We're gonna have a hummus party, pom pom

My brother likes red pepper hummus. He likes it a lot. He puts it in sandwiches, on toast, in cups of tea and even bathes in it. Ok, maybe not the last two but what you need to take away from this opening paragraph is that he really likes that red chickpea goodness.

Seeing as he lives only half an hour away on the train I should probably see more of him but we're both so super busy (disorganised) that we only meet occasionally. In fact, I don't think I've seen him since Christmas which is a terrible state of affairs, but when we do spend some time together we usually have a lorra lorra laughs . Thanks Cilla. So I was excited when it turned out he was in London this weekend and had the whole of Sunday afternoon to spend with us.

Now given his love for hummus it seemed a good idea to have a bash at some Middle-Eastern / Arabic food. This is an especially good idea when you live in Shepherds Bush given the excellent Arabic supermarkets on Uxbridge Road, where all you might need for shish, kofta or falafel is readily available. The downside to this is that Bush institutions such as King Solomans (gonna do a whole blog on this place at some point) have set the standards for this kind of food very high.

So off I toddled this morning to Damas Gate and Al Abbas (two excellent shops, more on these at a later date too) to stock up on ingredients. You'll be pleased to know I've not spent much time in the Arab world so I won't be regaling you with any tedious travellin' tales as have dominated previous blogs. I have, however, recently acquired a new camera. I'm still learning to use it but it's great fun. You'll probably have to excuse in the next few blogs, too many photos and a fairly poor standard of photo at that!

Without further ado, let's get on with the food.

Shepherds Bush Chicken Kebab and Sides

Today we made basically made 5 things:

•  Marinated chicken kebabs
• Red pepper hummus
• Classic hummus with parsley
• Lebanese style aubergine salad
• Garlic yoghurt sauce

If you're doing this exactly the same as us, the first thing you'll want to do is get the chicken marinating. For this reason we'll put this recipe in first. After you've got your chicken in the fridge absorbing the goodness you'll want to start making the sauces/hummus before cooking the chicken last.

Chicken Kebab

We eat chicken kebabs fairly frequently but often refer to them as 'home-made King Solomans'. Now I've never really been into kebabs, or at least what many people, especially in Newcastle, think of as kebabs. By this I mean donner kebabs. I was once told by a kebab shop owner in Manchester that it was such poor quality meat that he wouldn't eat it- and this was by the man trying to sell the stuff!

King Solomans, on the other hand, sells beautifully marinated meats cooked as you wait (and watch!) grease free on a hot plate. Delicious and healthy too! Every time we make these at home we make a different marinade and they've all tasted good so far. Today we made one using sumac, a new spice I was introduced to by my friend's new book (review of which to follow soon). Sumac has a really interesting intense citrus like flavour and I'm looking forward to using it more in future.

600g chicken breast diced into mouth size chunks

2 fat garlic cloves (peeled, crushed on the side of a knife and then chopped)

1 tsp ground turmeric

1 tsp black peppercorns

2 tsp sumac

2 tsp mustard oil

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp chilli powder

Juice of 1 lemon

All of these ingredients can easily be found in Damas Gate or Al Abbas at a total cost of about £6 and this is easily enough to feed about 4 people. I've got a theory that you could marinade prawns in a similar manner but have yet to try it.

Get a pestle and mortar and crush the peppercorns into a fine powder. Add the garlic and pound together. Add your turmeric, sumac, salt and chilli powder and continue to pound. Once it is a consistent dry paste add the mustard oil and lemon juice and mix well. Put your cubed chicken into a suitable marinating vessel and pour over the marinade. Mix in well, ensuring all the chicken is covered, and leave for as long as you can in the fridge, preferably overnight but a few hours will do.

When you're ready to cook (if following all of this meal this will now be the last stage) you can either put it onto skewers if using a proper outdoor BBQ. Or just as is on a griddle pan. Cook on a high heat for 6-10 minutes, turning once halfway through.  I used a griddle pan because of today's British weather and because of the chargrilled pattern it gives the meat.

