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Food

Sure, you can cook just like Mom

But you'll need two main ingredients: trial and error.

By Tamara El-Khoury
Published April 11, 2007

In college, my friends would steal tubs of my mom's homemade hummus right out of my dorm room fridge. Mom always sent me back to campus with two containers of the creamy garbanzo spread and extra pita to scoop it up with.

I recently made it for the first time.

Over the phone, from Virginia, Mom provided the recipe, sort of. She instructed me to use an espresso cup - like the ones Lebanese sip strong Turkish coffee from - as my measuring tool. I filled the cup with tahini, a sesame paste bought from a Lebanese store in Clearwater, and dumped it into my mini food processor.

The other ingredients:

- A can of chick peas.

- Juice from half a lemon. Or from the whole lemon.

- Three cloves of garlic. Or four. Whatever tastes better.

- An espresso cup of water.

- Some salt.

The finished product didn't taste like Mom's. It was lumpier and a little strong on garlic. As the next generation of Lebanese cooks in my family, I am resigned to the idea that my hummus will never taste like hers.

Mom doesn't use measuring spoons or timers. She adds enough spice to make the dish taste right and cooks it until it's "done."

I should have paid more attention, should have made her count the lemons and measure the spices so I could write it all down before I moved out to a world of microwaveable meals and takeout.

It's not just me. My friend's Jewish mother sends her handwritten recipe cards but has to stand by the phone to walk her through the cooking process.

"How smooth is smooth?" she asks her mom.

I want to master Lebanese dishes. I want to think of home when I make them and pass the recipes on to my future children.

A few years ago a Lebanese friend came over to learn how to make stuffed grape leaves. My mom plopped a bowl of rice, meat and spices in front of us and left the kitchen. It took hours for us to stuff and roll each grape leaf.

But we talked and laughed the whole time and for some reason, the meal was tastier knowing how much work went in to it.

I'll learn the same way Mom did. I'll try and fail. Next time, I'll add less of this, more of that. One day, it will click - I hope.

Tamara El-Khoury can be reached at 727 445-4181 or tel-khoury@sptimes.com.

WRITE TO US

Food like Mom's

Writer Tamara El-Khoury's quest to duplicate a much-loved dish of her mother's is something many people experience. The memory of Mom's (or Grandma's) cooking often evokes warm memories. Her spaghetti sauce, her split pea soup, her butter kuchen, her fried chicken . . . mmmm.

We'd like to know about that dish of your mother's that you wish you could re-create - and why. Don't be shy, either, about sharing your futile attempts. No one will laugh, not even if it's Jell-O salad.

We'll publish a selection of your responses before Mother's Day. Send submissions of 300 words or less to Mom's Best, Taste section, St. Petersburg Times, P.O. Box 1121, St. Petersburg, FL 33731. They can also be e-mailed to features@sptimes.com Please put MOM in the subject line. Deadline is April 20.

Include your name, city of residence and daytime phone number.

[Last modified April 10, 2007, 17:45:30]