Hummus

October 1, 2005

I've done it. Shifted out of my comfort zone, packed up all the household belongings and crossed the Tasman to live in Melbourne, Australia. Not such a hard wrench, seeing both our sons live in Oz - in fact one is only a couple of kilometres away. But sorting through the trappings one collects during 28 years of married life is an exercise I don't want to repeat in a hurry.

I have spent the past couple of months going through all the cupboards trying to decide what to keep, what to chuck, what to give to the Sallies (or Salvos, as they call them here).

One of the worst days was going through the pantry. Rather than incur the wrath of the quarantine people I decided to ditch my collection of herbs and spices, grains and grits, and, alas, my intensely aromatic preserved lemons. My sister-in-law gratefully received enough bags of goodies to keep her culinary inspiration going for a long while.

A real shame about the lemons but I just didn’t manage to cook my way through them by departure date. I will just have to put down another jar once I have settled in.

The only exception I made was a gift selection of herbs and spices that had originated in Australia anyway. But I have an immaculate array of empty herb and spice containers and I am looking forward to re-stocking across the Tasman and including some of the more exotic bush tucker condiments peculiar to Australia.

My mother and I dined high one evening after I had made a major assault on the freezer. We had a fine meal of crayfish and Aussie prawns. I am definitely going to enjoy being closer to Australian prawns, and hopefully learning some new ways of cooking them.

While house-hunting isn’t my favourite occupation, we were lucky enough to locate a comfortable rental property with a new kitchen and a pleasant little yard for balmy summer evening meals outdoors. And with son Ben and his partner Jo living nearby, and summer approaching, I am looking forward to that.

We are spoiled for local restaurants.  We’re two blocks from the beach and there are plenty of restaurants overlooking the bay and lots more in the little local shopping precinct. I am going to enjoying having a Kiwi Kitchen in Melbourne for – well, who knows how long…

Coming to Melbourne is like returning to at least some of my roots. My maternal grandfather was born and lived here till he moved to New Zealand and married. He was a butcher by trade and my grandmother was a cook so maybe I will draw some inspiration from that.

At present we are rattling around in our new home, waiting for our furniture to arrive from New Zealand and getting by with some basic rental furniture and kitchen trappings. I keep going to make something and finding I don’t have a casserole dish, or a wok, or any serving dishes. But it’s not worth buying new ones with our own due in port some time soon. I’ve just had to be inventive.

One thing I have discovered - the corner store nearby is run by a Lebanese family. I was delighted to discover Lebanese pies in a refrigerated display cabinet, along with cheese pies, tabbouleh, a lot of sinful looking honey-soaked pastries, kibbeh, hummus and some stuffed vine leaves. The wife makes all these goodies, I discovered. I asked her how she got her tabbouleh tasting so delicious. "You have to be Lebanese," she told me. Hers includes cinnamon and pinenuts, a little red onion, just the right amount of parsley. And at $3.50 for a generous container, I think I will let her make my tabbouleh in future.

I found a jar of tahini on the shop shelves and decided it was time to make some hummus.

I love hummus as a snack. It's great with sticks of celery, cucumber or carrot for guilt-free mid-afternoon munchies.And it couldn't be simpler to make.

Hummus

250g chickpeas
4 tablespoons tahini
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 teaspoons ground cummin
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon sweet paprika
2 tablespoons olive oil
about 1/4 cup water
salt

Soak the chickpeas overnight in plenty of cold water. Next day drain and place in a large pot. Cover with water and simmer until tender. Don't salt the water.

Drain the cooked chickpeas and put in a blender, reserving some of the cooking liquid. Add the tahini, garlic, lemon juice, spices and oil and blend till smooth, adding some of the cooking liquid if necessary. Season with about 1/2 a teaspoon of salt. Refrigerate until required.

Place in a bowl, drizzle over some more oil and, if desired, sprinkle with some finely chopped parsley.

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