Muhammara

Fiance Man and I were invited to drinks at my coworker's house on a Friday night.  She shared the main ingredients of this dip, which neither FM or I could keep our hands and pita slices out of.  Then she lamented to us that you can't find jars of roasted red peppers in Accra, so she'd brought twelve back home with her from her last trip.  Big ones, too.  

Saturday we went shopping and, remembering my coworker's complaints, snapped up the last jar of roasted red peppers on the shelf.  Then we stole the show at our friend's cookout on Sunday with it!

From a search based on the ingredients, it seems this dip's called muhammara.  It's an earthy, sweet-tart concoction of toasted walnuts, roasted red peppers, pomegranate molasses and a couple of spices.  Incredibly easy and unbelievably moreish, it will have you licking your fingers and smacking your lips.  Even the flies at the barbecue couldn't stay away.

Muhammara 

(Roasted Red Pepper and Walnut and Pomegranate Molasses Dip)

recipe adapted from Food Network

prep time: 5 minutes

cook (blend) time: 10 minutes incl time for adjusting to taste.

ingredients:

2 tbsp pomegranate molasses
1/2 cup walnuts

1/4 cup unseasoned bread crumbs
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 (16-ounce) jar roasted red peppers, drained
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon ground cumin, plus more for garnish
1 tablespoon olive oil
Salt

directions:

Toast the walnuts in a dry skillet until fragrant, about 3 minutes.  Leave to cool for a few minutes.

Add the walnuts and breadcrumbs to a food processor and blend until finely ground and paste-like.  Add the pomegranate molasses, lemon juice, red peppers, cayenne and cumin, and process until smooth.  Add the olive oil slowly while the processor is still moving. 

Season with salt to taste.  Adjust other seasonings as you see fit.  If it seems watery, add more breadcrumbs.  

Serve with pita triangles.

Next time I'll start with more walnuts, as my coworker's was definitely more nutty than this.  However, we haven't seen roasted red peppers at the supermarket since that moment of kismet a good few weeks ago.  It all depends on when we can find those again.

We also just had some muhammara in Turkey on our last trip (in August) and it was more of a paste than a dip.  Definitely more walnuts needed!!