Four Corners: Fattet Hummus in Paradise

I am in paradise.

It's late morning here in Tyr (Sour), and I'm doing the same thing I've done this whole week. Laying on lounge chairs with Dany smoking arghile and enjoying the scenery and breeze. It's been an incredible week, consisting of beaching it, drinking cocktails, eating good food, and enjoying time with Dany's family. I've even gotten a bit of a tan! Though I have a long way to go to reach Dany's skin tone (it'll never happen).

Anyway, the other night, after we got home from the beach, we decided we wanted to make fattet hummus. Every time Léa and I would go to a restaurant called Leila, I would order it and devour every bite. I discovered that the way they made it so good was that they made the chickpeas balila style before putting all together with the laban, pita, and pine nuts. Fatteh, if you don't know, is a traditional Lebanese dish consisting of laban (yogurt), toasted pita bread, toasted pine nuts, and then the main filling of your choice. It can be meat, chickpeas, eggplant, or all three if you so desire! It's quite delicious and it's one of my favorite foods. My dad's restaurant makes it whenever we have big parties, but they make it with the laban on the side. I've become accustomed to having fattet with lots of laban, and I think it's been helping my lactose intolerance. Anyway, it's such a great dish, and I'm here to share one of the many recipes with you!

Fattet Hummus
inspired by Taste of Beirut

Ingredients

2 cans chickpeas
2 c laban (yogurt)
8 T lemon juice
1/3 c olive oil
6 cloves garlic, mashed with some salt in a mortar
2 T tahini (sesame paste)
pita bread, cut into small pieces and toasted or fried
pine nuts, toasted or fried
cumin
salt
hummus

Instructions

Empty the chickpeas and the water into a pot and heat until warm. Drain the chickpeas and put them into a serving bowl, but keep about a half a cup of the liquid for the dressing.
In a separate bowl, combine the chickpea liquid, lemon juice, olive oil, 1 clove mashed garlic, and some salt and cumin. Add 2 T of hummus and mix well.
Add 3 cloves of mashed garlic and some olive oil and salt to the chickpeas and mix well. Add dressing to chickpeas and mix.
For the laban: Add the other 2 cloves of mashed garlic, 2 T tahini, and about 3 T hummus. Mix well and set aside.
Layout (individual servings): Put some chickpeas in a bowl, followed by some pieces of toasted bread. Add as much laban as you like, and then top with toasted pine nuts. Sa7tein!