This delicious Turkish-inspired dip is a little strange, but it’s wonderful. It looks like the familiar red pepper hummus (and there’s nothing wrong with that), but the flavor is completely different: sweet and tangy, almost sour, with moderate heat. It’s great with pita chips, crackers or celery sticks as a cocktail snack, and it transforms cold roast beef into something special.
The hard-to-identify sweet/sour flavor in Muhammara is from pomegranate molasses, an ingredient common in Middle Eastern cooking made by boiling down the juice of a tart variety of pomegranate into a thick syrup. It’s used in savory and sweet dishes (try it drizzled over ice cream), and available in Middle Eastern groceries, some good supermarkets, and online at www.amazon.com for a few dollars.
The other ingredients are easy to come by, the dip comes together quickly in a food processor, and it can be made a day in advance of serving, making it an easy way to add something new and exotic to your cocktail table. If you’re up for a little more effort, it pairs well with the Turkish feta and walnut dip featured in my post here.
Recipe
(adapted from the New York Times, March 23, 2010)
Ingredients
3/4 cup walnuts
3/4 cup fresh breadcrumbs
3 roasted red bell peppers (I use store-bought)
1 small onion, diced
2 small (or 1 large) cloves garlic, minced
1 jalapeno or other small chile, stemmed and seeded
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon pomegranate molasses
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper
Instructions
1. Place two thick slices of dry white bread into a food processor fitted with the blade attachment and process into fine crumbs. Measure out 3/4 cup. (If your bread is fresh, toast it slightly in a toaster or in the oven to dry it out, but not brown it.)
2. Wash the peppers, removing any skin, seeds and membranes that remain. Add them to the work bowl of the food processor.
3. In a small skillet over medium heat, toast the walnuts until they are fragrant and begin to brown, about 5 minutes. Add to the work bowl.
4. Add the bread crumbs, onion, garlic, chile, lemon juice, cumin and pomegranate molasses to the work bowl. Process until smooth.
5. With the motor running, pour the olive oil through the feed tube and process until the mixture is a smooth, glossy paste. (If it seems dry, add a bit more oil.) Taste and season with salt and pepper.
Serve at room temperature with toasted pita, crackers or fresh vegetables as an appetizer. Store covered and refrigerated for several days.
