Focaccia and Hummus

I love focaccia. I love it much better than pizza. And it so easy to make even with sourdough starters. Forget about using dry yeasts or any commercial yeasts. It is good plain or elaborately topped with any kind of toppings you fancy.

Focaccia topped with cherry tomatoes, mushrooms and anchovies

One evening while watching the Travel Channel on TV, a pizza place in Nice, France was featured. The pizza at that place was topped with sautéed onion, black olives and anchovies. That reminded me of the foccaccia I made just 3 days before I saw this TV feature. The only difference, aside of the pizza dough and the foccaccia dough, was that the anchovies they used were much much bigger ( maybe 4 times bigger) than the canned salted anchovies I had used. Hmm, now I will have to find a store that sells 'huge' salted anchovies!

Focaccia with sautéed onions, black olives and salted anchovies

     

One day, as focaccia was baking in the oven, I started doing other chores in another room. 
I got so engrossed with what I was doing that I did not hear the timer ring that the foccaccia ended up like a hardened flat bread! But as frugal as I am, nothing that tastes good should be wasted, so I cut it up into sticks and thought of something to dip them into. Aha! Hummus! That beany stuff I tasted so much of while visiting Israel some years ago.

                          

                       Over-baked plain focaccia served with hummus

This is the recipe for the HUMMUS in the above photo:

• Ingredients A: Dried Parsley 1/4 tsp; Cumin Powder 1/2 tsp; Chili pepper powder 1/4 tsp; Salt 1/4 tsp
• Ingredients B: Chick peas or mixed beans 120 gms
• Ingredients C: White Sesame seeds, powdered, 1 Tbsp; Lemon juice 1 Tbsp; Grated garlic 1 tsp; Paprika(red), lightly grilled, 1/4 cup
• METHOD: Put ingredients A with ingredients B in a blender and mix well. Refrigerate till just before serving. Garnish with C as desired.