"HUMMUS
MIDDLE EAST
(serves 6-8 as a dip)

This dish is usually served as a dip for pitta bread and may be eaten at breakfast, along with goat's cheese, olives, and coffee, or it may be served as an appetizer with drinks.

1-2 cloves garlic, peeled
11 oz/310 g cooked, drained chick peas, homemade (see page 103) or tinned
4 tbs lemon juice
½ tsp salt
3 tbs tahini
2 tbs cold water
¼ tsp paprika
2 tbs olive oil

(This dish is best made in a blender or food processor, though you could pound the garlic, salt, and chick peas in a mortar and then add the lemon juice, tahini, and cold water.)

Start your food processor and then put in the garlic. As soon as the garlic is chopped, put in the chick peas, lemon juice, salt, tahini, and cold water. Blend until quite smooth. Add a little more cold water if you want it thinner.

Empty the contents of the food processor into a shallow, 6-in/15-cm-wide (approximately) bowl. Smooth over the top of the paste with a flattened knife. Sprinkle the paprika over the paste and then dribble the oil over it."

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"ON COOKING DRIED CHICK PEAS

Pick over 8 oz/225 g of dried chick peas and wash them in several changes of water. Drain them. Put the chick peas and ¼ tsp baking powder in 1 qt/11½ dl [that's 1.15 litre] of water and soak for 12 hours. Now put the chick peas and their soaking liquid into a heavy pot and bring to the boil. Cover, lower heat, and let the chick peas simmer for 45 minutes. Add 1 tsp salt and simmer for at least another 15 minutes. Taste a chick pea. If it is still hard, continue the cooking. The cooking time generally varies with the freshness of the chick peas. Older and therefore harder peas take longer to cook. Sometimes my chick peas have been done in 1 hour; at other times I have cooked them for 3 hours. Another way of cooking the chick peas is by using a pressure cooker. After the chick peas have soaked, put them and their soaking liquid into a pressure cooker. Add 1 tsp salt. Cover and bring up the pressure to 15 lb/6¾ kg. Let the chick peas cook for 30 minutes and then let the pressure drop by itself.

Depending upon your recipe, the chick peas may now be drained. Save the liquid for soups. If any of your chick pea recipes call for water, you may substitute this liquid.

Half a pound/225 g of dried chick peas will yield about 1½ lb/675 g of cooked, drained chick peas.

You may, at times, substitute tinned chick peas for the home-cooked kind. A 15-oz/450-g tin of chick peas generally yields about 10 oz/285 g of drained chick peas."

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Enjoy! Any others while I have the book handy?

EDIT: Ok, it's a longer one, so I've abbreviated it.

FALAFEL (chick pea patties) (makes about 18 patties)

6 oz/170 g dried chick peas, soaked in 1 qt/1.15 litre water for 24 hours
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp salt
1 small onion, very finely chopped
2 tbs very finely chopped parsley
1 tsp ground roasted cumin seeds
1 tsp ground coriander seeds
2 cloves garlic, peeled and mashed to a pulp
a little freshly ground black pepper
1 tbs lemon juice
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
oil for deep frying

Drain the chick peas and put them into a processor with the bicarb and salt. Blend until texture is like coarse breadcrumbs, not a paste. Empty into a bowl. Add onion, parsley, cumin, coriander, garlic, black pepper, lemon juice and cayenne. Mix gently with a fork. The mixture should be loose and crumbly. Put 2 in/5 cm of oil in a wok or pan and heat over medium-low flame. You need a temperature of 350-375° F/180-190° C. While the oil heats, form the first batch of patties. Using a very light touch, form patties that are about 2¼ in/5¾ cm in diameter, and about ¾ in/2 cm thick in the centre. Do not pat down, the patties should just about hold together. Put as many patties in the oil as the wok will hold in a single layer. Fry about 4 minutes or until reddish-brown on both sides. Turn at least once during the frying process. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on kitchen paper.
Serve hot, with tahini, or stuffed into pitta bread with shredded lettuce and sliced tomato, along with 2 tbs of tahini.