I'd never tasted it by itself, always with something else. The tahini called for in the recipe is sesame tahini--it's basically sesame butter, the peanut butter of the seed world. I saw garlic tahini in the store also but didn't puchase any.
3. Making hummus is messy: tahini, olive oil, lemon juice (freshly squeezed, I might add)--this stuff gets everywhere, no matter how careful you are, or how out of the way the cats stay. (I think they disappeared when the blender began to buzz.)
4. A blender is not an optimal food processor but it will do in a pinch. As jackwilliambell told me, Uncle Alton Brown says that no tool in your kitchen should be a one-use tool, and so my blender, usually used for making fruit smoothies, tonight doubled as a food processor. It served well enough but, again, messy. And the olive oil seep through even the best rubber gasket.
5. This recipe calls for preserving the liquid from the garbanzo beans to use as the spread blends (actually, purees), but I didn't need it. I liked the thickness of my resulting spread without it, and there was so much lemon juice (I beat those things--wait for it!--to a pulp!) that it wasn't necessary.
6. With a blender as a food processor, it would take hours to get a truly smooth spread. I don't have hours to blend. Mine is a little lumpy. I figure that in ancient days, they didn't have food processors; chances are that their hummus wasn't smooth either. It's authentic. Yeah. Authentic. :-)
7. This last isn't a learning; I knew it already. It's a reminder: Windex is an awesome cleaning agent when you're done with your work. It busts oil and grease. It leaves surfaces squeaky clean. I'm a fan.
The finished bowl of spread sits covered securely in my fridge. I'll take it with me to work tomorrow in an insulated container, keep it in the office fridge, and then take it off to our feast. I'm so looking forward to our culinary adventure--our Midas feast--tomorrow evening. I shall make a report anon. And if I have brains enough to remember to take my camera, there will be pictures.
I found this idea completely awesome. Apparently, I am mad as well.
The feast is tomorrow night (or, rather, by the time anyone reads this, tonight). I spent this evening creating my contribution to the feast: a garbanzo and olive spread, otherwise known as hummus (the olives are a garnish to be used on the side--they are optional). I have never made hummus before. I've always purchased it at the grocery store. Hummus-lover that I am, I thought I ought to give it a try. Here are some things I learned:
1. Tahini is hard to find in Seattle. I hit three grocery stores before I found it. (I found it at Ballard Market, if you're local and you're wondering. I tried QFC and Trader Joe's first.)
2. I never bothered to investigate what tahini was made of before; I'd never tasted it by itself, always with something else. The tahini called for in the recipe is sesame tahini--it's basically sesame butter, the peanut butter of the seed world. I saw garlic tahini in the store also but didn't puchase any.
3. Making hummus is messy: tahini, olive oil, lemon juice (freshly squeezed, I might add)--this stuff gets everywhere, no matter how careful you are, or how out of the way the cats stay. (I think they disappeared when the blender began to buzz.)
4. A blender is not an optimal food processor but it will do in a pinch. As jackwilliambell told me, Uncle Alton Brown says that no tool in your kitchen should be a one-use tool, and so my blender, usually used for making fruit smoothies, tonight doubled as a food processor. It served well enough but, again, messy. And the olive oil seep through even the best rubber gasket.
5. This recipe calls for preserving the liquid from the garbanzo beans to use as the spread blends (actually, purees), but I didn't need it. I liked the thickness of my resulting spread without it, and there was so much lemon juice (I beat those things--wait for it!--to a pulp!) that it wasn't necessary.
6. With a blender as a food processor, it would take hours to get a truly smooth spread. I don't have hours to blend. Mine is a little lumpy. I figure that in ancient days, they didn't have food processors; chances are that their hummus wasn't smooth either. It's authentic. Yeah. Authentic. :-)
7. This last isn't a learning; I knew it already. It's a reminder: Windex is an awesome cleaning agent when you're done with your work. It busts oil and grease. It leaves surfaces squeaky clean. I'm a fan.
The finished bowl of spread sits covered securely in my fridge. I'll take it with me to work tomorrow in an insulated container, keep it in the office fridge, and then take it off to our feast. I'm so looking forward to our culinary adventure--our Midas feast--tomorrow evening. I shall make a report anon. And if I have brains enough to remember to take my camera, there will be pictures.