Muhammara

Ingredients

• Red bell peppers6
• Walnuts200 g
• Breadcrumbs80 g
• Pomegranate molasses3 tbsp
• Aleppo pepper1 tbsp
• Garlic3 clove
• Ground cumin1 tsp
• Lemon1
• Olive oil100 ml
• Pita bread — to serve4
• Saltto taste

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Char the peppers over a flame or under the grill until the skin blackens all over.

   20 min

2. 2

   Put them in a bowl, cover it with film for fifteen minutes and remove the skin and seeds.

   20 min

3. 3

   Toast the walnuts in a dry pan for five minutes, until they smell nutty.

   8 min

4. 4

   Pound the walnuts in a mortar or pulse them briefly to a coarse crumb.

   10 min

5. 5

   Blitz the peppers with the garlic, pomegranate molasses, lemon, cumin and Aleppo pepper.

   6 min

6. 6

   Fold in the walnuts and breadcrumbs by hand and season, keeping the mass grainy.

   6 min

7. 7

   Pour in the olive oil in a thin stream, stirring, and chill it an hour before serving.

   8 min

About the dish

The peppers are charred until the skin blackens and are always peeled. The skin brings bitterness and spoils the texture, and leaving it on is the commonest mistake.

The walnuts are pounded rather than blitzed smooth. Muhammara should be grainy: a smooth paste is considered wrong in Aleppo.

Breadcrumbs bind the mass and take up the excess moisture from the peppers. Without them the paste separates into water and oil within an hour.

Worth knowing

• — Aleppo pepper is milder than cayenne and carries a fruity note. Paprika with a pinch of chilli substitutes, but the flavour comes out flatter.
• — Muhammara is better the next day. The walnuts take up moisture from the peppers and the flavour deepens.
• — The oil goes in at the end and by hand. Blitzed with oil, it emulsifies and the paste ends up like mayonnaise.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

380 kcal

Protein

8 g

Fat

30 g

Carbs

22 g

More from Syria

• Fattoush — A salad of vegetables and herbs with fried pieces of flatbread and sumac.
• Kibbeh bil sanieh — Two layers of bulgur and meat with a filling of mince and pine nuts between them, baked in a tray.
• Shish barak — Small lamb dumplings baked and then cooked in a garlic and mint yoghurt sauce.