Okay - this has been a long time coming. One thing that every hummus-lover should do at some point in her/his life is make home-made hummus from scratch - and that means everything from scratch (tahini, pureed chick peas, fresh lemon, fresh garlic, even grind your own cumin if you'd like...) Fortunately, in Chittagong, since we can't get store-bought hummus, we're forced to partake in this necessary life experience, which - albeit time consuming - is richly rewarding.
Instead of claiming to have created anything new, we're just going to direct you straight to the website that has given us hummus joy and hummus love this year...
For making your own tahini (sesame paste), buy raw sesame seeds. Toast the sesame seeds in a thin layer on a baking sheet in the oven (around 200 degrees Celcius). Then in a food processor, finely grind 1 cup of sesame seeds with 1/4 cup of oil. I made about 2 cups this last time, to keep it around for multiple hummus and babaganoush batches, so I used 2 cups sesame, 1/4c. olive oil, and 1/4c. vegetable oil.
After following the recipe for the hummus (from hummus101.com) keep tasting the mixture until you've got a perfect balance of salt, lemon, cumin, tahini, and olive oil. We like lots of lemon :)
Enjoy!