Garlic yoghurt sauce

Kebab shops always have a garlic sauce on offer - of variable quality. This version is fairly simple and healthy and very garlicy. If you don't like things too garlicy it might be wise to reduce the garlic by a couple of cloves. Also worth bearing in mind, this makes quite a lot so halve the ingredients if you like but I think it goes well with a number of things so don't mind having some in the fridge for a day or two. This also coincides with the yoghurt pot size I bought in the 'Ass Gate (as Claire and I often call the shop).

500g low fat (I used 3.5%) yoghurt

6 cloves garlic (peeled)

3 tbsp lemon juice

Tiny pinch of salt

Handful chopped parsley

This honestly could not be easier. You just put all of the above in a food processor and whizz it. Taste it and add more lemon juice and salt if needed. Invest in chewing gum, as you will stink. Or hope that everyone else has some too!

Red pepper hummus

My brother says this is better than the supermarket brands and he's had the lot. This makes quite a lot of hummus so halve the quantities if you like however chickpeas come in pretty standard sized cans so not too much flexibility. You could use half a can for this and half for the normal hummus recipe which follows. Or just make one or the other.

3 red bell peppers

400g can of cooked chickpeas (I experimented with dried chickpeas on Friday but ended up burning them whilst in the pub)

2 cloves garlic

100ml tahini (sesame seed paste)

4 tbsp olive oil

Juice of 2 lemons

1 tsp Cayenne pepper

1 tsp cumin

1/4 tsp salt

Heat the oven to 180⁰C. Wash and halve the peppers, removing the seeds etc, place on a baking tray skins facing up and brush with olive oil. Place in the oven, near the top and roast for half an hour until the skins are crinkly and the flesh soft. Once they have cooled down for a few minutes, peel off the skins, it should come off easily.

Open your can of chickpeas and drain them over a bowl (so that you keep the water they come in.)  Add them to a blender (can use a food processor but a blender is more likely to give a finer hummus) with the garlic, tahini and the peeled red peppers. Blend it to a fine paste -  every now and then stopping the blender and  pushing the mix down as necessary. Add the olive oil and a table of the chickpea juice and whizz again.  Add the salt, cumin, half the lemon juice and the cayenne pepper and whizz it again. Taste it and add more salt, lemon juice and cayenne pepper to taste. Tip into a suitable container and store in fridge until you're ready to eat.

Classic hummus with added parsley

This is like the one above but even easier. It's more of a standard hummus, we added parsley which was a nice addition but this is optional.

400g cooked chick peas

2 cloves garlic (peeled)

100ml tahini

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp cumin

Juice of 2 lemons

4 tbsp olive oil

Handful of parsley (optional)

As above put the chickpeas, garlic, tahini in the blender and whizz.  Blend it to a fine paste -  every now and then stopping the blender and  pushing the mix down as necessary. Add the olive oil and a tablespoon of the chickpea brine and whizz again.  Add the salt, half the lemon juice and the cayenne pepper and whizz it again. Taste it and add more salt, lemon juice and cayenne pepper if needed. If you're using parsley, tip the whole lot into a food processor with the parsley and whizz. Tip into a suitable container and store in fridge until you're ready to eat.

Lebanese style aubergine salad

We bought an aubergine this morning and just used random other ingredients with it to make a salad.

1 aubergine (washed and sliced into wedges)

1 big tomato or two small tomatoes cut into rough chunks

1 roasted red pepper (we had one left over from the red pepper hummus)

Handful of parsley (roughly chopped)

Juice of half a lemon

Pinch of salt

Heat the oven to 180⁰C.  Lightly brush the aubergine with olive oil, sprinkle with a little bit of salt and roast on a baking tray for about 20 minutes. Take them out of the oven and cook on a hot griddle pan for a few minutes on each side.

Transfer to a bowl, add the tomatoes, red pepper and parsley. Dress with some olive oil, the lemon juice and a pinch of salt. We reckon you could eat this hot or cold.

Other stuff you may need

Kobez flat bread

Chilli sauce (we used some bought stuff from chinatown)

Coriander to garnish kebabs

Sliced tomatoes and/or other salad to put in kebabs

Serving

We heated the flat breads on a large dry frying pan.

We then just put everything onto a table and let people help themselves to their own individual preferences. Woop!

With thanks to Claire who typed lots of this after she saw me struggling.