Dukkah - recipe

Dukkah (or dukka or duqqa) is a North African condiment most usually attributed to Egypt and which comes in many different guises - the simplest being a few herbs, salt and pepper sold in paper cones for use in the home, the most complex being a mixture of herbs, spices, salt, pepper, seeds and nuts (traditionally hazelnuts, which I think work best).

It's one of those things I've been meaning to knock up in the kitchen for a while, but had sort of forgotten about it until a meal at Drunken Butcher's, in which he served it as part of the starter. So I sat down, read through a ream of recipes and tried a few out until I was happy with what I was eating.

This recipe started life as Yotam Ottolenghi's dukkah recipe, but I wasn't happy with the taste and I found using pre-skinned and ready toasted sesame seeds a lot easier, plus the poppy seeds add a depth of flavour you don't get in the original recipe; so this is my personal version.

Traditionally, all dukkahs are made to personal taste with each chef, cook, home and restaurant producing their own version. As there's no set recipe for what to include, use this as your starting block and then add anything you fancy. Have fun!

Dukkah
15 mins - makes a jam jar full.

Ingredients
50g hazelnuts (skin off)
2 tblsp sunflower seeds
2 tblsp pumpkin seeds
1 tsp fennel seeds
1 tblsp cumin seeds
3 tblsp coriander seeds
1/2 tsp nigella (kalonji/black onion) seeds
2 tblsp toasted sesame seeds (you can just toast your own at home if can't find toasted)
3 tblsp poppy seeds
1 tsp smoked paprika
1/2 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp sea salt (I used Maldon, but any good quality, flaky one will do)
Good few grinds of black pepper (I used about ten).

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 160c and put the hazelnuts on a baking tray. Pop in the oven and keep an eye on them to avoid burning them. They'll need cooking for about ten minutes; you want them a deep golden brown, but not burnt.

2. After five minutes, add the sunflower and pumpkin seeds to the baking tray and return to the oven. If you're toasting your own sesame seeds, add them two minutes before the nuts/seeds need to come out.

3. Whilst the nuts and seeds are baking, dry fry the whole spices one at a time in a dry frying pan on a medium hot heat. Each of the spices is done when they become fragrant - this time differs from a few seconds to about half a minute for each one. Stand over the pan and when you smell them, pop them into a spice grinder or pestle and mortar.

4. When all the whole spices have been toasted, grind them. I like to keep mine quite chunky so you get a good bit of texture in your dukkah (it's easier to do this in a pestle and mortar), but it's up to you. Once you've ground them, pop them into a jam jar with the salt, pepper, paprika, poppy seeds and toasted sesame seeds (if you're not toasting your own).

5. Take the nuts and seeds out of the oven and tip onto a wooden chopping board. Give them a minute to cool and then roughly chop them. I chopped mine into coriander seed size, but again, it's up to you how fine you make them. I do feel a bit of chunk means you can taste them better.

6. Add the nuts and seeds to the jar and screw on the lid. Shake around till it's all combined and then stick your finger in (or a bread stick) to taste - add more salt, pepper, chilli, nuts, seeds etc as required for your taste.

7. This will keep in the jar for a week or two, but I bet you can't make it last past a few days - you'll end up putting it on everything!

How to use: Dukkah is traditionally used as a dip with bread or vegetables, but it makes a great addition to salads, on toast with butter, on top of avocado on toast, with eggs. I mostly eat it with:

Avocado mushed onto brown toast with lemon and olive oil or

Lentils stirred through with harissa and lemon, topped with roasted tomatoes and soft boiled eggs rolled in dukkah.














Dukkah goes with: eggs, avocado, bulgar wheat, cous cous, spices, yoghurt, bread, veg crudités, humus, tomatoes, lentils, chilli, squash, parsley, coriander. 

NB: Toasted sesame seeds can be hard or expensive to track down in the supermarket, I usually have better luck in the Chinese or Asian supermarkets.

Tip: If you cook with a lot of spices, eschew the over priced/tiny packaged dust you find in the supermarket spice isle and either find the Asian part of your supermarket (larger supermarkets in or around cities are better for this) or Asian stores (in areas such as Rusholme) and buy spices from them. They come in much bigger bags and are better quality. A jar of nigella seeds in my local large supermarket is £1.50 (20g), a bag of them from the Asian isle in the same supermarket is 99p (300g).

