HUMUS - WIPER 1 cup dried garbanzos (chickpeas) (you may substitute 2 cups of canned garbanzos) 1 cup tahina 1/2 cup lemon juice, or to taste fresh garlic to taste salt & pepper to taste 3 T EVOO a pinch of cumin Garnish: paprika, sumac or ground cayenne pepper. chopped parsley, cilantro or dill. roasted pine nuts (brown them in frying pan.) 1. Put the raw chickpeas in a bowl with cold water to cover and soak overnight. (You may soak a larger quantity which you can than freeze - one cup per baggie, for convenience.) 2. Drain and rinse the chickpeas, then place them in a pot and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil, then simmer ‘til chick peas are soft (about an hour.) Add more water if necessary. 3. Drain the chickpeas, but keep the cooking liquid. 4. In food processor process everything - except garnish - with 1/2 a cup of the cooking liquid. Add more liquid as necessary. 5. To serve, dish out a couple of spoons of humus, into a deep plate, then with the back of the spoon, create a round indentation that will leave a little mound in the middle of your plate and the rest of it close to the rim (kind of like a castle with a moat around it.) Fill the moat with EVOO and sprinkle with paprika, cayenne, parsley, cilantro, dill, pine nuts or any combination thereof. I find the EVOO absolutly crucial, the cayenne very enticing, at least one green herb very important and the rest quite interesting but optional. Ernest: I landed in Israel with my parents at the age of 13 or so. It was during the Passover week of 1961 and we totally surprised my paternal uncle in that we did not want to burden him, prematurely, with the information that we were immigrating to Israel (it's supposed to be the Jewish thing to do.) Anyway this is about food, Let's skip to the part were we got to my uncle's house and it was time to eat. They were not expecting anybody, and there was no bread in the house (Passover you know?) for a quick sandwich, so my uncle may have said something like this: "Coca (that was my cousin Sarah's nickname - it means baby in Romanian,) take Puiu (my nickname - pronounced Pooyou, - chickie in Romanian,) and go get get some humus and pita from the Arab on Jaffo Road." So we did that and I thought the humus really sucked. Then, again, my family is one of Ashkenazi Jews so most of them, have no idea about humus serving procedures. After a few years of hanging out with my buddies (broke, like me) in cheapo eateries to realize that humus can be really tasty when it is made well, but only if it is served the proper way. T = tablespoon EVOO = Extra Virgin Olive Oil Wiper = a dish that you wipe the plate for