Sumac

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lulu

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Joined
May 29, 2006
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Can you believe with four boxes of store cupboard stuff to use up someone just brought me some thing else.....a big package of sumac. I did a searh and found a lovely oniony palestinian thing to do with some, but more ideas are needed. Seriously, I cannot drive through the three countries I'm going through with all these packages of ground powder! As it is I'm wondering how I'll explain my baking powder :ermm: :ermm: tasting it will not I think be sufficient, lol!:LOL: So sumac ideas my friends?
 
Sumac is good on just about everything. It's color is good for garnish, and the tart flavor accents food.

It's great in food rubs. Adds flavor and color. Good on potato salad, rice, roasted potatos. Salads, green, rice salads, pilafs. A classic is a fried egg in olive oil seasoned with sumac.

Great for barbecue too. I love sumac.

It's also used in Za'atar, a sesame seed herb blend that is again used on many things. There are a few different kinds but that's not too important unless you're striving for strict authenticity in a dish. It's pretty versatile as a seasoning though.

I like za'atar with good pitas and extra virgin olive oil. Also common on roast chicken.

thymeless
 
i LOVE za'atar....I eat it like you with evoo and pita bread, or other flat breads. What else, besides sesame seeds and sumac goes into za'atar?
 
lulu said:
i LOVE za'atar....I eat it like you with evoo and pita bread, or other flat breads. What else, besides sesame seeds and sumac goes into za'atar?

Za'atar is also sometimes americanized as Zartar. Google will turn up interesting hits on both.

Liike I said, there are many types usually classed as red and green. Red focuses on sumac, green on native thymes and oregano. In it's simplest most generalized form perhaps something like

thyme
oregano/marjoram
sesame seed
sumac

Proportions vary from family to family and region to region.

Hyssop is also common. Other additions include garlic, salt and so on.
 
i LOVE middle eastern food... esp. persian food, and i have a friend that owns his own restaurant.

he uses sumac in just about all his preparations... esp. on ground lamb and lamb kabobs.

he tells me that sumac is known to help with blood pressure problems too.

i love the stuff and use it quite often myself.
 
Thymless, thank you so much! I'll try the basic outline you have given and then google some more ideas.

I have eaten sumac before but never cooked with it myself, and this is a big package! I look forward to trying a lot of these ideas out. Thank you all very much!
 
The only sumac I know about is the kind that grows in my fence row. It's very attractive, with it's bunches of red berries, and the leaves turn a beautiful rusty red in the fall.
I thought it was poison.
 
I never knew you could eat the stuff, and also thought the berries were poisonous. Around here, it is pronounced shoe-mack, but spelled sumac. It is a bush, mainly appearing around the edges of a field. After a forest is felled, sumac is one of the first woody plants to regenerate the forest.
 
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I've wondered about that myself. It might be a similar looking shrub that the nave was transferred from, I don't know. But this cultinary stuff is excellent.

Wikipedia discusses the differences in very general terms. I suppose they are related afterall.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumac

thymeless
 
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