Go nuts for Arto de Haroutunian

One of the reprinted
books from Amazon

Laid up with a nasty chest infection so nothing to do but mooch around weakly, make tea, read recipe books and watch the racing. I'm rereading my collection of Arto de Haroutunian books - he was an Armenian food writer, architect and artist who wrote about a dozen brilliant cook books before he died suddenly in 1989. You can pick up old second hand copies of his books for a few pence on Amazon Marketplace, though most of them are now being beautifully reprinted, as they should be. His recipes are always simple, authentic and perfectly delicious and he writes really well. Like a Middle Eastern Simon Hopkinson.

I modified his recipe from Complete Arab Cookery (still out of print but highly recommended and easy to come by) for Muhamarah, a chilli and nut dip, to use up some leftover roast pecans I made at Christmas. It is soooo delicious I think I might just eat it up with a heap of toasted pitta bread tonight. He says "It will keep for some time". Hmmmmm. It says on the sides of wineboxes that they last for 3 months once opened, but mine are always done after a week.

Muhamarah
4 tsp chilli pepper
100ml vegetable oil
50ml olive oil
1 tbsp pomegranate syrup or lemon juice
175g walnuts (I used a mix of walnuts and leftover roast pecans)
1tsp ground cumin
1tsp allspice
1 tsp garlic powder
salt and pepper

Blitz the lot with a hand blender or food processor till liquid, refrigerate and use as a dip or kebab sauce. Also known as Garmeroug, according to Arto. I see lots of other versions with sweet red pepper instead of heaps of chilli pepper but I like this very much; it's like a fearsome spicy, garlicky nut butter and would probably benefit from the addition of parsley and mint, at which point I guess it becomes a sort of Turkish pesto and would be a very good dressing for orzo.....let me get back to you on that.