Hummus the Hard Way

Debating whether I should venture into the January sales to kit out Perran and Carenza for Uni, I could not recall taking much equipment myself.  It is no wonder, then, that my memories of the twenty-first birthday party that I shared with Annabel, Jenny, Sue and Nigel all surround our catering attempts.

Mainly the hummus.  Hummus was jolly new and trendy then and Annabel had heard of it.  We know now that it’s very easy to make if you have canned chickpeas and a food-processor.    The fact that we were high-achieving and ambitious students can be demonstrated by the fact that we attempted it with neither. 

First we soaked the chickpeas for a couple of days, then we boiled them for about a week, then we sealed them in doubled-up supermarket bags and belaboured them with wine bottles.  But the blighters weren’t breaking down, so we boiled them for another week or so.  Finally, we fed the whole lumpy mix through somebody’s old tights (washed). 

“Delicious,” murmured our guests. 

“Thank you.”  We smiled serenely.