The Big Tahini Hunt



Butterbean hummus and crudites by Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

 Remember the Berenstain Bears' book "The Big Honey Hunt?" Somewhere in my stack of childhood books lies the vintage tale of Papa Bear and Brother Bear in search of honey. I needed the bears this week when I went in search of tahini, the used-to-be uncommon, now flat-out difficult-to-find ingredient essential to making the perfect hummus.

Tahini is simply ground sesame seeds, similar in texture to natural peanut butter, with a quicksand-like bottom and slick of oil on top. Tahini is what gives hummus its characteristic sesame taste and smooth as butter texture. I fuss and moan about my suburban grocery stores, and wonder why they put peanut butter and jelly next to the bread instead of the aisle with pickles, but I've always managed to find tahini when on the organics aisle when I needed it. Until now. A check of local supermarkets turned up nary a jar of the sesame paste.

And so I arranged for a side trip to Trader Joe's on my latest excursion into Atlanta, feeling certain that TJ's, with its pink sea salt and sunflower seed butter, would have a jar of tahini to spare. Except I couldn't find it. I wandered up and down the aisles twice before asking the earnest young man shelving vinegars, and he said, to my astonishment, that nobody has tahini. Nobody can get it. Something about a sesame seed shortage and don't even bother going to Whole Foods and Kroger and Publix, because they can't get it either.

Wow! I should tell them about Publix at Ansley Mall, my next stop, because right there, in the organics section, two kinds of tahini, Krinos and Joyva. I bought the can of Joyva and joyfully came home with my prize, ready to make butterbean hummus, a signature recipe of Watershed Restaurant. The thing about butterbean hummus is that it's made with lima beans, not the smaller pearl-y ovals that I consider butterbeans. I departed from the directive and used baby limas and I cut the recipe in half, because goodness knows, the original recipe will serve two parties of stevedores, with leftovers. The recipe is delicious, by the way. It is incomparably smooth, the silkiest hummus ever.

Butterbean, (or for authenticity's sake), Baby Lima Bean Hummus

adapted from Chef Scott Peacock's recipe on Food Network

1/2 pound dried baby lima beans

3 cloves garlic, peeled

1/3 cup tahini

1 to 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt, beginning with the smaller amount then tasting before adding more

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

3/4 to 1 cup extra virgin olive oil

Juice of 1/2 lemon

1. Spread the beans on a rimmed baking sheet and pick through. Rinse them and place in a pot and add cold water to cover by two inches. Bring to a boil and simmer until they are tender. Remove from the heat and let cool. Drain, but be sure to reserve the cooking liquid.

2. In a food processor, place beans and puree until smooth. Add garlic and tahini and puree again. Gradually add oil and process until mixture is close to the desired texture. Add lemon juice and process, then reserved cooking liquid, a little at a time, until desired consistency. Season to taste.

3. Serve with crudites such as carrot sticks, celery sticks, sliced radishes and cucumbers.

Text and images copyright 2011, Lucy Mercer.

Front Porch Tales

Summer Supper on the Front Porch

Hummus & Flatbread

Greek Salad with Patatosalata

Peel & Eat Shrimp

Grilled Flat-Iron Steak

Berries with Almond Scented Whipped Cream

Responsible for the care and feeding of 6 adults and 4 kids, I turned to my summertime standby, a Greek Salad with Patatosalata (potato salad), a dish commonly found on the Gulf Coast of Florida, particularly Tarpon Springs, and made famous by the restaurant Louis Pappas'. I used the Pappas recipe for the potato salad, but went another way for the dressing, using Evelyn/Athens' Ultimate Greek Salad vinaigrette and instructions for assembly.

Here's the Pappas recipe, found all over the net:

Greek Potato Salad
6 boiling potatoes
4 whole green onions, finely chopped
1/4 cup fresh parsley, finely chopped
1/2 cup whole green onions, thinly sliced
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 to 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

Salt to taste

Make potato salad (makes 3 cups): Cook unpeeled potatoes in unsalted water until tender, about 20 minutes; cool until you can handle them. Peel potatoes; cut into chunks in large bowl. Sprinkle with vinegar and salt; add chopped green onions; toss. In small bowl combine parsley, sliced green onions, mayonnaise and salt. Add to potatoes; mix well.

Ultimate Greek Salad

Here's Evelyn/Athens recipe for Ultimate Greek Salad. She can be found at Recipezaar and on the Cookstalk message board at http://www.finecooking.com/.

Dressing

6 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon dried oregano (Mediterranean is best)

Salad

1 head lettuce, torn into bite-size pieces (I use Romaine)
3 large plum tomatoes, seeded and coarsely chopped
1 English cucumber, peeled and coarsely chopped (the long, thin, almost seedless ones)
1 medium red onion, cut into thin rings and soaked for 10 minutes in a small bowl of ice water to make it less sharp
1 small green pepper, cut into thin rings
3/4 cup kalamata olive

Directions

1. Whisk dressing ingredients together until blended.

2. Season to taste.

3. Drain onion from ice water and pat dry with paper towels.

4. Combine all salad ingredients, except cheese, in large bowl.

5. Toss with dressing.

6. Sprinkle cheese over and serve.