This time we are going to look into food from a region that gets a lot
of negative press : the Middle East.
Let’s forget the political and religieus discussions for a while because
foods shows you have to put borders and differences in perspective.
After a while a dish often becomes part of every group’s cuisine in a
region and far beyond!
Hummus with carrots and a versatile herby nutty spice blend, Dukkah or
Duqqa, are good examples.
Hummus
originates from what we call Israel, Jordan, Syria and large parts of
Turkey.
Dukkah started
in Egypt but it’s even very popular in Australia, according to Wikipedia!
Food really hasn’t got boundaries!
Hummus is one of my favourites. It’s fast, you can easily adapt it to your own personal taste and it’s an excellent dip or lunch with a bit of bread or in a wrap.
I do make the traditional hummus with cumin but I’m more and more eating
this lightly fresher version with carrots.
Carrots are also middle eastern but a few hundreds years ago very cunning Dutchmmarketeers started manipulating the carrots into the bright orange color
they have today.
My base recipe for the carrot hummus is this recipe by Maria Elia :
Carrot pancakes with
feta.
These amazing vegetable burgers with carrot hummus and feta salade are
part of her amazing vegetarian book : The Modern Vegetarian: Food
adventures for the contemporary
palate
I always adjust the amount of carrots and chickpeas and I do add a bit
of roasted sesame oil for an extra hint of sesame or add a bit of chili
or hot smoked paprika for more heat.
Dukkah or Duqqa is a very flexible, versatile and addictive mix :-)
You can add it to a lot of dishes for an extra crunchy herby touch or
mix it with often very boring dips, dressing or just plain yoghurt.
Originally it’s served as part of a snack/starter : bread with olive
oil, or fresh raw vegetable and the nutty dukkah as a dip.
The traditional recipe is often a mix of hazelnuts, toasted seeds, dried
herbs and a bit of salt.
I swapped the hazelnuts for almond, cashew and sesame because they work
better with the tahini in the hummus.
I prefer a coarse crunchy dukkah with plenty of coriander, a bit of
nigella seeds and less cumin.
Check the links because you will notice the amounts and ingredients
really vary.
So make your own personal dukkah based on your favourite nuts and spices
or use whatever you can find in your cupboard!
Feel free to mention your version using the comments, Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.
[Andere Dukkah varianten :]{style=“text-decoration: underline;“}
-The Kitchen - nuts / sesame seeds / coriander /
cumin
-NYT - peanuts / sesame seeds / coriander / cumin / nigella /
sumac
-The Guardian - Ottolenghi - hazelnuts / sunflower seeds / fennel /
cumin / white pepper / nigella / coriander / paprika
-Chocolate
& Zucchini - hazelnuts / pistacho / sesame seeds / coriander / cumin /
fennel / black pepper /
thyme [wpurp-searchable-recipe]Carrot
Hummus - - Carrots ((grated or finely sliced)), vegetable oil, chickpeas
((drained or 200 - 240gr precooked chickpeas)), garlic, lemon ((juice)),
tahini ((or more)), cumin ((powder)), salt, pepper ((or chili)), hot
smoked paprika ((optional)), roasted sesame oil ((optional)), Saute the
carrots in a pan with the vegetable oil till soft.; Add the carrots and
all the other ingredients to a blender. Blend until the consistency you
want.
Adjust the recipe by adding more lemon juice, water, salt, pepper,
chili, paprika or roasted sesame oil. ; - [/wpurp-searchable-recipe]