Post both ways if you dont mind.. I will be making some as soon as I am off my diet..
As promised here's two different recipes and two different methods for making toum/toom.
You can use either a mortar and pestle (old school method) or a food processor (more modern obviously). Mortar and pestle takes much longer but you can get a better end result due to mashing the garlic better which releases the taste more.
Recipe 1:
3 heads of garlic (not cloves, the entire head)
4-5 cups of oil (normally use olive oil but any will work I think)
1 lemon freshly squeezed (could mix in the juice of a lime also)
1 tsp salt or to taste
Recipe 2:
2 cups of fresh boiled potatoes
7-10 cloves of garlic (Cloves for this one not heads)
2-3 tbsp of oil
1-2 tbsp lemon juice freshly squeezed
1 tsp labneh (strained yogurt) or mayo
1-2 tsp salt or to taste
Whether you use the mortar and pestle or food processor, the trick is to take your time. You cannot rush this or you'll end up with a liquid instead of paste. Also it's best if your ingredients are at room temp.
Take the the garlic and salt and mash the shit out of it in the mortar and pestle for several minutes. Or put in food processor for 10-20 seconds, stop it and scrape the garlic to the bottom, run again for 10-20 seconds, and repeat several times. If using the food processor you can add the salt at the end. With M&P the salt helps keep the garlic from jumping around when crushing it. The more you crush the garlic the better it'll turn out. If using the second recipe add the potatoes to the garlic from the beginning and follow the same steps.
Once the garlic, and potatoes if used, are ready, add oil slowly to the mixture little by little. Do NOT add all at once or it won't emulsify. If using M&P add some oil, mash the mixture for a couple minutes, add more oil, mash, repeat until all the oil is mixed in. If using food processor, once the garlic has been processed, you leave the food processor on continuously and add the oil little by little every 30-45 seconds working it in good.
The lemon juice can be added at the end in the same manner, little by little, or you can alternate adding oil followed by lemon juice, more oil, more lemon juice, etc.
Lastly you add the salt to taste.
If the flavor of garlic is too strong for you, you can add the labneh or mayo to help weaken the taste and it will also help keep the pasty consistency as well as give it a subtle color change. If you fukk up and it turns liquid the labneh and mayo SOMETIMES helps get you the paste back but not always. Other options include adding a raw egg or soy lecithin which are used as emulsifiers in the food industry. If those don't work you've got to start from the beginning and you added your liquids too quick. Also the amount of oil you'll need will vary with the starchiness of the potatoes if using recipe 2. Potatoes with a higher starch content will need more oil than less starchy potatoes
This can be used as a topping on anything really from meats, to chicken, to kibbee, chicken shish tawook, chicken shawarma, burgers, etc.
Enjoy!