RRRR Treasure Island on ICRT

Red Room Radio Redux (RRRR, R4 in short) held a cast party at the Learning Kitchen Sunday morning, April 7th. Many R4 radio drama actors came one after another from 11:30 for lunch. Director Ruth Giodanao, Associate Director Sara Brooks and Evelyn Philbrook helped prepare the food and beverage. It was the first time I tried the home made Taiwan Hummus made by Evelyn. Simply yummy~ Evelyn gave me her recipe and I shall definitely try it out at the next Golden Ladies Toastmasters gathering!

Ruth turned on the radio before 12 noon. We were excited to listen to the Treasure Island on ICRT. Every actor seemed to listen to the radio with great concentration and satisfaction. At the end of the broadcast, everyone shared a piece of mind about the good points and room for improvement in the future. It's a pleasant gathering to harvest the hard work in the past two months drilling on the script of Treasure Island.

Many thanks to Evelyn Philbrook for her TAIWAN HUMMUS RECIPE from dry beans (uncooked) or cans (fully cooked) to be mashed to puree in blender.

(Made in a blender. The only cooking necessary is the chick peas and yellow onion until clear(garbanzo beans). These should be soaked overnight. We soak overnight ahead of time and put them in the freezer so they are always ready to go into a cooking pot with water. In a hurry? Buy two cans of 8 oz cans of garbanzo or chickpeas precooked)

3 Tbl of fresh garlic (I think this is two strong – I will try 2 Tablespoons next time)
1 tsp of cumin seeds (ground up) or buy powder
1/4 cup of ground sesame seeds or powder black or white or tahini
2Tbl of sesame oil
2Tbl of olive oil
2 Tbl of soya sauce
2 Tbl Chinese vinegar
3 cups of garbanzo beans or ltwo drained and rinsed chickpea from cans
3 pieces of fresh coriander or 1/8th tsp powder
1/2 tsp of dried chili powder and or black pepper
May not need 1/2 tsp salt (add more later if needed soy sauce has salt)
1/4 cup of water (use cooking water after cooking garbanzo beans)

optional: 1/2 medium onion – cook yellow onion, or use one spring of green onion
optional:juice of one medium lemon or lime (fresh)

Put garbanzo beans on to cook with plenty of water to cover them. Add a half teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda to the water and be ready to skim off(remove) the froth (bubbles). When they are done frothing, pour this water off and add new water without anything added, boil until beans are tender. If you are using frozen, pre-soaked beans, 10 or 15 minutes after adding the new water is probably enough. If the bean don't seem quite soft enough, put the lid on the pot and let the beans set in the hot cooking water for a while more.
Then pour off all the water into another jar, be ready to add some to the hummus. Usually there will be more left over for adding to soup or other dishes.

As soon as you put garbanza beans on to cook, you can begin with the other preparation.

Blend garlic, cumin seeds and onion first, then add everything else. Leave the beans until last so you can fully blend all the other ingredients.

As beans are added, also add just enough garbanzo bean "soup" so as not to overload the blender, but not so much as to make the mixture too soupy. I tip the blender to take pressure off the blender blades and to help get the beans down to the blender knives.

Pour final mixture into a container and refrigerate. We find it keeps easily a week, maybe longer. Usually we eat it up before then. Serve with multigrain crackers, heavy bread, or with carrot, celery, cucumber, or brocolli stix.

It is better to mix this together and let is set over night, then taste it the next day. If it is too strong with lemon, or garlic... you can add mayonaise, or plain yogurt to taste, or more chickpeas.