Hummus

The humble chick pea has edged itself to become a popular food with the gloried name of hummus or Garbanzo beans. On Fridays at work, we have munchies where some of us provide morning teas of all sorts of snacks. The hummus dip grace the table. It is nothing but a blended concoction of chick peas, olive oil, lemon juice , cumin and tahini which is a sesami paste.

Once I made some, and vowed never to make again. I made the mistake of using very expensive organic chick peas and tahini. My husband would not try the stuff, and I was left with a big bag of expensive organic chick peas and jar of tahini paste.

In the olden days in Borneo, when I was growing up in Sarawak, chick peas were known as Kajang Puteh or white beans. At the lobby of cinemas, a Kajang Puteh vender sold his ware in little newspaper paper cones of boiled chick peas.

Of late, my second daughter G decided to eat healthy and less meat. We are a one meat and one veg family, and a vegetarian diet doesn't agree with me. I cooked up some chick peas, and blended them up and mixed it with some mince meat to make hamburger patties. I didn't try her hummus hamburger, but she says is yum.

On my kitchen bench, I have a batch of chick peas soaking in cold water for the whole day while I was at work. I intend to cook G some chick peas curry. I must confess I am not going to eat it. A friend asked me, why I bother to cook it since I am not going to eat it. Well, a mum's heart is always soft. Sometimes I blackmail her that I hope she will remember all the marvelous things her mum does for her.

On another occasion, I sprouted some chick peas, but I didn't fancy the sprout. So out they went to my compost bin.