Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Blue cheese and garlic steak butter.

3/4 cup unsalted sweet cream butter
1/4 cup blue cheese crumbled up.
1/4 cup of fresh chopped up garlic.
1 tsp rosemary.
1 chopped up bunch of fresh parsley.
Fresh ground black pepper.

It docent take a rocket scientist to make. Mashed everything into the room temperature butter until it is well mixed, it will never get smooth. Once everything has been incorporated it can be spooned over a nice warm steak. mmmm mmm good.  Left overs can be dolloped onto parchment paper and placed in the freeze until hard then transferred to a zip lock bag and kept in the freezer until the next time you make steaks. Will keep frozen for 6 months.

** Tip, Ice cube trays make perfect portion sizes for leftovers.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Basic hummus

You need a good food processor for hummus. I have tried with a crappy processor and it just didn't work right,.


What you will need.

2 cans of garbanzo beans (chick peas) ***or if you can find them dry 1 and a half cups soaked in water overnight.***
between 1 and 3 tbs Tahina or tahinni 
the juice of 1 fresh lemon
plain white vinegar to taste 
1/8 cup of water.
Salt to taste
1/4 cup of a really good extra virgin olive oil***


Okay after you have everything together ground the chick peas into submission! When you think "OH NO! I think I ground it up too much!" do it some more. Once you think they wont pulverize any further its time to move on.
If you haven't worked with tahina before you may be a bit freaked out when you open the car or jar and find a wretched looking oil floating on what seems to be a sesame seed brick.... trust me it's normal and will be like that every time you open it. Take a strong metal spoon and mix just one side of the can. There is no reason to fight the whole can when we only need a few table spoons. Once you have a light brown paste spoon out 3 tablespoons into the food processor. add in the lemon juice, olive oil and 1/8 of a cup of vinegar and blend again until its all mixed well.
Add the salt a few pinches at a time until you get it to the point you like it. Water can be added to think it up if it's to thick and extra vinegar or lemon juice can be add for more tang.

Hummus~~ An opening.

I LOVE hummus and it is a staple in out diets. Before my Egyptian hubby came along I didn't care for it much. Don't get me wrong it was okay but..... the store bought stuff just wasn't amazing. We eat it on turkey sandwiches in place of mayo, with kofta and sometimes with a spoon because with good hummus you don't need anything more than that =P

I can still remember my first bite of real hummus, fresh off the plane in Alexandria. Starving for anything that wasn't microwaved. We went to Hosny's just up the road from our flat in Muntaza. Once the appetizers were spread out on our table and warm fresh pita bread was dropped off I dove in and never came back!

I have many hummus recipes but I will start basic and work from there.