I ran into dukkah (or duqqa) by chance. Getting a coffee in one of London coffee shops, it immediately sparked my curiosity. A nutty-looking mixture, scented with oriental herbs in a picturesque jar is something that always gets my attention. When I found out that this is actually a starter, eaten with bread and olive oil, I was hooked. I just needed to recreate several recipes, to find out the best one. And the internet is full of wonderful recipes like this, this, this and this. It turned out to be another great Arabic revelation, just like this Jordanian chicken and rice.
First Dukkha experiment
For the first test, I fried ground walnuts, chopped almonds and sesame in a frying pan. Added some cumin and coriander and shortly blended the mixture.
The result was very nice. Nutty and warm, went well with the olive oil and bread. I somewhat expected more spices, but I guess I added too little of them.
So for the next try I ground the spices in a mortar before adding them to the blender. That way they released waaay more aroma – without increasing the amount of spices. In the blender the spices simply do not get crushed enough to release their aroma. Now the result was much better, with a warm, sweet nutty taste peppered with cumin and coriander. The ratios are also important, so for every spoonful of almonds, walnuts and sesame, take a teaspoon of cumin and a teaspoon of coriander.
Second Dukkha experiment
Another test included hazelnuts and almonds, combined with sesame, coriander, cumin, fennel seeds and salt. Again, I fried the hazelnuts, almonds and sesame in a frying pan and ground the cumin, coriander and fennel with a pinch of salt in a mortar. The result was nice, although the salt dominated. In my opinion no salt is needed, since it overshadows all the finer tones of spices and nuts. But this is a matter of taste. Another try without the salt was much better in my opinion. Compared to the first try, exchanging walnuts for hazelnuts resulted in a much blender, less warmer dukkha.
Final dukkha experiment
I guess you can see the pattern. Nuts, sesame, coriander, cumin and alternate spices. That is the basic recipe. As confirmed here, there is no universal recipe for dukkah, just grab whatever is left in your pantry. And that is the beauty of it. For the last try I – totally unplanned – tried this true meaning of dukkha. I wanted to eat something strong and wholesome in the morning and decided to make some dukkha. But I was out of cumin, one of the key ingredients. Nevertheless, I gave it a shot and tried it anyway. I fried some almonds, nuts and sesame in a frying pan and ground some coriander and fennel in a mortar. A brief mixing of all these ingredients together with some pistachios and a dash of black pepper gave a sweet smelling dukkha. To my great surprise, the taste was absolutely comparable to the previous tries. Warm, sweet and fulfilling.
Dukkha recipe
As mentioned above, the best thing about making a perfect dukkha is that you do not need specific ingredients. You just need some nuts, seeds and spices and that’s it! Variability is desired to get the more rounded flavor and taste, but is not strictly necessary. Below are some of the ingredients that you can use – the most important ones are marked in bold. In general you need a teaspoon of spices for a spoonful of nuts or seeds. For the stronger spices (chili, salt, black pepper,…) a pinch will do.
Nuts and seeds: walnuts, hazelnuts, sesame seeds, almonds, pistachio, macadamia, sunflower seeds.
Spices: coriander, cumin, fennel seeds, black pepper, chili flakes, saltThe most basic (and my favorite) recipe: Fry almonds, walnuts and sesame seeds in a metal pan, until they are light brown. Crush coriander, cumin and fennel seeds with pestle and mortar. Mix everything in a blender and enjoy! (preferably with olive oil and white bread).
