Cooking the med

bright green hummus, the REAL dukkah, coriander shatta AND special slow onions

Palestinian parsley hummus with slow cooked onions with orange zest, shatta and a real Gazan dukkah with sourdough spelt pita

As we are slowly preparing for our Gazan fundraise brunch 26th of november in Amsterdam get your tickets here , i start getting into the mood. In the mood for green Palestinian parsley hummus! And what i love about this version is that it’s super creamy due to a delicious Gazan trick. AND some delicious toppings. Hummus never bores me.

there will be hummus, there will be shatta, there will be love!

DUKKAH THE CENTURY OLD TREND
When you would go to Gaza on a culinary trip (it feels weird to say this, but it should be normal one day!), you definitely would come home with a bag or jar full of delicious smelling nutty spice blend called dukkah. You would unpack it home and dip your pita in it with some olive oil and you would remember the smell the taste the generous people. And yes, dukkah too transformed into a hipster condiment, the same road za’atar took. A little mountain of dukkah, some olive oil to dip: for me one of the best ways to eat fresh pita, loaded with flavour and extra protein. Conclusion: this superb nourishing poor man’s food is understandably something we all want. But we need to know it has very old origins and comes from the borders of Egypt and right into Gaza. With old i mean many centuries old, it is said the ancient Egyptians invented it. They needed it back in the days, and actually now the Gazans are surviving on it. Can you imagine. So we salute you dukkah!

SUCH A FUNNY WORD
The word dukh means pounding in arabic, so that’s were dukkah came from: the pestle and mortar. My best friends in the kitchen.

BUT WHAT IS IT EXACTLY?
It is a mixture of warm toasted spices, nuts and roasted chickpeas or lentils. Dukkah is so good because it’s warm, spicy, earthy, salty, nutty all at once. Every family his own dukkah of course! When i eat it, with some olive oil and freshly baked bread i truly cannot stop. I love it as a topping for dips or soups or even salads: everywhere a flavour burst. Today i made a special version, one with pistachio in it. And if you don’t feel like making it yourself, i or better we made this one for you.

Underneath you see a jar of real dukkah from Gaza, i got as a gift from my friend Salma. I like my dukkah a bit coarse, but in Gaza they grind it into powder, only to add the sesame at the end. This dukkah is a bit similar to Aleppo za’atar, which is full of spices too.

And there is mine…..a little bit more coarse, but still quite powdery! The green sauce is the fast and furious Shatta, the Palestinian hot sauce in quick not fermented version. With green pepper and fresh coriander.

HUMMUS SITUATIONS
Alright, now we got the dukkah and shatta covered, time to hummus. Personally i can never get enough of it as i said before. And considering the popularity of hummus, it’s something we agree on. Who owns it, we don’t always agree. But then again as it is with many foods: things mostly do not come from one particular place, but from a whole region. Same goes for hummus. You can read more on that here with my friends from the Hummus Academy. And if you want to up your authentic hummus game, you can also do a real hummus workshop with them, this coming saturday 18th of november at the Natural Wine festival in Amsterdam. And to end: here’s how you really pronounce the word hummus

GREEN
As you can see in the picture, mine is a particular one. A green hummus made with parsley. I’m in love with it since a few years, you can find it even in SOUK feasting on the mezze table and that book is over 6 years old. It’s the Jeruzalem way as we describe in the book. Now there‘s the Gaza trick …..a bit of yoghurt makes for a mild even more creamy hummus. I tried it with the green hummus today, and i loved it. With the classic hummus i still have to try it. And we need to be heavy on the tahina side, as Palestinians love their tahina. Needless to say this is the one i use

On top there are, next to shatta and dukkah, slow cooked red onions flavoured with orange zest and some juice. Very tasty and very different as topping: meaty without meat! I would say this plate is a meal in itself. Served with fresh pita, i made spelt pita with sourdough.

PISTACHIO DUKKAH

for one jar

100 g dried roasted chickpeas
150 g pistachio
1 tsp of fennel seeds
1 tsp of cumin seeds
1 tsp of coriander seeds

1 Roast the chickpeas, pistachio few minutes on low fire and leave to cool.
2 Toast the seeds on high fire for 1 minute.
3 Crush everything in the mortar (in batches) until you get a powdery structure. Or use a mixer! You can let it be more coarse if you like. Add some salt flakes.

CORIANDER SHATTA

2 green peppers
1 small bunch of coriander
juice of 1/2 lemon
salt
olive oil

1 Chop the peppers, the coriander and mix finely with the lemon juice, a splash of water, enough salt and 2 tsp of olive oil.