Dueling muhammaras

Nope, we're not entering the political zone of the Mideast here, or maybe we are, on a very fundamental level.

What is muhammara? Glad you asked, even if you didn't. Muhammara is one of those mysterious spreads and dips that you get in Mideast restaurants. It's Turkish in origin, they tell me,which probably means that there are disputes all over the Aegean as to where it comes from. My assistant, who is from Greece, tells me she's never heart of it, and indeed, the pomegranate molasses that is in it is not something I associate with Greek food. Moroccan? Paula Wolfert, you out there? Can you chime in? Anyone else? Syrian? Israeli? Someone?
Ultimately, who cares, unless you have a recipe you want to compare this too.
This dish requires roasted peppers, and fresh peppers are out of season for a while.

Use your pantry. You can buy really good quality roasted peppers. I bought an Italian brand that gave me three peppers to a jar: 2 red, one yellow, and they were terrific. Annalena enjoys roasting peppers herself, and the aroma that they import to the home, but hey, you gotta live with what you live with.

I think the hardest part of this recipe is toasting the walnuts, and finding pomegranate molasses. Annalena has four different types of it. I suggest you find someone who has some and borrow it, because you only need a tablespoon, and let's face it: you won't use it again, for a while.

TO THE KITCHEN: you need a cup of walnuts. To toast them, heat your oven to 350. Put the walnuts out on a tray, and toast them until, well, they smell "toasty." This is about 10 minutes. Err on the side of underdone, they'll continue to toast when you take the tray out of the oven. While they're toasting, get those peppers: six whole roasted ones, any color. Chop up a jalapeno pepper (not an option. You need this), an onion, 2 or 3 cloves of garlic, and toss them in a bowl. You also want to add to this, a tablespoon fo the pomegranate molasses, the juice of a lemon (meyer, or standard), a teaspoon of cumin.

Now, a controversial step for some people: bread crumbs. I used them. I used 3/4 cup of dried. You can use fresh, and you can leave it out, but the resulting product will be much wetter.

Put ALL of this in a food processor, and pulse. It will process remarkably easily: there's a lot of moisture in those peppers. And while it's happening, add 2 tablespoons of olive oil.

Know what? You're done. If you are familiar with Greek cooking, it may remind you of skordalia, or perhaps tahini or something like that. I see some similiartities will all of these.

All you need now is some toast of some kind to dip into the stuff. Pita is standard, and good, but use what you like.

My friends combined this with some smoked ham and found it exquisite. Me? Sheep's milk ricotta please. Or, just as it is. It's yummy. And you will notice the molasses and may find other ways to use it.

If you borrowed a bottle, your friend may never get it back