Sumac is such a unique spice! It's made by grinding red berries which have a very tangy, lime flavour. It is used all over the Middle East to season meat & veg while cooking, as well as a dry seasoning on top.
So I used sumac and parsley as my two main ingredients to make a very simple and quick middle eastern inspired beef dish!
This would be great served with nutty brown rice topped with butter.
Ingredients
Fillet of beef cut into strips
1 Onion
5 Red Chillies
3 Garlic Cloves
1 Capcisum
Handful of Parsley
½ Lemon
Sumac Powder (to your liking at least 1 tbsp)
½ tsp Black Pepper
Salt to taste
½ tsp Cumin Powder
You can increase or decrease the amount of vegetables you add depending on portion size.
Method
1) First chop all the vegetables and meat, ready to cook.
2) Fry the garlic and onion, until the latter is translucent
3) Add Capsicum, Chillies and fry until the vegetables soften
4) Add in the Beef along with the spices and fry on high heat for around 5 minutes.
5) Now lower the heat, put a lid on the pan and let the beef cook for at least 10/15 minutes
6) Take the beef off the heat, add in parsley and the lemon juice. Serve with a yogurt dip (Greek yogurt with salt, dried mint leaves and parsley).
If I had some pomegranate, I would have sprinkled some seeds on top to compliment all the Middle Eastern flavours.
Its nice to cook with spices that we don’t so commonly use and let them be the star of the dish. Hence why I tried to keep the amount of spices in this dish minimal, something I don’t normally do!
So the next time you go for your weekly shop, pick up a spice that you've never cooked and give it a try!
Shanzé