Hummus again...

[Changeable]

The other day there was a recipe in the FT for making chumas.
The chef boils his chick peas for an hour and adds bicarbonate of soda.
Depending on the size of my chick peas, after soaking over night, I generally boil mine for 2 hours...
Question, why bicarbonate of soda?

[Itsallaguess]

The other day there was a recipe in the FT for making chumas.

The chef boils his chick peas for an hour and adds bicarbonate of soda.

Depending on the size of my chick peas, after soaking over night, I generally boil mine for 2 hours...

Question, why bicarbonate of soda?

It softens the chick peas.

I've never used it myself, but I know some people swear by it after they've given it a go.

It would be interesting to hear how you get on with the recipe.

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

[Changeable]

OK, I shall cook a new batch during the week and keep the board informed.

I generally prepare 200g at a time and will add 2 teaspoons of bicarbonate of soda to the pot. I hope that that will be enough... (???)

Changeable

[UncleEbenezer]

OK, I'll bite. WTF?

When I google "chumas", I see it appears to be a rare surname, and there's a suggestion it might be spanish slang, or relate to something hindi or tamil with a similar anglicised spelling. Nothing whatsoever of a culinary nature. The reference to chickpeas suggests the possibility it might be an alternative spelling for humous, though it seems most odd that googling would fail to find that.

[Changeable]

Please excuse the spelling error...

[Itsallaguess]

I generally prepare 200g at a time and will add 2 teaspoons of bicarbonate of soda to the pot. I hope that that will be enough... (???)

There's a recipe here that states 350g dried chick-peas with 2 teaspoons of bicarbonate of soda added to the simmer-pot, so you're not using too much if that's what you're concerned about -

http://www.goodfood.com.au/recipes/humm ... 0513-2jj3g

No doubt we're all waiting on your report to be published once you've tried the new method! :O)

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

[Changeable]

I generally prepare 200g at a time and will add 2 teaspoons of bicarbonate of soda to the pot. I hope that that will be enough... (???)

There's a recipe here that states 350g dried chick-peas with 2 teaspoons of bicarbonate of soda added to the simmer-pot, so you're not using too much if that's what you're concerned about -

http://www.goodfood.com.au/recipes/humm ... 0513-2jj3g

No doubt we're all waiting on your report to be published once you've tried the new method! :O)

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

Thanks for the link Itsallaguess!
I shall prepare a new batch of hummus during the course of of this week and post my opinion (for what it's worth!) on the benefits of using bicarbonate of soda. The recipe calls for 2 teaspoons of bicarbonate for 350g of dried chick peas, so as I will be preparing only 200g I will use 1 heaped teaspoon...

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[redsturgeon]

I have made hummus with and without the bicarb:

Here is a quote from one author regarding the use in Yotam Ottolenghis' recipe

Most from-scratch hummus recipes involve simmering the chickpeas for 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Ottolenghi and Tamimi's are done in 20 to 40 minutes. How? See step 2. Briefly cooking the soaked chickpeas directly with baking soda scruffs up the skins and allows them to cook much faster and puree smoother. (Without having to peel the chickpeas by hand.)

I did notice that using bicarb made the skins come off and rise to the surface where they could be easily skimmed off and discarded, this resulted in a smoother paste.

John

[voelkels]

When I used to make hummus, I used canned chickpeas instead of cooking the dried. Adding the sodium bicarbonate to the cooking water, I learned, helps loosen the skins allowing them to be easily removed to make a smoother product. From “Cook’s Illustrated”; https://www.cooksillustrated.com/how_to ... -chickpeas .

[Changeable]

OK, I made another lot of hummus this morning.
I soaked 200g of dried chick peas over night and then washed them well before I began to cook them.
To the boiling water, I added one heaped teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda.
I checked after 30 minutes and found that they were aldente. Although I like to eat chick peas like that with a little salt and green Tabasco, they were too hard to make hummus.
Surprisingly, after another ten minutes boiling they were very soft and mushy with a lot of the skins floating on top of the water.
I removed what skins I could, washed what was left and then made the hummus in the usual manner.
The hummus was very creamy and I consider the result excellent.
Conclusion? I would definitely recommend using bicarbonate of soda in preparation of chick peas...

Next time I will make double the quantity and freeze half. I still have to play with the spicing a bit...

Thanks for the help!

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[johnstevens77]

As posted the last time hommous came up, I use bicarb, as did my Lebanese cooks.

A rant.
What puzzled me a few weeks ago was the report of shortage of low fat hommous in the shops. How can hommous be low fat, I ask myself? If the mix doesn't contain tahina, it isn't hommous bil tahina it is just plain chick peas and when a Brit talks about hommous, he is talking about hommous bil tahina.

I cooked djaj bil hommous wa banadora for lunch today, ie chicken with chick peas and tomatoes, I certainly didn't add tahina!

john

[Changeable]

johnstevens77

I'm curious to know how you as a professional spice you hummus ?

Today I used 2 cloves of garlic, juice from a whole squeezed lemon, a tsp cumin with a tsp table salt. I served it with some paprika and olive oil.
The amount of tahina I used was 1/3 of the weight of the cooked chick peas.
Any tips would be gratefully received...

[johnstevens77]

johnstevens77

I'm curious to know how you as a professional spice you hummus ?

Today I used 2 cloves of garlic, juice from a whole squeezed lemon, a tsp cumin with a tsp table salt. I served it with some paprika and olive oil.
The amount of tahina I used was 1/3 of the weight of the cooked chick peas.
Any tips would be gratefully received...

The short answer is, "whatever floats your boat". But I only use a little garlic fresh lemon juice, tahina and salt. In the hotels and house where I worked, no one used garlic. It was always garnished with paprika and olive oil with maybe small cucumer, lemon and olive slices for decoration. Sometimes also some whole chickpeas.

I made hommous at home this week. I served it in a shallow round bowl, swirled around the sides leaving a hollow in the centre. I made a tiny salad of chickpeas, diced tomatoes and parsley which I put in the centre with a generous glug of olive oil. The sides were decorated with paprika as follows: take a dinner fork, wet the tines and dip them in the paprika then lightly rest the tines on the hommous, repeat around the cicumference of the dish. Also sliced kalamata olives and fresh mint leaves. Served with warm w/w pita bread.

HTH

john