izot or turkish spicy spread

İzot is a type of mezze and it is sometimes called biber reçeli (chilli jam). It’s like a spicy jam that you can spread on bread or crackers.

There is something about chilli peppers; once you start, you can’t stop. I’m sure you’re familiar with this concept but you may not be familiar with this; there is also something about Southeast Turkish cuisine; again, once you start, you can’t stop.

This is exactly what happened to us at lunch time. Although, we had other plans for lunch, I decided to try and make this mezze recipe I have recently discovered. So, I made it. It turned out to be deliciously addictive; at some stage, we ran out of bread and moved on to crackers. Thank God, the recipe doesn’t yield a large amount otherwise we would be fat –I mean fatter –and the whole neighbourhood would be stinky-smelly because of all that garlic. Felt sorry for our friends who would be meeting us for dinner that night as we had the potential to stink up the whole restaurant.

Let’s talk about the specific ingredients that I used in this recipe…
Turkish kofta spice mixture: It’s a mixture of dried herbs and spices such as ground coriander, black pepper, sweet paprika, bay leaves, oregano and a little bit of ground cloves.
Turkish hot pepper paste: It’s a bit like Turkish version of Thai chilli paste which can be bought from certain shops in Sydney. I have a whole blog post about it.
Dried spearmint: let me make it clear here, Peoples… It’s spearmint and definitely not peppermint.

If you’re ready to join us in this smelly business, here’s the recipe:

Ingredients for İzot:
½ cup walnut kernels
2 cloves garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
1 tablespoon hot chilli paste
1 tablespoon concentrated tomato paste (plain)
1 teaspoon dried spearmint
1 teaspoon Turkish kofta spice mixture (köfte baharı)
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon sea salt

Method:
• Place the walnuts and garlic in a mortar and pound until it forms a slightly rough paste.
• Mix together the hot chilli paste, tomato paste, mint, cinnamon, kofta spice mixture and salt in a bowl. Add the garlicky walnuts and stir well.
• Spread on crackers or bread and serve.