Everyday Epicurean

While shopping yesterday, I spied Birds-Eye Chillies, 3 for 20c, so I bought 21 of them. Figuring I’d probably do something Moorish sometime this week, I also bought a packet of Coriander plants (i.e. leaves, stems and roots minus dirt), about six of them I think.

So today I decided to consult my handy copy of “Moorish” by Greg and Lucy Malouf to see what I could make. I settled on Zhoug, a fiery hot relish from Yemen, as I had all the ingredients, and it would inspire me to make something to go with it later in the week.

!/recipes/images/Zhoug.jpg!

You can eat it on grilled Turkish bread or Lebanese Flat bread, possibly with a little yoghurt, or it goes well with fish, chicken or meat dishes that need a bit of extra zing!

h2. Ingredients.

* 4 cardamon pods
* 1 teaspoon of black peppercorns
* 1 teaspoon of caraway seeds
* 2 cups of fresh coriander (leaves and upper stems – retain the roots and lower stems to use in something else)
* 6 bullet (or in this case Bird’s Eye) chillies (the original recipe called for seeding and scraping the chillies, but I didn’t bother)
* 6 cloves of garlic
* one quarter teaspoon of salt
* a splash of water (about 2 tablespoons)

h2. Method.

Crack and coarse grind the black peppercorns in a mortar with a pestle and set aside. Now crack the cardamon pods, remove the seeds and grind them. Dry roast the caraway seeds in a small cast iron skillet, then grind them in the mortar and pestle.

Wash and dry the coriander and chillies. Place all the ingredients in a food processor (or blender if you have one that will reach the bottom), and whizz until you have a relatively fine paste.

Place in a sterilised jar with a coating of olive oil. Store in the fridge for up to a week. (I find it keeps considerably longer than that, but a week is safe, beyond that you’re on your own).