Flavorful spin on HUMMUS
In parts of the Middle East, there is a topic that garners hours of lively debate at the table. Not politics. Not soccer, either. It’s hummus, that creamy staple of pureed chickpeas mixed with sesame paste, olive oil and lemon juice. What is the ideal consistency — smooth and fluffy or rough and chunky? Should it be served warm or cold? With what condiments? And, most importantly, where is the best hummusia?
Growing up in Israel, these passionate discussions were the norm for Mica Talmor-Gott, co-owner and executive chef of Ba-Bite (the name comes from the Hebrew word babait, which means “at home”), a Middle Eastern farm-to-table restaurant in Oakland’s Piedmont neighborhood that offers hummus topped with everything from falafel to split fava-bean puree.
“It’s a controversial topic,” she says. “We’d drive three hours to get really good hummus.”
It is no different here in the Bay Area. We may load up on Sabra at Costco, but we also scour Yelp for claims of “OMG this place makes the best hummus I’ve ever had” posts. There are many. From Larkspur’s Farmshop to Palo Alto’s Oren’s Hummus Shop, restaurants are using high-quality ingredients and long-tested cooking methods to craft addictively thick, creamy hummus. And we got them to share their tips with us.
Sourcing high-quality ingredients is of paramount importance to Talmor-Gott and her husband and partner, Robert Gott. They get tahini from Nazareth’s Al Arz, which toasts the sesame seeds before grinding them for a rich, nutty flavor and yellowish-brown color (as opposed to the icky gray stuff found in most jars). Ba-Bite’s organic chickpeas hail from third-generation Central Valley rice farmer and miller Ross Koda, who grows the legumes between his rice crops.
Talmor-Gott soaks the beans for two days, changing the water and waiting patiently until they begin to sprout because, she says, it makes the protein in the beans more available and easier to digest. Most importantly? “Cook them longer than you think you should,” she says. “When you smoosh a cooked bean between
your fingers, it should be uniform in color. If there’s a different color inside, then it’s not done.”
“Almost but not quite mushy” is the way celeb chefs and cookbook authors Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi describe it in their bestselling “Jerusalem: A Cookbook” (Ten Speed Press, 318 pages, $35), which has sold nearly half a million copies since its 2012 debut. In their recipe for Basic Hummus, the authors recommend cooking the chickpeas over high heat for 3 minutes before adding water and bringing the pot to a boil. Also, skim off any foam and skins that float to the surface during boiling. That way, the only thing making it into your blender is “very tender” chickpea goodness.
Thorough cooking is also the mantra at Oren’s Hummus Shop, the South Bay’s answer to an Israelistyle hummusia. Tech entrepreneur Oren Dobronsky opened his first shop in Palo Alto in 2011 (there are now shops in Mountain View and Cupertino, too) because he missed the food of his native Tel Aviv, especially the heaping bowls of hummus served alongside freshbaked pita and Mediterranean salads.
To replicate those flavors, executive chef David Cohen imports core ingredients — tahini, olive oil and garbanzo beans — from Israel and builds inventive yet familiar proteins atop the hummus bowls. “I look at the hummus as a canvas, not necessarily a blank canvas, because it does have flavor and texture, but still a canvas for exploring proteins and such,” he says.
His Pomegranate Lamb Hummus, for instance, elevates hummus to a seriously substantial meal with lamb shoulder that has been braised for nine hours in a pomegranate molasses-based sauce tinged with cinnamon, nutmeg, clove and other spices. Hummus Sabich is a clever take on the popular sandwich. Instead of stuffing the hard-boiled eggs, fried eggplant, potatoes and chopped pickles into a pita pocket, he piles those ingredients atop a classic hummus bowl, with homemade white or whole wheat pita on the side.
Oren’s new Jaffa Style Israeli Hummus is the result of Cohen’s and Dobronsky’s recent trip to Israel, where they discovered a thicker-style hummus with pronounced garlic and lemon flavors at Tel Aviv’s tiny and beloved Hummus Ashkara. “We came home and started making something like it and quickly sold out,” he recalls. “People told us the style reminded them of the hummus they enjoyed at home as a kid.”
Of course, this is California, where chefs love to put their own spin on plant-based dishes. You’ve likely had edamame hummus, which adds a delightful green hue and flavor to pureed chickpeas, or roasted red pepper hummus, which gives the garbanzos a smoky kick. At Jeff Cerciello’s Farmshop in Larkspur and Santa Monica, culinary director Brian Reimer crafts seasonal hummus flavors. His pumpkin hummus is a runaway hit in the fall, as is a hummus he makes with spicy dry-roasted red kuri squash.
But no creation has been embraced quite like the Avocado Hummus with Pistachio Salsa and Nigella Seeds. “If it goes away even for a day, we usually hear about it,” Reimer says.
It starts with meticulously prepared chickpeas. Reimer runs a pound of them under cold water before soaking them overnight with a pinch of baking soda to decrease cooking time. The next morning, he drains and cooks them for 90 minutes to two hours in a pot of boiling water (also treated with baking soda). He pulses the cooked chickpeas with a little bit of crushed ice in a food processor until a smooth paste is formed (the ice facilitates the blending and produces a smooth texture).
Two Hass avocados go in last, after the tahini, lemon juice and olive oil have been blended in. The finished product gets a flavor boost from the chives and parsley in the “salsa.” Farmshop serves the gorgeous green dish with fresh-cut veggies and housemade crackers, but hungry spoons and sneaky fingers have been known to take a dip, too.