Hummus with Sweet and Spicy Roasted Peppers

You could say that I’m a little obsessed with Pyrex divided dishes. So recently when I was in the mood to make hummus for an NBA Finals party (Go Warriors!), I knew I wanted to make two different flavors — and exactly what dish to serve them in. Incidentally, since the divided dish was originally designed to hold packaged foods, it’s not surprising that two cans of garbanzo beans make enough hummus to fill each side of the dish just about perfectly.

My starting point for this recipe was Cooking Classy’s Roasted Red Pepper Hummus. I wanted to make sure my two hummus flavors would be different colors, though, so I used yellow bell peppers instead of red. The yellow ones have a milder flavor, too, so they add a nice sweetness without overpowering. The red fresno chiles provide a good color contrast plus a little extra kick.

Ingredients

2 yellow bell peppers, cored, seeded and sliced into quarters lengthwise
4 red fresno chili peppers, cored, seeded and sliced in half lengthwise
2 15-oz cans garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
6 tbsp fresh lemon juice (about 2 lemons)
6 tbsp tahini
4 cloves garlic
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cumin
4 tbsp olive oil

Set your oven to “broil” and place the top rack about 4-5 inches below the broiler. Arrange the sliced peppers on a baking sheet and roast until charred, about 10-15 minutes.

Transfer each variety of peppers to separate Ziploc bags. Seal and let rest until cool enough to handle, about 10 minutes (this helps the skin separate from the flesh). Peel the peppers and divide into two groups: 1) just bell peppers, and 2) fresno chiles plus 2-3 bell pepper slices. Chop each group into half-inch pieces and set aside.

Combine the garbanzo beans, lemon juice, tahini, garlic, salt, cumin and olive oil. Pulse in a food processor or with an immersion blender until mostly pureed.

Divide the garbanzo mixture in half. To the first half, add pepper group 1 (bell peppers) plus 1-2 tsp water. Pulse until fully pureed. Test for desired consistency and add water in small amounts if needed. Add salt to taste, and set aside.

Repeat with the second half of the garbanzo mixture and pepper group 2 (fresno chiles and bell peppers).

Refrigerate for at least 1 hour before serving. Optional garnishes: chopped parsley, red pepper flakes, and/or a drizzle of olive oil.

Pictured: Pyrex Royal Wheat 063 Divided Dish, Pyrex Butterfly Gold 403 Round Mixing Bowl, Corning Ware Grab-It Bowl (x2), Hazel Atlas Crisscross Orange Reamer

Braised Cardamom Chicken

One of my favorite cookbooks is Raghavan Iyer’s 660 Curries — our family loves Indian food, and every single thing we have tried from the book has been pretty fantastic. I should note that the recipes aren’t all “curries” in the traditional Americanized sense, meaning they don’t all have heavy sauces. There’s a terrific array of rice dishes, for example.

One dish we have made again and again is Iyer’s Cardamom-Scented Chicken with Ginger and Garlic. And while it’s great as is, we have also branched out and used the same spices in other ways. Here I’ve adapted the recipe for an oven-braised version.

This recipe requires a trip to an Indian grocery store — if you have one nearby, it’s well worth a visit. You’ll find a ton of good quality spices in large quantities, usually at much lower prices than other stores, and a lot of them (cumin, cinnamon, cayenne, etc.) cross over into other types of cooking. And you’ll find stuff that’s hard to get anywhere else. (You can also shop online from a store like Kalustyan’s — I have not tried it, but it was recommended by The Kitchn.)

In particular, you’ll need some whole red chiles (spice level: medium to hot) and green cardamom pods:

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Cardamom pods are sometimes used whole, but for this recipe you open up the pods and extract the black seeds. Your reward for a few minutes of work is seeds that are much more pungent and aromatic, and they are one of the main flavors of the dish.

The recipe also calls for ghee, a type of clarified butter that you can buy from an Indian grocery or make yourself. Making ghee is super easy: Alton Brown has a recipe here on the Food Network website.

Serves 4

Ingredients

2 tsp whole cardamom seeds
6 whole Indian red chiles
2 tbsp fresh ginger, finely grated
1 1/2 tsp garlic, minced
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp canola oil
8 chicken drumsticks or mix of drumsticks and bone-in thighs, skins removed
1 tbsp ghee
3 bay leaves
2 whole cinnamon sticks
1 medium yellow onion, sliced
2 tbsp fresh cilantro, chopped

Grind the cardamom seeds with three of the chiles (a coffee grinder works best if you have one strictly for spices; otherwise you’ll need to start with ground cardamom, chop up the chiles yourself and grind with a mortar and pestle). Add the ginger, garlic, turmeric, salt and oil and stir to form a paste. Rub the chicken with the paste and marinate for at least two hours (preferably overnight).

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a large oven-safe skillet over low heat, melt the ghee. Add the bay leaves, cinnamon sticks and remaining chiles. Top with the chicken and onions. Move the skillet to the oven and bake until the chicken braises in its own juices and reaches an internal temperature of 180 degrees and is almost falling off the bone, about 1 hour. Top with cilantro and serve.

Pictured: Corning Ware Spice O’ Life A-10-B Skillet, Pyrex Royal Wheat 063 Divided Dish

Thrifted Find: Pyrex Divided Dishes

Pyrex divided dishes are especially fun to collect, due to the sheer variety of limited-release patterns out there. My favorite is Dandelion Duet (pictured above), which came out in 1959, advertised for its ability to hold two separate packages of frozen foods in one dish. (The Corning Museum of Glass has a great ad from the era in its library collection here.)

After a flurry of bidding on the Goodwill auction website, I’ve found myself with quite a few dishes (is this what obsession looks like?):

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Clockwise from top right: Verde, Snowflake (x2), Pink Daisy, Opal,  Royal Wheat, Golden Acorn, Town and Country, Dandelion Duet, Butterfly Gold.

Since shopping Goodwill online is sort of like cheating, I also took a picture of the pieces I actually scored in real-world thrift stores (Savers and Hope Thrift). Finding lids is always a particular treat.

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So what can divided dishes be used for? Chips and dip, cheese and crackers, soup and salad, chicken and waffles, spicy and mild, two different sides, different flavors of jello, individual pies with one crust … the possibilities are endless. I’ve also heard of people using them as dinner plates.

It’s worth noting that other manufacturers also made divided dishes. I frequently see Glasbake models in thrift stores, and Fire King seems to have some too.