Duqqa, dukkah, dukka

Duqqa, dukkah, dukka

I have written about Dukkah before.

Here’s the Christmas Dukkah I put together for the Horrific Miscue Christmas Party.

Basic technique

Toast nuts and seeds in the oven. Don’t try to toast them all together, they’re all different sizes and you run the risk of burning. Toast almonds with just almonds, sesame seeds with just sesame seeds. After burning walnuts badly I now set a timer and check on the guys every few minutes. You can also toast things in the frying pan. And according to this tutorial, you can also toast them in the microwave.

I always toast my cumin seeds in the frying pan as I always burn cumin if I try to do it in the oven.

Once the nuts or seeds are done I chuck them in a bowl and stir them around with a pinch of salt.

Put Almonds in food processor and chop until they’re fairly small pieces. Then add the other things, pulse the blender and taste. I taste regularly, adding one ingredient at a time and tweaking. To taste I’ll get a rough feel by dropping a pinch into my mouth, but to fine tune I’ll put some into a dish and then try with olive oil and bread. This is especially important when using dried ingredients that will come to life with the extra moisture.

Instead of a food processor you can use a mortar and pestle to break down the big ingredients and then combine in a bowl instead.

I’ve listed the ingredients I used on this occasion. I’m always changing it, depending on what I have in the cupboard and how I feel like experimenting. Once I have a base I sometimes decant my dukkah into different jars and then add extra spices to each jar. That way I can explore different variations and not wreck the whole thing.

If this big list of ingredients intimidates you, try mixing sesame seeds, cumin seeds and salt together and just eating that. If you don’t like cumin seeds, try coriander seeds or dried oregano as your base instead.

Ingredients for Christmas Dukkah

Almonds (freshly toasted in the oven)

Sesame Seeds (freshly toasted in the oven)

Cumin Seeds (toasted in fry pan)

Dried Parsley

Dried Oregano

Dried Thyme

Salt (In this case Murray River Red Salt and a bit of Jamie Oliver seasoned salt mix that was a gift from my mother in law… adds a bit of ground bay leaf, thyme, lemon to the mix. Dukkah loves salt and I’ll often add a bit of extra salt to the top of Dukkah dish when serving)

Cinnamon (freshly grated into the mixing bowl using a microplane)

Nutmeg (freshly grated into the mixing bowl using a microplane)

 

Ingredients of spicier Christmas Dukkah

Same as above, but add

Extra Cumin

Anardana powder (ground pomegranate seeds)

Cayenne

High quality, unsweetened cocoa powder (this pairs well with the cayenne and makes the spicier mixture look different to the plain version)

3 thoughts on “Duqqa, dukkah, dukka

  1. Thanks, Liz! It was lovely at the party. I’ll be using this recipe(but maybe not until I’ve run off the Christmas excess!)

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