Last week I talked about this great new cookbook I got from the library, full of Bahraini/Persian type food, featuring spices like cardomom, fennel, saffron and all kinds of yummy flavours that I really like in my cooking.
Well, I made a few things this week but the winner is absolutely this middle eastern chilli crisp. If you've ever had a Chinese chilli crisp, it's kinda like that, but even better. It's so good that we demolished two jars in a week. I gave some to my brother in law and he absolutely loved it and is making some for himself as I write this post!
As with most new recipes involving more than one step, it takes a little while to make, though the second time is easy. I learnt a couple of things that are worth sharing:
- Shallots are mild onions, and definitely better than an overpowering ordinary onion. Use these, but I think spring onions or red onions would work at a pinch.
- I must get a mandolin, and a pair of goggles, so I don't cry through an hour of peeling and slicing onions.
- Don't fry the garlic too long - just until lightly yellow, or it'll get bitter.
- Aleppo chilli is JUST the right chilli for this - it's not too hot at all. And the paprika in her recipe should be mild paprika that's for colour and slight sweetness, rather than a smoky or hot paprika.
The first step is to fry the onions for about twenty minutes so the oil is kinda bubbly, but it's not too hot so it chars them. You want them to go quite crispy. Whilst this is happening, you put all the spices in a bowl - at the end, you'll use the oil to release the aromatics from the spices.
Then you strain the onions through a sieve, retaining the oil, and put them on some paper towel - they'll be quite crispy. That same oil you'll use for frying the garlic, then strain and add to the towel, then the pine nuts, and then return the oil to the pan and add to the chilli mix.
I found I had to add just a touch more oil at the end, and added more to the jar so it'd spoon out better on the beans I ended up making. The spice mix I also fried in the oil as I wasn't sure I'd got it hot enough to proper sizzle in the bowl. The spice mix was fennel seeds, caraway seeds, sesame seeds, salt, aleppo chilli and paprika.
Honestly this stuff is AMAZING. I added it to a variation of her yoghurty beans - I didn't add extra garlic, just salt and lime, a can of canneloni beans, and some yoghurt. Lots of the chilli crisp on top. Omg, to die for!
To bulk it out for a proper lunch, I fried some garden zucchini and steamed some beans, and we served it with some fried middle eastern flatbread which we heated up in a pan that was used to cook the spices. The next day we microwaved the bread, made a similiar salad with extra veggies in it, and Jamie had a tin of sardinies as well whilst I added some dolmades.
Well, I'm off to find my swim goggles to cut more onions - and I'm quadrupling the recipe so I can eat it for the next fortnight, or two days, depending on how much we eat it... it's honestly THAT.FREAKING.AMAZING. It'd be fantastic with veggie soups, on pitta with a bean dip, on chargrilled veggies, on rice or couscous - @carolynstahl and @beelzael, don't miss this one!
With Love,
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