Caramelized Garlic Hummus

While I am quite happy to have a tub of good-quality hummus in the fridge for family fridge-foraging, I don’t tend to bring it out for eating out loud, as it were, without some zhuzhing up. Making your own from scratch, I have concluded, is scarcely any harder, and much more satisfying. I am aided in this enterprise by the fact that I cook chickpeas, unsoaked, in my slow-cooker and sometimes even freeze them (see Freeze Note), plus I always have a couple of jars of fabulous pre-cooked Spanish chickpeas in the cupboard; and I am a compulsive garlic-caramelizer. I cannot stop wrapping bulbs of garlic in foil and baking them in the oven, until the cloves are sweet and soft. I always store some in the fridge (where they keep, in an airtight container or wrapped in foil, for up to 1 week), ready to have this rich, heady purée squeezed into baked potatoes, soups, stews, yogurt – you name it – without any notice. I have given instructions overleaf, should you choose not to follow suit, but what you should know is that I wouldn’t fire up the oven specially for them: I just cook them at whatever heat the oven’s on at the time; thus, you will see for the Spiced Lamb Stew on p.197, I cook the bulbs of garlic, prepared as overleaf, for 2 hours at 170ºC/gas mark 3, because that’s what the oven’s on for the lamb. As for the chickpeas, I have specified home-cooked ones or those out of a jar, as they are so much better than the canned ones, which can make the hummus too bitty. True, the canned chickpeas are much cheaper, but I go for the least expensive option (dried, which I then cook myself) or the most expensive (Spanish ones from a jar) and miss out the middle path, which has none of the virtues of either of the others. However, 2 x 400g – drained – cans of chickpeas can be used in place of those specified. The seed-sprinkled shards of crisp bread you see alongside the hummus here are simple to make: I split open some wholemeal flatbreads, bought from a nearby Middle-Eastern shop, pour some olive oil on them, sprinkle them with sesame seeds and bake them, on a rack, in a 220ºC/gas mark 7 oven for 5 minutes, then break them up when they are handle-able. True, they are too delicate to dip, so you have to spoon the hummus on, but they are very good. Otherwise, grissini, toasted pitta torn into bits, or crudités make the perfect accompaniment for greedy dippage.