Fig Jam and Lime Cordial

Our last visit to Harkola produced all the ingredients needed to make our own dukkah.  It’s a ridiculously easy recipe, and the advantage of making your own is that you get to eat it warm, freshly roasted and ground.  It’s also massively cheaper than the little tubs they sell for $10 at the markets!

• 1½ cups mixed nuts – I used pine nuts, slivered almonds and walnuts, about ½ cup of each
• ¾ cup sesame seeds
• 1 tsp fine sea salt
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 2 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp chilli powder – I used Kashmiri
• 1 tsp baharat spice mix

Baharat is an Arabic spice mix, commonly used in Egyptian and Moroccan cooking. It has a sweet smoky flavour, and usually includes spices such as pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, cumin, coriander and paprika.  If you’re buying it at Harkola, you should know that they refer to it simply as “mixed spice”.  I made a right dork of myself one day, boldly asking for baharat, only to have the nice lady behind the counter reply, “Sorry? Oh, you mean mixed spice, darling…”

1. Fry the nuts in a heavy-based dry pan until they begin to colour, then add the sesame seeds and cook until just starting to turn golden.

2. Add the remaining ingredients to the pan and stir briefly over heat – maybe only 20 seconds or so – just to warm through.  Be careful not to let them burn.

3. Tip the mix into the bowl of a food processor and blitz to the texture of coarse breadcrumbs.  The sesame seeds will mostly stay whole and the nuts will crumble up.

4. Serve, preferably warm, with good sourdough bread and extra virgin olive oil.  Dunk the bread in the olive oil, then dip it into the dukkah.  Enjoy!