Hummus!

After learning how easy it is to make homemade tahini, I decided it was high time to make some HUMMUS! Hummus is not so commonly found in Korea so I knew it would be a special treat. I found chickpeas at the department store. The one closest to me is NC where they have pre-boiled canned chickpeas. Unfortunately, I guess this isn't so common, but I know you can order chickpeas online.

Anyway, first, the tahini paste. Tahini paste is essentially olive oil and sesame seeds. It's about 3 tablespoons olive oil to 1 cup sesame seeds. If you are in Korea, buy your sesame seeds at a local market. It is much cheaper than a department store. I followed this recipe and used my trusty blender/food processor combo to make the paste! Tahini paste - Check!

 Here is the freshly made tahini paste and some other ingredients (like the chickpeas waiting to be used!)

 After that, it's pretty smooth sailing to make hummus. I used this recipe.
The ingredients are:
-Chickpeas
-Garlic
-Salt
-Tahini
-Chickpea water
-Lemon Juice
-Hot Sauce
I messed with the amounts on the recipe quite a bit because I wanted garlic hummus. But, since this was my first time, I followed the steps of the recipe quite closely. Again, I turned to the handy dandy food processor/blender...

 And voila! Hummus! Delicious delicious hummus.

So how did I eat my delicious hummus? Well, one of my favorites is hummus and carrots, of course. Best afternoon snack possible!

But, when you're too hungry for just a snack, a hummus sandwich will always do. For those of us who live in Korea, we know that lunch meats aren't quite the same here. I nice sliced turkey and hummus sandwich was a little bit out of the question. So, it was time to get inventive. I decided to make a fried tofu sandwich. So, I took my extra firm tofu and sliced it thinly.

Then, put a little bit of oil on the pan and maybe a little bit of salt on the tofu. Then, gently fry the tofu slices. Be careful. Even if you have extra firm tofu, it might break apart a little. Just be careful when flipping it. When it is lightly browned, remove it from the pan and prepare the rest of your sandwich. Put the tofu on one slice of bread...

And the hummus on the other. I also had mozzarella cheese and lettuce for filling. 

And that's how you make a hummus tofu sandwich! All in all, it was delicious. Oh and if you have some bean sprouts, you can make kongnamul and put it in your sandwich too. Kongnamul is incredibly easy to make. You steam bean sprouts and then add garlic and sesame oil...or some extra bells and whistles if you'd like. It adds an extra crunch to your sandwich...a little like adding potato chips to a tuna hummus sandwich. 

And after all these culinary successes, I have quite a failure to admit. Recently, I decided to make a blanket. I found some yarn and knitting needles and thought it might be nice to have an extra small blanket in the house. Basically, I made the blanket way too long and thin. So, I created a cross between a scarf and a blanket. Here is Olivier trying to convince me it could still be useful. In reality, it isn't.