Blue Cayenne

Hummus!

May 13 was International Hummus Day. We missed it.  On the other hand, we have a whole lot of time to prepare for next year’s celebration. 

Remember that, properly-prepared, hummus is a healthy food choice.  It’s rich in protein, antioxidants, and fiber. It’s also low on the glycemic index–helping to regulate blood sugar.

Cooks have been searching for the best hummus recipe for a very long time.  The first known recipe for hummus dates to 13th century Cairo. Cooks in the Middle East still argue, sometimes fiercely, about who makes the best hummus. Lebanon, example, tried (and failed) to convince The European Union to declare that hummus was Lebanese and to prohibit other countries from claiming the dish as their own. NPR published an interesting piece on that incident and on the subject of hummus, food culture and Middle Eastern food politics: NPR on Hummus.

Here is a fast hummus recipe to get you started–a recipe for those times when you just don’t have time to cook and peel your own chickpeas. This recipe is from Mark Bittman in the New York Times. Here’s the link: New York Times Food Section.

You’ll find several other wonderful Hummus recipes on Blue Cayenne, too. When you have the time to explore and up your hummus game,  I promise that these recipes are a delicious place to start. 

Here is a link to a  great recipe for a hummus with black beans : Hummus With Black Beans, Chipolte Chile, and Tomato Salsa.

And, here is a recipe for a classic hummus from Blue Cayenne’s archives: Creamy Hummus.

Here is today’s recipe as I prepared it in my kitchen. 

I made this Indian mushroom curry for an important party recently. What a great recipe!

I remember eating a lot of wonderful food in India, but I don’t remember mushrooms. So it was with some surprise I found Mushroom Masala Curry on the buffet at Costa Mesa’s renowned Royal Khyber restaurant. Then, as I was developing my menu for Friendsgiving this year, I came across this recipe made in an Instant Pot.  It is a pretty easy recipe and I was pleasantly surprised how good it was. 

Apparently, cooking with mushrooms has become more popular in India in recent years. You can find a lot of Indian mushroom recipes online and some general articles about the mushrooms available to cooks in India. This recipe uses regular white or brown mushrooms but India is also the source of some exotic varieties.

If you have a moment, here is a beautiful short video about morel mushroom hunting in Kashmir, India, in the Himalayas. Not only can you learn about “hunting” the morels in the mountains but you can see some of the beautiful Kashmiri forests. The mushroom gatherer in this video, Shareef, appears to be a delightfully gentle man like many of the people we came to know in Kashmir when we visited.  Here’s the link: Rare Mushrooms of Kashmir.

Here is a link to the original online recipe here.  Archana Mundhe also has a cookbook, The Essential Indian Instant Pot. The cookbook is available on Amazon here.

Every month Blue Cayenne features recipes from our archive of more than four hundred recipes. These recipes are our “Oldies But Goodies.” Today’s Oldie But Goodie recipe is for the classic Pimento Cheese Sandwiches. You’ll find it here.

You don’t want to miss this great recipe…again.

Want to dive deeper into our recipe archive? Just click one of the categories at the top of this page or use the category search drop down menu on the right side of this page.

And…here is a link to Blue Cayenne’s main page: Blue Cayenne.. If you are in the mood to cook (or eat!), we hope you will take a moment to look at the many excellent recipes we have featured.