I’m blessed to have parents who possess a rich repertoire of stories and sayings. My father had one such saying of “a bunch of dogs all sniffing each other’s asses at the dog park”. He used this saying to describe those introductory business meetings when the participants are feeling each other out, testing each other’s prowess and their respective awareness to the nonverbal acts of negotiation. It is a particularly apt reflection when all that sniffing each other lasts too long and nothing is getting accomplished.
I thought of it today in the kitchen, when I realized that in my snobbiness of being a food loving cook, the first thing I do when visiting a fellow cook’s kitchen is to check out their spice rack. No self respecting cook should ever relegate spices to anything less than prime and massive real estate in the kitchen. Yeah, I’m snobby about that.
Why? Case in point was today’s post: Dukkah (or Duqqa). I’ve been working on my own Dukkah recipe for many years now – it is a collection of nuts, seeds and spices all combined together and serve as a crusting – or better – a dry dipping concoction for olive oil drenched bread. It’s incredible – and yet, something you rarely see served in the US.
Here is an example of Dukkah made today, before the final mixing.
Secret ingredient: nigella – aka black cumin – ordered from the web
