Extension in my starters list!!!

Recently I got introduced to the Arabic food. Sitting here as an outsider, I always guessed that desert food can b easily summed up with strong flavors of nuts and minimal use of water. But being there, I realized it’s a little more than that. Though I couldn’t explore the meaty part much, I tried the veggies and I liked what I tried.

First and foremost, let me tell u something about Dubai. As I had mentioned earlier, Dubai has very little to offer which is its own. The western influence on that part of the desert land is so great that u will get everything that could travel from the northern hemisphere. Be it Starbucks or Phat Burgers, u will surely get whatever u want. The few restaurants which strive to provide the indigenous fodder, they falter by hiring expats mainly from South East Asia, who know nothing about the culture and their food. The wrong information and pronunciation led to a lot of confusion in my head. And that is the reason why this post was delayed this long!!

But now that I have a clear idea, let me tell u an amazing dip that I figured out of all this. The incorrigible foodie in me couldn’t stop myself from buying a bottle of fresh tahina sauce from a local grocery shop there (even at the cost of paying extra at the airport to make up for all my purchases..). Though I never really knew what it was, still the thought of carrying something new back home was amazing. It is now that I realized that it can be so easily made here itself!! Tahina is just a fancy name given to a paste of lightly roasted sesame seeds. So all of you who want to try out this amazingly simple recipe of humus can either make tahina at home or try it in the gourmet section of your grocery store.

The recipe is fairly simple. But u need to plan ahead. The ingredients are:

1. A fist full of chick peas or garbanzo beans. These have to be soaked overnight so plan ahead!!
2. 3 -4 tbsp of tahina paste
3. 2 – 3 tbsp thick curd
4. 5 to 6 cloves of garlic crushed
5. 2 tbsp lemon juice
6. Red chilli powder according to taste
7. Salt
8. Sugar, it is one of my additions.. What I do is I give a little more lemon and then balance the taste with a little sugar. For our Indian palette it goes well. But if u want to make it the way it shud b... then forget about the sugar.
Method:

Boil the beans in a pan until it becomes soft. U can even have it raw as once made into a paste, the taste will not vary much. But I like my beans boiled and hence I always boil it before.

Now take a processor and put everything apart from tahina in and give it a good stir. Once u see that the beans are nicely minced into a runny paste, add tahina. Tahina will thicken the solution so according to your wish, add a little water if need be. The end result should be a nice and creamy thick mix which can be held in a plate.

Oh and of course, decoration is very important, so go wild and do whatever you like. I love to decorate my humus with some chopped cilantro and olives. I also put a little olive oil on top. It serves two purposes, one it keeps the humus nice and moist and second it makes my plate look really gourmet. Try it and let me know how it tasted with your chips. Bon appetite!!