Snoqualmie

By popular* demand part 2: the hummus recipe you've been waiting for.

1. Soak some garbanzo beans. My method is to select the size of container I'd like to fill with hummus, and fill it halfway with dry garbanzos. Add cold water to the top of the container, and let it sit 8-12 hours (say, from lunchtime to after dinner). You can skip this entire step by using canned beans.
2. Drain the now-enormous beans and put them in a big pot with water up to about 3 inches above the top of the beans. Bring to a boil, then turn down heat and cover. Simmer gently! for 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Go and goof off, or do what I did the other week and make fudge while you're waiting.
3. Peel some garlic and mince well. 2-3 cloves is good for a small batch, up to a head or more if you're making a gallon of hummus. Can I recommend that you make a gallon of hummus? It's a really nice feeling.
4. When the beans are ridiculously soft, take them off the stove, pour off the cooking water, and save it. Easy trick: stand up a cup inside a colander inside the sink, and then pour the liquid from the pot into the cup. If you spill some, no problem; if you pour beans by mistake, just fish them out. You don't need all of the liquid, just as much as it's easy to get. Then drain the beans the rest of the way.
5. Now haul out the food processor and assemble a batch that looks something like this (scale down for small food processors):
   • 3-4 cups of garbanzos
   • 2 tbsp of tahini
   • a small heap of garlic
   • a generous splash of olive oil -- 3-4 tbsp worth
   • an even more generous splash of lemon juice -- 4-5 tbsp
   • 2 tsp or huge pinch of paprika
   • 1 tsp or medium-large pinch of salt
   • 1/2 to 1 tsp or medium pinch of chili powder
   • 1-2 tbsp of dried parsley or a small handful of fresh
6. Whizz briefly, then stop and pour in a generous splash of the cooking water that you saved. You'll know when you've added enough because the whole mess will start spinning merrily instead of getting stuck. Blend until it looks beautifully smooth.
7. Break out a bagel or a piece of bread and taste. Adjust seasonings to taste and re-blend, then scoop out into a big container and repeat until you're out of garbanzo beans.
8. Final and most important step: eat a crapload of it before putting whatever's left into the fridge for anyone you may happen to live with.

*Actually, this time I'm not sure there's any demand. But I'm doing my best to create some.