Home-made Lemon Olive Oil and Dukkah

It’s time for Fiesta Friday #17 hosted by the lovely Angie @ The Novice Gardener. This week she is joined by  three, yup, three co-hosts! Sweet Alex @ Dinner Daydreams, bubbly  Jhuls @ The Not So Creative Cook and yours truly.  Jhuls and I had a lot of fun co-hosting a couple of weeks ago – she has a soft spot for the dessert table which is where you are likely to find her hanging out! Alex will be keeping an eye on the rest of the proceedings while I expect to be propping up the bar! Do check out their wonderful blogs for some great recipes!

Today, I have a couple of recipes to share – both very simple yet with lots of flavour and a myriad of uses. The first is a lovely, really simple recipe for Lemon infused Olive Oil. The oil takes a month to infuse and only uses two ingredients – unwaxed lemons and olive oil. The oil is wonderful drizzled over fish, seafood, chicken, couscous, pasta, soup, tomatoes and also makes a lovely salad dressing and marinade too. All you have to do is place a few clean unwaxed lemons in a jar, top up with olive oil and store in a cupboard for a month. That is it!. A friend that I had made some for, used to just top up the jar with more oil so that she had a constant supply. The lemons get a bit fizzy while they are steeping so it’s a good idea to open the jar to release the gas every week or so. The second recipe is for Dukkah – a coarse Middle Eastern nut, seed and spice blend that is ridiculously versatile. Traditionally, it is served in a small bowl alongside another of olive oil and some warm flatbread. The bread is dipped in the oil and then in the spice blend. It can also be used to sprinkle over hoummus, fried or boiled eggs, tossed with Mediterranean vegetable before roasting and used to coat tiny tender lamb chops before cooking.  Claudia Roden published the first recipe for Dukkah, outside of Egypt in A Book of Middle Eastern Food, back in 1968. Every family has a different version of this which is kept in a large jar in the pantry. It is just a matter of toasting the nuts, seeds and spices, before grinding coarsely.

I had some beautiful beetroot in my veg box which I roasted, whole and unpeeled, wrapped in foil, at 180C for an hour. When they were cool enough to handle, I peeled and sliced them, drizzled them with a little of the lemon oil and sprinkled them with dukka and some chopped salted pistachio nuts. It made for a really delicious and  healthy lunch!

The submissions for Fiesta Friday #17 are looking pretty spectacular already so do take a look and leave a comment too to say hello! Click the link to take you to Angie’s post then click the purple badge to add your link to the party! http://thenovicegardener.wordpress.com/2014/05/22/fiesta-friday-17/ Hope to see you there!!

Lemon Olive Oil

• Difficulty: easy
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INGREDIENTS

• 2 unwaxed lemons (or however many will fit in your jar)
• Olive oil

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Rinse the lemons in warm water and dry thoroughly.
2. Place in a clean jar with a tight fitting lid.
3. Top up with olive oil or a blend of olive and vegetable oil.
4. Keep in a dark place for a month before using,

Dukkah

• Difficulty: easy
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Original recipe from Claudia Roden

INGREDIENTS

• 250g sesame seeds
• 125g coriander seeds
• 60g hazelnuts
• 60g ground cumin
• Salt and pepper

You can also add dried mint,dried oregano, fennel seeds, roasted chickpeas, almonds…

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Put the seeds and nuts on separate trays and roast them in a preheated 250C gas 8 oven for 5 – 10 minutes or until they begin to colour and release an aroma.
2. Put them together in the food processor with salt and pepper and grind them until they are finely crushed but not pulverised. Be careful not to over blend or the oil from the too finely ground seeds and nuts will form a paste. Dukkah should be a dry crushed mixture, not a paste.
3. Store in an airtight jar in a pantry cupboard.

© Selma Jeevanjee and Selma’s Table, 2013, 2014. Unauthorised use and/or duplication of this material, including photographs without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Selma Jeevanjee and Selma’s Table with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.