Manly Hummus

Weekly poker is at our house tonight for the first time. I've never witnessed Poker Night before. Normally I try to put the girls to bed at least 1/2 hour earlier than usual and then relish the quiet.

I only know some of the guys (and girls!) that play. But I've heard stories. Boy, have I heard stories. There was that rabies scare. And the head wound. And getting kicked out. And getting lost in the bowels of Dushanbe. And then there was the hooker spy. And these are only the things I was told about.

Since my husband tends to play poker a bit better with a full stomach, my strategy is to make some good bread-y finger foods and keep it in a secret spot for only him to eat. This time, when the girls ask tomorrow morning, "Daddy, did you win the money???", he might actually be able to say yes and hold his head high.

So, the food.

I had cooked, frozen chick peas on hand, and about a trillion frozen flat pita-like breads from Al Sham, the local lebanese restaurant. Since hummus is sort of frou-frou, I thought I'd man it up with peppers. Every kind of pepper I had on hand. Not really all, but three.

It started with these ingredients.

First I chopped up some jalapenos. About four pickled jals. I threw them in the processor and whizzed them alone.

Next I added about 2 cups of chick peas, about 2 teaspoons of dried crushed peppers and 1/4 teaspoon cayenne.

I didn't have any lemons (gasp!) so I added a generous pour of the pickled jalapeno juice. I turned the processor on and slowly added about 1/4 cup of water. Maybe not even that much. Stop every so often to scrape the sides of the bowl down.

Then I grabbed these. A really dirty bottle of olive oil. Blech. But the olive oil is from the US and it's very yum. And some cumin.

With the motor running, slowly stream in the olive oil. And don't forget the cumin. Probably about two teaspoons.

Whiz.

Put into the serving dish, top with a bit of olive oil, a sprinkling of cayenne and garnish with the jal tops.

Done.

Note to the two readers of this blog. My husband pointed out to me that I forgot tahini. And I have tahini. I used tahini two days ago in an earlier batch of jalapeno hummus. Good thing we ARE the two readers of this blog otherwise I would be embarrassed.