If you're struggling to find spices because you don't live near a big city, then try Spices of India, good value large packs or try Bart Spices or Spice Mountain if you just want small amount and very good quality.

Sticky chipotle bourbon chicken recipe

I’m putting my hands up and admitting to being a bit of a chilli freak – not one of those masochistic show-offs who punish their taste buds/guts/sweat glands by seeing just how hot I can take things; instead I'm rather relaxed, enjoying the subtle flavours found in different types of chillies and delighting in a little overall heat, rather than requiring a tongue made of asbestos to even attempt getting close to the food I cook.

Lately, my obsession has focused on the dried, smoky, fruity chillies so redolent of Mexican cookery; think anchos, chipotles, guajillos – with access to great online stockists such as Spice Mountain, Panchos in the Arndale Market and even my local, provincial supermarket getting in on the act; I’ve had lots of opportunity to sate my chilli fix.

This following recipe is a favourite of cold days when I need a little warming comfort – the chicken goes really well with steamed greens, brown rice, jacket potatoes, home baked beans (recipe here), sweetcorn, a big glass of bourbon on the rocks… But I’ll let you find your own perfect pairing and not be overly prescriptive in what you should be eating this with.

Perfect drinks match to the chicken - also, in the chicken!

NB I use chicken on the bone as it has much more taste than breast; plus the extra fat lends itself to surviving the heat of the oven. You could use breast here, but reduce the cooking time as needed.

Sticky chipotle bourbon chicken

Serves 2 – Prep 5 min – Marinating – 20 mins plus – cooking time 30-40 minutes

Ingredients

• 4 pieces of chicken, thighs and drums (up the quantities for the marinade if you are using more pieces) – I always use free range organic chicken; it tastes better, it’s better for the environment and I like to know the things I’m eating have at least had a sort of good life before they get killed for my plate

• 100 ml cooking olive oil

• Big grinding of black pepper

• 1 heaped tsp chipotle paste (use less/more to vary the spice levels to your liking)

• Good shake of Worcestershire sauce

• 2 tblsp honey – use runny if you have it, I just used up some crystallised set honey as I wasn’t going to use it on toast, once it was in the oil it was fine

• 1 tsp dried thyme

• 50ml bourbon – I used Woodford, but you can use something Jack Daniels or something similar

• Sea salt



Method

1. Bring the chicken out of the fridge and up to room temperature before you use it (about 30 mins) – you should do this with every meat you cook with to ensure it cooks properly.

2. Put all the ingredients bar the chicken and the salt in a bowl big enough to accommodate the chicken and mix to make your marinade. Taste to see if it’s spicy/sweet enough for your tastes - always taste BEFORE you add the chicken and NEVER taste a marinade which has had raw meat in. Remember that it will have no salt in, but don’t add any now.

3. Put the chicken in the marinade bowl one by one. As you put each piece in, rub the marinade into every nook and cranny of the chicken, I like to rub it under the skin, so that all the chicken meat gets flavoured.

Marinade all rubbed in

4. Once all the chicken is in the bowl, wash your hands as they are covered in raw chicken. Put the bowl to one side on the work top and cover it with cling film, leave for a minimum of 20 mins (max marinating time should be over night/a day). If you are going to leave it for more than 30 mins, put the bowl in the fridge. When you take it back out of the fridge, make sure you bring the meat up to room temperature before you cook it.

5. When you are ready to cook the chicken, heat the oven to 200c. Place the chicken thighs skin side down in a roasting tin/dish (the dish should just accommodate the chicken pieces, without leaving too much space or ramming them in too tightly). It doesn’t matter how you place the drumsticks as they have skin all the way round.

6. Sprinkle over a little sea salt and place in the oven for 25 mins.

7. After 25 mins turn all the chicken pieces over (thighs skin side up) and sprinkle with a little more salt – check to see how done they are and how long more they will need.

8. After 35 mins check to see if they are cooked through and serve when they are ready. To serve take the chicken pieces out of the dish and put on plates with sides of your choice. Drizzle the chicken with the sticky, smoky, spicy juices from the bottom of the roasting dish as they are delicious ad shouldn't be wasted!

Sticky, spicy and ready for eating

Big Chilli Coook Off - Almost Famous

The first time I attempted to make chilli con carne was for my first proper boyfriend. I was playing domestic goddess whilst my Mum was away; ready to surprise him with a bottle of wine, some home cuisine and a night of unbridled teenage passion.

