Duqqa – a dry dip from North Africa

Ready in about 10 minutes and a good accompaniment to many things.

The tagline to this blog is “The joy of food is in the finding, discovering and cooking as well as the eating”. However, I am not sure how much the finding and discovering is coming through.

When I started this blog, the idea was the showcase certain ingredients. It was to be seasonal and discuss where the ingredients can be found. My intention was to show how one ingredient can change an entire dish, and that creating one delicious dish needn’t be hard. London is full of cultures and, as a result, full of different types of flavours that can be easily accessed and incorporated if you know where to look. Some of my posts deviate from this and are just dishes I like.

This recipe is about an accompaniment rather than a dish, in that it sense goes back to the intention of the blog. Once you’ve tried it, it is a wonderful discovery, but does not require specialty stores to source ingredients.

I took my inspiration for it from a cookery book some family friends from Kenya gave me: African Kitchen. The stories of cooking on safari bring back the spirit of adventure so readily available in East and South Africa.

I have now seen Duqqa on what feels like every menu is London.

Traditionally, Duqqa is an Egyptian dip. It is made out of a number of ground nuts and herbs. Fresh bread or vegetables are dipped in as an hors d’oeuvre. The ingredients used and texture they are ground to vary.

I like to sprinkle it on things as a finishing touch, and it can be used with a wide variety of foods.

When I first made it, I used it with sweet potato, labneh and roast chicken – great combo. The sweetness of the sweet potato is great with the creamy tartness of the labneh, and the Duqqa and a nutty and subtle added flavour.

For my Duqqa, I used:

• ½ cup macadamia nuts
• 3 tbsp coriander seeds
• 3 tbsp sesame seeds (I used black and white mix as I like the resulting colour better)
• 2 tbsp cumin seeds
• 1 tbsp black peppercorns
• 1 tsp fennel seeds
• 1 tsp dried thyme leaves
• 1 tsp sea salt

In a dry pan over a medium low heat, brown all the seeds and nuts separately by type as each will brown at different times. Make sure you stir them so they brown evenly.

When they have all cooled, grind them with a mortar and pestle or food processor until fine. I would recommend doing all the nuts and seeds together except for the macadamia nuts as they are quite oily. Do the macadamias on their own and mix them with the others.

Add the salt and thyme and store in an airtight container. It will last for months.

Some of the things I have used it on include:

• Poached eggs (with the labneh as well)
• Open face sandwiches
• Salads
• With olive oil and bread the traditional way