Scratch cooking

I've been on a bit of a roll lately trying to create foods at home that I would normally buy ready-made. Things like pimento cheese, egg salad, salsa, tomato sauce, granola, oatcakes, bread, even beer (okay, Maggie gets credit for that one). In every case, I've been pleased with the end product and feel like I am slowly getting processed foods out of my diet. I like knowing what goes into the foods I eat and feed my beloves.

I've recently been making hummus from scratch, using a recipe that Deb Perelman featured on her blog Smitten Kitchen. She caused quite a stir among her readers when she admitted that her secret to ethereally smooth hummus is the fact that she hand peels each of the chickpeas that go into her recipe. I didn't even know that chickpeas had a peel! Peeling chickpeas adds 10 or so minutes to the prep time, but I found the task quite satisfying. If you put a single chickpea between your thumb and next two fingers and squeeze slightly, it just pops out, leaving the skin behind.

I've made her recipe twice, once using dried chickpeas from Rancho Gordo and once using canned ones, each time peeling the chickpeas. Much to my delight, by adding this one step, the resulting hummus really is ethereally smooth – 10 times better than any I've bought ready made.

On a related note, Deb Perelman of Smitten Kitchen is the featured speaker at a Louisville Free Public Library event on March 27th at 7 p.m. Tickets for the event are free, but required. I'm a big fan of Deb's. Her recipes are fabulous, as is her writing and photography. I'll be there.