Cooking up a storm

It’s a very wet Sunday afternoon here watching the rain as the remains of Hurricane Bertha pass by (having watched “My Fair Lady”, I thought that in Hertfordshire, Herefordshire and Hampshire hurricanes hardly ever happen? Why did I move to Yorkshire then?) So my mind has turned to cooking: we have a brand new pestle and mortar and we’re not afraid to use them! So here’s my three step guide to making two of my favourite things: pesto and hummous.
Pesto:
Step 1: Grow some basil
I’m working on this one. I have lots of little pots lined up and seeds to sow, but today isn’t exactly ideal sowing weather so I have cheated a little: basil leaves from “The Nursery” on Knapton Lane a few streets away where an amazing couple produce vast quantities of organic fruit, veg and eggs from a rambling garden big enough to get lost in (I know this because they opened up the garden under the National Gardens Scheme last year!) One thing I love about being near the countryside is that people are much more willing to sell their produce on an honesty basis: there’s a signboard outside that says what’s available and you put the money through the letterbox.


As my seeds will take a few weeks to grow, I’ve also bought two supermarket basil plants to divide and grow on, which will hopefully keep us going until mine are ready. The cunning plan is to grow everything in pots outside, and bring them in before winter to have basil all through the year.
Step 2: Add whatever exciting things you can find in the cupboard.
The only essential ingredients in pesto are basil and olive oil (and potentially cheese – parmesan is traditional but others work), but the fun bit is adding extra flavours. So yesterday we made pesto with the following: Stilton, sunflower seeds, walnuts, almonds and half a chilli. Other things I hope to try include fried onions and mushrooms, roasted pepper, sun-dried tomatoes and different kinds of cheese.
Step 3: Bash, bash, bash!
            Stop when you’ve had enough and/or it’s the right consistency.
Step 4: Boil some pasta, and stir in the pesto.
A fresh and tasty lunch in minutes (well, step 1 takes a bit longer...)

Hummous
Step 1: Prepare your chickpeas
Chickpeas are a Mediterranean crop which like dry, hot weather so there’s little point trying to grow them in Yorkshire (although if you live in the south and want to have a go, here’s some instructions!) The best plan is to buy a big bag of dried chickpeas (£1.60 for 500g is considerably cheaper than shop-bought hummous, and becomes about a kilo after cooking). Soak the lot overnight, then boil them up in the morning for about an hour – I managed to do this before going out to church this morning, so it doesn’t take as long as you might think! And remember that a big pan full of water with the lid on holds the heat for ages, so you only need to have a flame under it for about 5mins out of every 20 to cook it (see here for more tips to save energy while cooking). The less faffy approach is to buy tins, but this does work out more pricey and involves more packaging. Leave the chickpeas to cool for a while. If you feel like it, you can try removing the skins which is reported to give it a better texture, but mine worked fine without.

Step 2: Bash up your extra ingredients and then put everything in the blender
The basic ingredients for hummous are: 250g cooked chickpeas, several tablespoons olive oil, garlic (several cloves) and a little water to make it up to the right consistency. Other things I’ve tried adding include: lemon juice, onion chutney, black onion seeds and sesame seeds (tahini = ground up sesame seeds, so the pestle and mortar comes into its own here!)
If you’ve prepared a whole batch of chickpeas (highly recommended for reducing faff purposes), put the rest in the freezer – hey presto, four batches of hummous or a great addition to curries ready made whenever you want them!