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Sumac

Our BABA glossary series takes you through some of our cooking methods and ingredients, with recipes that you can try at home.

The second in our series focuses on the beautiful lemony spice, sumac, which is made from ground red sumac berries that grow wild throughout many areas of the Mediterranean.

Largely used in Middle Eastern cooking, sumac can be used as an alternative to citrus in just about everything! Try sprinkling it on hummus or adding into your next meat marinade to cut through the fattiness of the meat and give your dish a bright, citrus flavour. In the Middle East it’s also quite common to season dishes with sumac upon serving: just like you would with salt and pepper.

So pick up some sumac the next time you’re in the supermarket, and try making our turkey and smoked bacon kofte with sumac onions, salmorejo and barberries, using our handy recipe below.

Turkey and smoked bacon kofte, sumac onions, salmorejo and barberries

Turkey and bacon kofte

Serves five

INGREDIENTS

For the sumac onions
20g lemon juice (about half a lemon)
600g red onion, thinly sliced
40g pomace oil
7g sumac
Pinch of ground coriander
Fresh parsley to taste
Salt to taste

For the kofte
40g red chilli
20g ras-el-hanout
6g chilli flakes (smoked, if you can find them)
10g salt
10g black pepper
30g peeled garlic
200g bone marrow
60g peeled shallots
20g parsley
20g coriander
500g turkey mince
300g smoked bacon mince

To finish
25g barberries
50g smoked almonds
500ml smoked tomato salmorejo (find the recipe here)

METHOD

For the sumac onions
1. Mix all of the ingredients together in a large bowl and refrigerate for two hours to marinate.

For the kofte
1. Add the spices, red chilli, salt and garlic into a food processor and blend.
2. Then add 100g of the bone marrow, the shallots and the herbs, and blend again.
3. Roughly chop remaining the bone marrow and combine in a large bowl with the turkey and bacon mince, and ingredients from the food processor.
4. Mix with a wooden spoon until just combined, then roll (using your hands) into five 200g logs.

To finish
1. Grill or barbecue the kofte until fully cooked through (about 12 minutes).
2. Serve with the salmorejo, sumac onions, barberries and smoked almonds.