Duqqa

It stays dry and crumbly, because bread is dipped in oil first and then pressed into it.

Vegan.

Ingredients

• 150 g hazelnuts
• 100 g sesame seeds
• 4 tablespoons coriander seeds
• 2 tablespoons cumin seeds
• 1 tablespoon black peppercorns
• 2 teaspoons dried mint
• 2 teaspoons salt

Method

1. IT STAYS DRY AND CRUMBLY, because bread is dipped in oil first and then pressed into it. That is how it is eaten and it decides everything about how it is made. No oil, no water and nothing fresh goes into the mixture itself: it is a dry rubble of toasted nuts, seeds and spices kept in a jar, and the oil arrives on the bread. So the texture has to be coarse enough to cling to a wet surface -- gritty rubble rather than powder -- and dry enough to keep for weeks. Ground to a paste with oil, as a few recipes do, it becomes a spread and will not stick to bread at all.
2. EVERYTHING IS TOASTED SEPARATELY AND COOLED SEPARATELY. Hazelnuts in the oven, sesame in a dry pan, coriander and cumin in the same pan after. Each wants a different heat and a different time, and a single tray gives burnt sesame beside under-toasted hazelnuts. Each is tipped out onto a cold plate the moment it is done, because everything keeps cooking in a hot pan.
3. THE HAZELNUT SKINS COME OFF. Toasted fifteen minutes at 180°C, then rubbed in a tea towel while warm and the skins winnowed away. The skins are bitter and papery and they are what makes a bad duqqa taste dusty.
4. IT IS POUNDED OR PULSED, NEVER BLENDED. A mortar, or two or three short pulses in a grinder. The target is coarse rubble with recognisable pieces of nut in it. A processor run continuously releases the hazelnut oil and the whole thing clumps into a paste within twenty seconds.
5. THE NUTS ARE POUNDED FIRST AND THE SEEDS AFTER. Hazelnuts need more work than sesame, and done together the sesame is pulverised by the time the nuts are broken. Nuts crushed first, then the seeds added for one or two pulses.
6. IT IS SALTED IN THE JAR AND MADE IN SMALL BATCHES. Two teaspoons. And this quantity is about twenty uses -- toasted nuts go rancid, so a large jar is a waste of good hazelnuts.
7. The hazelnuts roasted at 180°C for 15 MINUTES, then RUBBED IN A TEA TOWEL while warm and the SKINS winnowed away. Cooled.
8. The sesame seeds DRY-TOASTED 4 MINUTES until golden, tipped onto a cold plate.
9. The coriander and cumin seeds and peppercorns toasted in the same pan 2 MINUTES, until fragrant. Tipped out and cooled.
10. The HAZELNUTS pounded or pulsed FIRST, to coarse rubble with pieces still visible.
11. The seeds, spices, dried mint and salt added and given 1 or 2 PULSES ONLY.
12. TESTED: it should be dry rubble that can be poured, with identifiable pieces of hazelnut. Any clumping or oiliness means it was over-processed.
13. Stored in a sealed jar. Eaten by dipping bread in olive oil and then into the duqqa. Keeps 3 weeks.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Egypt · All recipes