Green Schug

Serves: 8

If they like it, it serves 8 otherwise

Preparation time: 5 minutes

Cooking time: 8 minutes

Totaltime: 13 minutes

Schug also known as schug, zhug, and skhug is a Middle Eastern blend of herbs, chilies, and toasted spice often used in Yemeni and Israeli cooking.It might be red, green, or brown. The sauce is made from fresh red or green hot peppers and is seasoned with garlic, coriander, and cumin. Then fresh herbs such as parsley and cilantro are added. A brown schug is usually a green pepper variety with tomatoes added in.

Ingredients

1 teaspoon coriander seeds
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/2 cup seeded and roughly chopped fresh hot green chilies, such as serrano or jalapenos, stemmed and seeded
2 to 3 garlic cloves, smashed and peeled
2 cups lightly packed cilantro leaves
2 cups lightly packed flat-leaf parsley leaves
zest from one lemon
3 tablespoons lemon juice
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Preparation

1. In a small skillet, toast the cumin and coriander seeds until they smell fragrant and have turned a shade darker in color. Transfer to a spice grinder or crush with a mortar and pestle.
2. Put the chilies and garlic in a food processor and pulse a few times until they are fairly fine. Add the cilantro, parsley, lemon zest, reserved toasted spiced, 1 tablespoon of lemon juice, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and a few twists of black pepper. Pulse until all is finely chopped into a rough purée. Continue mixing while drizzling in the olive oil. Stop the processor before the sauce is completely blended and smooth—you want some texture. Taste the sauce and adjust the seasoning to taste.