Arctic Cloudberry: dip

chickpea

Delicious light hummus - high in taste, low in fat and calories

00:39

blinis

Whitefish caviar and blinis - Happy New Year

17:52

Ayam Zaman

Best silky smooth hummus

18:28

Hummus - a levantine chickpea and tahini dip

I have been making hummus for years, all kinds of different variations, roasted pepper, lime and coriander, beetroot, even cauliflower, I'm sad to say. But I always come back to the classic version. Mostly I just quickly chuck everything together with supermarket tinned chickpeas and it will be absolutely fine. But I used to make a more refined version, which I had quite forgotten about.

I was inspired by our dinner at a Shepherd's Bush Syrian restaurant Ayam Zaman last weekend. We'd been out showing London to some of husband's family who were visiting and as a thank you for our tour guide services they wanted to take us to dinner. I remembered a friend recommending this little restaurant and we decided to give it a go since it was kind of on our way from Richmond Park back into Central London.

Ayam Zaman Shepherd's Bush restaurant, hummus and tabbouleh

Ayam Zaman hummus behind the tabbouleh - I didn't realise how awesome it would be, otherwise I would have snapped some close-ups.

All of the food was really good, but the star of the show was the humble hummus. I was surprised to see husband shovelling it in, he hasn't seemed so keen before. I concluded it meant that my hummus just wasn't up to scratch. A shock! But it made sense, because even I who love my own hummus thought this is almost a different dish. Just so gorgeously smooth and creamy and light. Mine all of a sudden felt brown and coarse and somehow just less dignified.

I'd become complacent in my levantine dip confidence and forgotten the true art of hummus. So the next morning I rushed to my nearest Middle-Eastern shop where I go often. They have the best fresh herbs, great fruit and veg and just more interesting stuff than the main supermarkets, like lamb heads. They call me sister, which never happens at Morrisons. So I bought a glass jar or chickpeas, I'm not sure if this really was going to make a big difference, but I wasn't going to risk anything and thought maybe these are a bit better than the tinned ones.

I didn't have time or patience for overnight soaking and boiling dried chickpeas - I have tried that before and I'm not sure if that makes such a big difference in the end, but I stand to be corrected. I still probably will continue buying these jars and tins, because when I want hummus I need it immediately. Like a haircut. You go on quite happily for months, and then one day you wake up and your hair won't do anything you want it to and you know you need to get an appointment within the next 24 hours or you might never be able to leave the house again.

What I believe ultimately is the key to a beautifully yellow, silky smooth and delicate hummus is peeling the chickpeas, which is not a massive faff, but takes a bit of time. But then, what's the rush, husband would ask, and right he would be. The other secret to the best and most creamy hummus is adding enough tahini, I think I may have become a bit stingy with my tahini without realising. I also had a fresh jar of tahini, so it was still runny and oily and not that all-too-familiar cement-like lump desperately clinging to the bottom of the jar. And the third change to my normal hummus is that I left out garlic altogether and didn't even add any cumin or extra oil other that what was in the tahini.

And as so often simplicity is the way to go. It very often is not the way I choose to go though, I'm not a naturally a less-is-more kind of a girl, I believe generally more is more, but I will have to try and remember to sometimes restrain myself a little. Patience and simplicity, my new mantra. Good luck to me.

The hummus turned out absolutely beautiful. I could have just eaten all of it directly from the blender, but I only ate about half because I wanted to obviously get husbands approval and admiration. That was after all the point of the exercise. That and the fact that I do love hummus in all its possible incarnations (even the cauliflower - if you have to eat cauliflower this is the way) and promise to respect it more in future.

Look how smooth - can you see?

Silky smooth and creamy hummus

Half a glass jar (200g drained) chickpeas

Juice of half a lemon

3-4 tbsp chickpea liquid

3-4 tbsp tahini

Salt

Peel the chickpeas. Add all ingredients in a blender and mix until smooth. Check the taste and adjust as necessary, add liquid if too thick. If you like an even stronger taste of tahini, add another spoon or two!

Spread on a plate with some care, decorate with a drizzle of good quality olive oil, paprika, chopped parsley and a few whole chickpeas.

cauliflower

Low carb and low calorie cauliflower hummus

22:07

For my Friday night's entertainment I decided to try making hummus substituting chickpeas with cauliflower. I know, it's all crazy party central here. Who needs a night club or a wine bar, when there is a blender and a food experiment.

I have nothing against chickpeas, but a hummus-loving friend recently mentioned that chickpeas are off-limits to her for the time being. The reasons are far too scientific for me to get into here, but I thought if this works I can start a cauliflower hummus delivery service so she doesn't need to go without.

Also it is low carb and low calorie and thus supporting my beach body diet which is going really well (insert sarcastic emoji / middle finger). The biggest impact so far has been made by the spray-on self-tan. It is a truth universally acknowledged, that brown fat is more attractive than white. I need to run more but I really don't want to. It's so painful.

I had planned to go running today, but hangover prevented it completely. I can barely stand, so running is really not an option. I actually bumped into a wall just going to the kitchen for a glass of water and bruised my arm. It is a long narrow corridor, so not that easy to navigate. We went out for dinner at a friend's house last night and then for drinks in our favourite bar in Soho. Husband is fetal napping on the sofa and bitterly regretting the tequila shots that less than 24 hours ago seemed like such a great idea. Retrospectively a clear mistake.

As I'm sure it often is, such is the role of tequila in life. Can't imagine a lot of people saying: "Oh I'm so glad I had that tequila last night. Best decision ever!"

It's like the "I really regret that run, said no one ever" - thing apart from the fact that this one is not true. I for one really regret the run when I fell and fractured a rib. Really wish I'd skipped that one.

Regarding the cauliflower hummus, I am not going to do the same thing as many recipe substitution bloggers do and claim you can't tell the substitution from the original. You almost always can. See vegan parmesan. In the case of cauliflower hummus, if you have a nose, you definitely can. The taste is good, hummus-like (or like cauliflower with tahini), and texture is just a little bit grainier and lighter than the original, but perfectly acceptable. The one thing that makes hiding the oh so healthy cruciferous vegetables in anything impossible gives this one away too: the tell tale poo-smell that no amount of smoked paprika or tahini can hide. But if you don't mind a bit of poo-smell at the dining table, and a lot of people don't, farmers and other country folk for instance are often quite relaxed about the odd whiff, go for it. It really is quite nice and very healthy.

Cauliflower hummus

1/2 large cauliflower head
olive or vegetable oil
pinch of smoked paprika
2 cloves garlic
salt
1 tsp cumin
pinch of red pepper flakes
juice of a lemon
3 tbsp tahini
1/3 - 1/2 cup water

Preheat oven to 220 C°. Remove the stalk and outer leaves and cut the cauliflower into about 1 inch florets. Put the florets in a large bowl. Peel and crush the garlic cloves and add to the bowl together with a good splash of oil, smoked paprika, cumin, red pepper flakes and a pinch of salt. Mix well.

Spread florets on a baking sheet. Place in the oven for about 20 minutes stirring the veg a couple of times during cooking. Leave to cool.

Place the cauliflower and garlic in a blender. Add tahini, lemon juice and half of the water. Blend and add more water until it is the thickness you want. Check the taste and add salt and lemon juice if necessary. Keep blending until smooth. spoon onto a plate. Decorate with cauliflower florets, herbs and a pinch of smoked paprika and, if you're not worried about the calories, a little olive oil.