Hummus is one of those things that tastes so much better fresher. I make it every once in awhile for a lunch treat.
I started with dried chickpeas that I first soaked for an hour or so, then cooked for another two hours until tender. Into the blender they went. I typically use my own cheat as a substitute for tahini---I add sesame seeds and some sesame oil directly to the hummus. The blender helps to pulverize the seeds. I will admit that some seeds remain whole; this is not a perfect solution. For my next batch, I will try blending the seeds and oil by themselves to see if the isolation treatment pulverizes them more thoroughly.
Here it is churning away in the blender. After about a minute, I had what you saw at the start of the article. I made a loaf of whole wheat bread to accompany it---delicious.
I made candied ginger a few years ago. It's not something I would do every day but I had a lot of fun doing it. I recently acquired a pressure cooker and it inspired an interesting idea to me: why not make candied ginger in the pressure cooker? It should be very soft and flavorful. Here is the result. I peeled two large ginger roots, cut them into small cubes, and put them in the pressure cooker with heavily sugared water. The traditional method first boils the ginger in plain water to soften it and then again in sugar water to candy it. The resulting candy was very tender but still with the characteristic ginger texture. It was also sweet without being overpowering. The traditional method leaves a lot of sugar crystallized around the ginger. The pressure cooker gives a much more subtle result. The ginger stays moist even after it cools but you can dry it in the oven at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes. That inspired me to dip it in chocolate. While I was in the b...



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