Simple Hummus

Here's a recipe for hummus that I found and then adapted to suit my purposes.  It's simple, and according to Leah, it's good.

Here's what you do:  first, boil some chickpeas.  Just follow the directions on the bag.  Then toss two cups into a food processor with about six or seven cloves of garlic (pretty strong), 4 tablespoons of tahini (roasted and salted, if you please), a half cup of olive oil (extra virg, if you please), and the juice of a fresh lemon.  Hit "go" and watch the blades go at it.  Add a bit of water until the mixture becomes creamy enough to suit your taste.  When you figure that out, add two teaspoons of cumin and salt it to your liking.  Let it whir together a bit more.

Once that's done, plop the hummus out of the food processor into a nice, white porcelain bowl (remember, presentation counts for a lot).  Then drizzle the hummus with more of that olive oil.  Then, sprinkle the top with a fair amount of cayenne pepper.  Now it's ready to serve.  All you need to do is toast up some whole wheat pita bread and you'll be in bidness.

The olive oil at the end is the key, I think.  That's the way they did it when I was staying at the monastery in Aleppo one summer as a college kid backpacking his way across the Middle East.  Okay, I'm lying--it's how I was once served hummus at a Turkish restaurant in DC, and I resolved to make it my way ever since.