Hummus, tahini, babaganoush and guacamole

[Davidglen77]

So I have been thinking my next business venture is going to be a juice bar. I am also considering having a few items of prepared food in containers to sell also. Hummus, tahini, babaganoush and guacamole. I actually have been making them for years at home myself except for tahini, and I spoke to a Lebanese lady I know and she told me how easy it is to make tahini, and I tried for the first time this weekend with great success. Here are the ingredients:

250 gr Sesame seeds (raw)
100 ml +/- Olive or sunflower seed oil
100 ml +/- Water
1 cucharada Salt

Dry roast sesame seeds in a hot frying pan LIGHTLY for about 3 mins (don't let them get brown)
Put sesame seeds in blender with water, oil and salt and blend little by little until smooth add more oil or water if necessary to achieve desired consistency

Enjoy.......

 

[Celia]

If you can make tahini, you must make halva! I will def come to your store for this...

 

[mini]

If you can make tahini, you must make halva! I will def come to your store for this...

Funny that you say this. Halva is all over: It's called Mantecol!!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halva#Argentina

I should say that I immediately noticed the similarity of the mantecol (and other versions) of it to the halva we are familiar with and so I was not surprised when I found out mantecol is basically the same thing made with peanuts instead of sesame/tahini. I hate peanuts so a tahini version would be a nice treat!

 

[Celia]

Mantecol is not halva, sorry. The taste is very very different, although both have similar texture...

 

[Davidglen77]

Halva is fairly easy to make, you just mix the tahini in with warm honey add pistachio nuts, almonds or whatever floats your boat and let it cool in the fridge and voilá - halvah!

 

[mini]

Mantecol is not halva, sorry. The taste is very very different, although both have similar texture...

It sure is the Argentine version! It's basically the same recipe but made with peanut butter. Technically halva is defined as being made with any nut butter. Nucream is better, but I'm not a fan of peanuts.

For me the hummus sold down here isn't hummus either.... and neither is the pizza! lol. But you didn't hear that from me.

 

[Uncle Dermot]

So I have been thinking my next business venture is going to be a juice bar. I am also considering having a few items of prepared food in containers to sell also. Hummus, tahini, babaganoush and guacamole. I actually have been making them for years at home myself except for tahini, and I spoke to a Lebanese lady I know and she told me how easy it is to make tahini, and I tried for the first time this weekend with great success. Here are the ingredients:

250 gr Sesame seeds (raw)
100 ml +/- Olive or sunflower seed oil
100 ml +/- Water
1 cucharada Salt

Dry roast sesame seeds in a hot frying pan LIGHTLY for about 3 mins (don't let them get brown)
Put sesame seeds in blender with water, oil and salt and blend little by little until smooth add more oil or water if necessary to achieve desired consistency

Enjoy.......

You could also make hummous with red peppers and tzatziki, they are pretty easy to prepare too.

 

[Davidglen77]

Sounds great, will probably start out with plain hummus and see how that sells and if it goes well I will make a variety of hummus-es LOL

 

[TexanPaul]

Tahini is already on the market here:

http://www.alwadi-alakhdar.com/Products/Products/HalawaandTahina/TahinaSesamePaste.aspx

Of course, if you can compete on price, you have something!

 

[mendozanow]

Yeah, Tahinni is on the market, but the brand mentioned and all the other brands are incredibly expensive because Argentina has the highest import taxes in the world. Whenever friends visit, I try to cajole them into taking one of those big plastic tubs of Tahinni with them for me.

I often resort to using a little bit of crushed peanuts to give the homus a tahinni-like taste instead of using Tahinni, yeah I know it is a pale imitation, but as a homus addict I just cannot afford to constantly using Tahinni. Is there sesame seeds that are produced locally? I have not tried making my own tahinni, maybe I will check out the health food stores or the supermarket bins to see what the price of the sesame seeds are.

Davidglen77, for the homeade tahinni, do you just roast the sesame seeds without oil before putting in the blender? If so, I guess you have to be very careful not to burn them.

The homus produced in almost all restaurants or delis in Argentina suffer from the same fate as most ethnic food here, incredibly bland and flavourless , or the locals won't eat it, or send it back.

What do people add to the homus, in addition to the basic garbanzos, salt, olive oil and tahinni? I like to use a little cumin, a lot of garlic, a and a fair bit of lemon juice to give it some bite, but some may find this sacreligious, which is fair enough. Let's trade homus recipes!