Matbucha

Matbucha is a salad mainly made of tomatoes, roasted peppers, oil and garlic, which are all cooked together. The name of the dish originates from Arabic and means "cooked salad".

This dish was brought to Israel by the new immigrants of North Africa, mainly Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria and Libya - although the ingredients change a bit from one ethnicity to the other. A popular version of the Matbucha is the Israeli Shakshouka which is made by cooking it with eggs broken into the centre of the mixture.

This is my "in-law's" recipe, who immigrated from Iraq and Iran...

Ingredients:

• 6 Large ripe tomatoes
• 1 hot green + 1 red pepper
• 2 sweet red peppers
• 2 sweet green peppers
• 4 cloves garlic
• some chopped fresh coriander (leaves only)
• a little sweet paprika
• pinch of salt
• a little oil
• a little ground cumin

Directions:

• Brown all the peppers on the rack over the gas or grill and remove the blackened skin while hot.
• Remove the skin of the tomatoes and chop.
• Place all ingredients in a blender and pulse until fine.
• Pour into a saucepan and heat.
• Continue simmering until significantly reduced.

Serving Suggestion:
Serve with salads, chicken beef or cold cuts.

Storage:
This recipe will keep in the fridge for a whole month.