Hummus - Monica

Hi guys! So... I'm trying to think of recipes that would be easy and convenient for college students to make and thought of this...
One of my favorite foods that pretty much goes with anything is hummus. It can be eaten in sandwiches, as a dip for chips, and in falafel sandwiches and is usually found in Mediterranean, Greek, and Middle Eastern cuisine. I would really encourage and recommend everyone to try to make their own hummus because it is tastier, healthier, and more cost-efficient than generic store brands. It is also VERY CUSTOMIZABLE because you can tweak the amount of each ingredient according to your taste. For example, some people like lemony hummus while some like the nuttier taste of the tahini. The amounts shown below are estimates because I don't usually measure my ingredients when I make it, but instead, I taste the hummus along the way and add anything I feel is missing. Enjoy! Hope you fall in love with hummus after this like I did :)

Hummus
Difficulty: Easy
Number of servings: ~one pint
Cost: ~$2
Time spent: 20 min.

Ingredients: 

• 1 15.5oz can of garbanzo beans
• You can also boil beans fresh by soaking them and simmering for about 45 min.
• Try other kinds of beans too. I've tried white bean, edamame, and a mixture of several beans.
• Juice of 1 lemon (or about 3 tbl. lemon juice)
• 2 tbl. sesame tahini
• This is a ground up paste made from sesame seeds. Berkeley Bowl sells it home-ground!
• 2 tbl. extra virgin olive oil
• 1 or 2 garlic cloves (or roasted garlic)
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• 1/2 tsp parsley (optional)
• Pinch of salt and pepper
• Additional water if hummus is too thick
• Additional optional ingredients which you can add for different flavored hummus:
• Roasted red peppers
• Chives
• Sun-dried tomatoes

Directions:

• Put all ingredients in a food processor (you can use a blender too, but it will be more difficult to mix) and blend until smooth.
• Add water if the hummus is too thick.
• Serve with pita chips, pretzels, or bread for a great appetizer/snack.

Garlic Watercress Pesto -Samuel

There's about 98123 different ways of making pesto, and each of them have different occasions in which their strengths are underscored. The word pesto essentially means to pound or crush, although we in our contemporary age most commonly process the ingredients in a rotational motion rather than crush them in pestle and mortar.

Traditional (classic is possibly more apt) pesto's main ingredients are basil, garlic, olive oil, and pine nuts, and they are blended with Parmesan cheese when the pesto is ready to serve. The classic combination never really goes wrong, but you'll notice in this recipe that I used a few different ingredients and proportions to make this pesto work. 

Why? One, pine nut prices are incredibly steep, and as college students I'd say most of us are pretty broke. Instead of PINING for those nuts, I substituted them with other nuts. Two, I love garlic, and both roasted and raw have their place. Three, I discovered a fairly awesome vegetable called watercress.

What's watercress? It's a rather leafy vegetable with a slight peppery flavor, and it's also known for being incredibly nutritious. It's similar to arugula, but there's no CRESSTION that it deserves a place of its own.

This is such a simple recipe that anyone could make it at home (with a food processor or pestle and mortar. Might be hard otherwise).

Garlic Watercress Pesto (Difficulty: Easy)
Servings: about 2 cups of pesto
Time spent: 10 minutes
Cost: ~$5
Ingredients:

• 2 cups packed watercress (if you don't want to do watercress, just replace with basil)
• 2 cups packed basil leaves
• 6 cloves raw or roasted garlic, raw for lighter pesto, roast for richer
• 1/2 cup nuts, I used a 3:1 ratio of cashews to Brazil
• 1 cup quality extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice

When serving:

• 1 cup Parmesan cheese or to taste
• salt and pepper to taste, minimal since Parmesan is salty and watercress is peppery

Directions:
1. Place watercress, basil, garlic, and nuts in the food processor. It'll look like it's super stuffed but when we process it, it'll reduce to less than a quarter of its original volume. Pulse them a few times.

2. Your mixture should look like this (picture below). You can see that it looks pretty chunky and dry. Just drizzle in your olive oil and lemon juice while mixing and you'll see it change texture and smooth out.

3. Your final mixture should look like this. A lot of people like oilier pesto and you can choose to do that too, but I rather like a pesto I can smear onto a nice baguette without getting oil all over my fingers.

Yum, watercress pesto! Make sure to mix in your grated Parmesan cheese when you're ready to serve, or put a layer of oil on top and then freeze it. Feel free to pair up with bread, pasta, sauces, whatever suits your fancy. :)

Citrus Mayonnaise -Samuel

Mayonnaise. I used to hate it. In trying to be health-conscious, I avoided mayonnaise like the plague after hearing all the rotten gossip about the health detriments of mayonnaise ("No, I did NOT ask for mayonnaise in my sandwich"). But one day I succumbed to its creamy, delicious goodness, and I guess I'm on a one-way trip down mayonnaise lane.

So why does mayonnaise warrant its own recipe? For one, it's incredibly versatile. Use it to make some deviled eggs,  sauces in place of sour cream or crème fraîche with some tweaking, or a simple but glorious ham and cheese sandwich. Second, basic recipes such as these lets the reader innovate and think for themselves, which I find to be important.

Why make mayonnaise yourself? Well, after making this recipe yourself, you just can't go back to store-bought. Supermarket mayonnaise tastes like water and lacks depth and flavor. A pity, that, but thankfully mayonnaise is very easy to make and anyone could make it on their own.

Every mayonnaise recipe basically involves an emulsion of egg yolk and oil, an acid, and any other flavors of your choosing. Here's my rendition of mayonnaise:

Citrus Mayonnaise (Difficulty: Easy-Medium)
Makes: 2 cups
Cost: $1-2, 
Time spent: 10 minutes

Food processor not necessary but recommended. I tried it by hand once and it's doable but tiring.

Ingredients: 
-4 egg yolks
~1 tsp Dijon mustard or horseradish (optional)
~1.5 cup oil (a flavorless or mildly flavored olive oil works. DEFINITELY not EVOO)
-Juice of half a lemon
-Juice of half a lime
-Pinch of salt and ground pepper

1. Get your 4 egg yolks and put them in the food processor. Pulse them a few times until they're nice and creamy.
2. Add the dijon mustard/horseradish, if you like a bit of kick and mustard flavor and pulse a few times again.
3. Now add the oil VERY, VERY SLOWLY. If you add it too fast, the oil and eggs will not combine properly and you'll end up with a really watery mayonnaise. Just trickle it into your food processor for the first minute or two when it looks like it's thickening a bit (it'll start to cling to the sides), and then you can add the oil a little quicker. I usually start out with the groundnut oil first.
4. You'll see it visibly thicken, and when it's at the point where you think it's thick enough, add the juice of the lemon, lime, and add the salt and pepper. It should come out to look something like this:

5. You'll notice that it's still a tiny bit runny. That's normal. Leave it to set and amalgamate the flavors in the fridge, and when it's cooled down, you'll notice it will have gotten a lot thicker and has a beautiful color and shine:

You're finished making mayonnaise! Feel free to use this light mayonnaise as a base in any variety of dishes that you wish, or spread it on a baguette from this recipe: Classic French Baguette. Happy mayo-making!