Muhamarra
Another wonderful recipe from our very own instructor Chloe! Muhamarra is a Middle Eastern capsicum and walnut based dip that is incredibly moorish! It is perfectly sweet, salty, smoky and goes with everything; eggs, pasta, on sandwiches to name a few! I always have a jar of this in the fridge and snack on it during the day as it satisfies my hunger queues and is just down right delicious!
Yields 375g (medium sized jar). GFO, RSF, DF, V
Ingredients
- 1-piece of old stale bread (about 50-70g)
- 2 medium red capsicum
- 3½ tbsp + 60ml olive oil
- 1 garlic clove, finely sliced
- 1tbsp cumin seeds
- 1tbsp yellow mustard seeds
- ¼ cup tomato paste
- 1½ tbsp double smoked paprika
- 1tbsp ground sumac
- ½ cup walnuts
- 25g butter
- 1½ tbsp pomegranate molasses or balsamic glaze
- Juice of ½ lime
- Pinch of salt, to taste
Method
1. Heat the oven to 200C. Place the bread on a tray and roast in the oven until stale in touch and golden in colour, then set aside to cool.
2. Put the capsicum on a baking tray lined with baking paper and drizzle with ½ tbsp of olive oil. Roast for 30-35 minutes, until they are soft and juicy, and the skin is blackened. Put the peppers in a bowl, cover with cling-film and, once cool enough to handle, peel and discard the skin and seeds leaving the capsicum flesh and juices.
3. Meanwhile, place remaining olive oil in a medium size fry pan or skillet over medium low heat. Add the garlic, cumin and mustard seeds, and tomato paste and sauté until fragrant and sizzling, about 5 minutes. Turn off the heat and immediately add the paprika, sumac, walnuts, butter and molasses or vinegar. Toss to combine and allow to the mixture to cool slightly.
4. Transfer the bread to a food processor or thermomix and blitz until chunky crumbs form; you want a little bit of texture in your muhamarra so don’t take the bread too far. Add the spice mixture along with the capsicum, and a pinch of salt.
5. Blitz on medium speed until it starts to come together, this will only take a few seconds and you should end up with a chunky style dip. Transfer to a bowl and season with lime juice and salt, and you will have yourselves a new favourite staple that is deliciously rich and tangy. Muhamarra will store in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 4 weeks.