This isn’t a happy story – after using a state of the art Shwartz seasoning shake I duly burnt the mince so we had a chemically, fag-burn pile of grey mince with soggy veg to wade through; plus he wasn’t a fan of wine and I don’t think my crying over the meal helped. Needless to say the relationship didn’t last for long.

Over the years I’ve honed my chilli making skills to be somewhere near passable – I like the results anyway – but it’s nowhere near authentic; my version has a satisfying savoury sweetness with a smoky/spicy kick and is cooked low and slow for a melt in the mouth finish – but this isn’t about my chilli, this is about the latest speciality night at Almost Famous.

Digressing from burgers and their usual Thurs-Sun opening policy, The Big Chilli Cook Off pitted three of the Famous chefs (yes, even burger joints have chefs) against the two owners, with Manchester’s joe public (well those that paid for the pleasure) judging/scoring each chilli.

Straight through the door and we were presented with a Lil’ Sloppy Juan, which was meant to be a slider, but was almost the size of a regular Almost Famous burger – pink as per usual, the patty was cajun spiced and slathered in crispy onions, cheese, chipolte paste, famous sauce and plenty of chillies.

Lil' Sloppy Juan - sloppier than your Mum

Then the chillis – you controlled which order you ate them in; with no hint as to taste/spiciness, so each bowl was a gastronomic gauntlet, that was both fun and tongue trembling scary at the time. You got as much guacamole/cream cheese/salsa etc as you could fit in your bowl/mouth/tummy to enhance/cover up the flavour and to dip the unlimited nachos in - take it from me, totally filling. A rundown of the chillies was thus and in order of my favourite (least first, favourite last):

• John Wayne – from the name I expected a large, swaggering chilli that was going to sternly yet respectfully slap me round the chops before lingering on my taste buds until disappearing off in to the sunset – I found this chilli a little under seasoned and without much depth of flavour. Good, but no cigar, pardner.

• Ben’s Bad Ass Chicken Chilli – I have issues with the meat here, call me snobby but I like red meat in my chilli. This was the fiercest of the chillis, apparently the recipe was loaded with plenty of scotch bonnets thrown in for the chilli fiends, however this made it a bit too spicy for me, but good flavour (once you got past the heat) and I enjoyed the non-textbook inclusion of sweetcorn.

• Mad Dog’s Meaty Feast – this seemed more like a stew than a chilli; no bad thing as it was full of gamey, winey, umami flavours with super tender meat and a mellow spicy tickle underneath from the added chorizo. I got two bowls of this, not technically allowed, but so what, I’m a rebel/glutton or something.

• Jailbreak/bait – Very nearly my favourite chilli; this was a super smoky mouthful of tender beef with a bit of a kick at the end to make you sit up and listen. Topped with pulled BBQ pork, which added a whole extra dimension of flavour/texture it certainly was a contender for the top spot and was the one that received the most votes over all.

• Flippin fuckin bloody chilli – Just beating jailbreak/bait for the extra depth of flavour and a slight tone down in the spice, I loved this chilli and damned myself for eating it last - when I snuck back for an illegal second helping it was all gone.

Chilli bar - I wish all bars were this meaty

So you just went and judged what chilli was best was it? No, remember we were at Almost Famous so there was some audacious theatricals to keep the punters happy- as the night was an homage to southern style eating, food contests and general Man Vs Foodness then the only thing for it was a hot wing eating contest.

These singed my nose hairs - not sure what it did to the people eating them

Hot wing eating? Ah this was no volume/speed challenge though – this was a sheer, bloody minded heat/pain contest; the winners those that could make their way up to the hottest chicken wing and successfully keep it down/not die. Call me a masochist, but there is nothing more pleasurable than watching 13 grown men gasping, tears running down their face and calling out for their Mummies. I don’t know how they made it to the end as even the penultimate wings singed my nose hairs and made me gag as they were walked past. Brave men, we will remember them all.

Chilli Cook Off wasn’t as formal or busy as Pig Out, but was a whole lot of fun – I went home full of meat and booze; stuffed and happy that I had watched a table full of grown men reduced to blubbering wrecks. It’s the simple things in life.

Almost Famous, nondescript wooden door between Keko Moku and Socio Rehab, 100 High Street, Northern Quarter, Manchester M4 1HP – Twitter

Please note I was given my ticket to this event, but I was under no obligation to write nice things, I just really enjoyed myself and thought it would have been well worth it for the £15 I would have paid.