Sumac

[delcecchi]

Couldn't find the old thread..... So here is a new one.   

From WSJ

Light Up Winter Dishes With a Dash of Sumac

Seasoning dishes with tart, citrusy sumac is like flipping a switch: Suddenly, everything tastes brighter. Try it in these recipes for roast chicken, broiled oysters and a refreshing winter salad

 

By

Georgia Freedman

Feb. 16, 2016 5:39 p.m. ET

0 COMMENTS

ENLARGE

TANGY PARTNER | A bracing dash of sumac balances the brininess of these broiled oysters. Armando Rafael for The Wall Street Journal, Food Styling by Jamie Kimm, Prop Styling by Stephanie Hanes

I FIRST FELL FOR sumac over brunch at Miriam, an Israeli restaurant in Park Slope, Brooklyn. My plate of potato pancakes and eggs came with a little bowl of creamy labneh dusted in the brick-red spice. I spooned the mixture on top of the pancakes, and the sumac’s bright, lemony flavor permeated the entire dish.

See the Recipes

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Roast Chicken and Potatoes With Sumac Butter Armando Rafael for The Wall Street Journal, Food Styling by Jamie Kimm, Prop Styling by Stephanie Hanes

• Broiled Oysters With Sumac
• Roast Chicken and Potatoes With Sumac Butter
• Winter Escarole, Pear and Walnut Salad With Creamy Sumac Dressing

If the word sumac sets off alarm bells, you’re probably thinking of poison oak and poison ivy, the toxic black sheep of the Rhus genus. Other, edible species redeem the family name. In the Middle East, one of the areas where sumac grows wild, its tiny red fruits are dried, ground and employed in all sorts of recipes. “The thing about sumac is that you’re adding lemony notes without adding tons of acid,” said Michael Solomonov, chef of the contemporary Israeli restaurant Zahav, in Philadelphia. “So you can serve a dish with red wine and not have it taste like vinegar. Or you can cure fish in it without cooking it” (as the acid in citrus will).

Mr. Solomonov liberally sprinkles sumac on vegetables, fruit or cheese. The spice can also be used to make soups and braises, like sumacaya, a Palestinian dish of lamb simmered in a strong sumac broth. He also finds that the flavor works well in dishes made with non-traditional ingredients, such as a tabbouleh of Asian pears, Brussels sprouts and walnuts with a yogurt-sumac dressing.

Sumac grows wild from Canada down to Mexico too, and indigenous peoples across that zone have cooked with it for centuries. “You’ll see it through most parts of North America if you just look around,” said Sean Sherman, an Oglala Lakota chef and food educator in South Dakota. “Up here it grows along the highway.” Mr. Sherman sprinkles it on walleye or mixes it with heirloom beans in his contemporary native dishes.

ENLARGE

Winter Escarole, Pear and Walnut Salad With Creamy Sumac Dressing Armando Rafael for The Wall Street Journal, Food Styling by Jamie Kimm, Prop Styling by Stephanie Hanes

Once I introduced sumac to my own kitchen, the flavor became addictive. Grilled fish, deviled eggs and roast carrots all got a pinch. I sprinkled it on buttered corn, and combined it with yogurt and lemon juice for a salad dressing that gave buttermilk ranch a run for its money. At my local Middle Eastern market, I started buying the spice in bulk.

In warming braises and roasts, sumac not only balances the meats’ richness with its tart flavor; it also mellows under the heat and becomes more nuanced. Roast chicken smeared with a sumac-garlic butter takes on flavors both zesty and earthy. When added to roasted Brussels sprouts with bacon, sumac comes across as piquant and a little sweet. It even elevates roast oysters, adding a subtle lemon-like note without overpowering the bivalves’ natural brininess.

Perhaps my favorite recipe is a quick treat Mr. Solomonov recommended. “When you need to do a fancy hors d’oeuvre and you’re completely out of time, buy goat cheese, make little truffles out of it and roll them in sumac and pistachios,” he said. “It’s the easiest thing, and people go crazy for it. That’s our little secret.”

[RebelSS]

Wonder if it's in shakers on the table at the SD oyster bars......

Edited February 17, 2016 by RebelSS

[delcecchi]

I don't know.  Not an oyster eater, and I didn't see any at Rubio's

[Crow Hunter]

Hmm.  I wonder how it would be to give the sumac heads a light smoke, then dry and grind into a spice?

[delcecchi]

Might be good.  You could try it both ways.

[RebelSS]

Sprinkle it on those dainty watercress sandwiches and wilted Dandelion salad.....

[delcecchi]

1 hour ago, RebelSS said:

Sprinkle it on those dainty watercress sandwiches and wilted Dandelion salad.....

I thought it would go good with the hydrolyzed yeast and salt in your rice aroni