It doesn't take much to spin my mind into the Abba zone.

It's the way I'm wired.

But walking out of a restaurant in Little Armenia humming 'Mama Mia' was a little odd, even for me.

What prompted it?

The devil-red dollop of muhummara on the side of my plate, that's what!

Muhummara.

A whirling dervish of red peppers, pomegranate molasses and walnuts. Garlicky and peppery and finger-licking gorgeous.

Trust me; this little dip will hang around your taste buds like four Swedes in white pantsuits on a turntable in 1976!

I discovered Muhummara at a little restaurant called Carousel down on Sunset Boulevard. It's a funny place...looks more like a hair salon from the 80's which has never been tarted up; menthol green and pink decor, a few Nagel prints peeling from the wall. In fact, this dip is the brightest colour in the restaurant!

And that is what intrigued me. Some research revealed that the ingredients for this devilish fare consisted of walnuts, pomegranate molasses, red peppers, stale pita and some spices.

I tried it at home...it tasted great, but the colour was so dull compared to Carousel's.

I added more Paprika, less pita bread, more molasses...still dull!

Then I remembered that they serve their pita bread spread with tomato paste, and it is bound to be these leftovers that they are using to make their dip!

Bingo; I added some tomato paste to my dip and it started blushing so furiously you'd think I'd been whispering rather sordid, lurid things to it!

This is fast and simple; a few laps around the food processor and you're done:

The goods: 1/2 cup chopped walnuts; 1 small pita bread / 1/2 lrg pita (stale); 4-5 cloves garlic; 4 tblspns pomegranate molasses; 2 tblspns tomato paste; 1 tblspn sweet paprika; 1 tblspn hot paprika; 1 tspn cayenne (optional); 1 tspn cumin powder; 4 roasted / marinated red peppers/capsicums; juice 1 lemon; 1 tspn kosher salt; 1/3 cup olive oil

Place torn pita and walnuts into food processor and pulse until both are coarse crumbs. Add the garlic cloves and pulse garlic into crumbs. Add all the other ingredients and pulse into a paste. You can add another clove of garlic if you are brave. You can roast and peel your own peppers / capsicums if you like, but life is much easier if you buy them already done, just drain them well and chop them roughly before adding them to the processor(2 jars is about equal to 4 capsicums). Use a good, grassy olive oil...the flavour really embellishes the dip.

You're good to go; pick up a felafel, tear into some fresh pita, daub your kebob...

Better yet; serve this with hot, grilled vegetables. Char-grilled zucchini sticks and a bowl of muhummara (and a bottle of Estola from Trader Joe's: $4.99 a bottle!)

Why not serve with a little hummus as well; these two dips harmonize together like Anna and Frida (in case you're wondering, muhummara is Frida...the spicy red-head, hummus is the seen-it-before blonde)

I have made endless batches of Muhammara over the past few weeks.

Luckily, it lends itself to endless uses.

My favourite, by far, is to get a good boneless leg of lamb. Rub salt into the skin of the lamb, then 'massage' about a cup of muhammara into the outside and inside of the lamb, roll it back into shape and pop it into the fridge overnight.

Remove it from the fridge an hour before cooking.

Pre-heat the oven to 425f.

Peel 2 onions and slice them into 1 inch rounds. Place the onion rounds on the bottom of a baking pan and put the lamb on top. Drizzle with olive oil and pop it into the oven. Bake 20 minutes for every pound. Bake uncovered for the first 20 minutes. Baste with a little oil, then cover with foil and pop it back into the oven. Remove the foil and baste for the last 10 minutes of cooking. Remove from pan and cover with foil, let the roast sit for at least 15 minutes.

15 minutes?

That's all you need to put together a sensational little platter...

That sounds like a guest presenter on Antiques Roadshow, huh?

Actually, this is a 2 minute no-brainer.

Trim some green beans, place them in a dish with a sprinkle of water and cook them in the microwave for 2-3 minutes.

Meanwhile, drain a little of the meat juices and fat from the roasting pan and add a pinch of saffron threads.

Sprinkle the beans with salt and pepper, pour over the saffron juices and you've got a foxy little side-dish ready to go!

Clearly I'm besotted with fried olives...they were in the last newsletter too!

Heat 1/4 cup olive oil and 3-4 sprigs of fresh rosemary in a skillet. As the oil heats, it will tease and cajole the flavour out of the rosemary leaves.

Now add about 1 cup of olives: green or black, or all mixed up. I rather like using oil cured olives (and I pit them first).

The heat should be fairly low. The rosemary oil will sneak into the olives.

Add a few strips of orange and / or lemon zest.

Keep the pan on low whilst you slice all of the skin and pith off 2-3 oranges. Slice the oranges into rounds, then grab a fennel bulb. Slice it super thinly and scatter the fennel ribs over the orange slices.

Top it all off with a mountain on hot olives.

(and, if you dare, add a few dollops of creme fraiche and chili flakes; you will be in heaven!)

Remember those onions lurking in the bottom of the roasting pan? The ones that soaked up all of the lamb juices and muhummara?

Well, they are about to turn into the easiest tart you've ever knocked up!

Grab a ball of store-bought pizza dough (easily my favourite new convenience of the new millennium!). I buy whole wheat ones from Trader Joe's.

Pull it out of the fridge about 30 minutes before so that it warms up. Roll or pull it out into an oblong-ish shape and place it on a baking sheet.

Spread a good 1/2 cup of muhummara around the centre of the dough, the way you'd spread tomato sauce on a regular pizza. Drizzle a little olive oil over it all and place the baking sheet in the oven on the rack under the lamb (about 15 minutes before the lamb is ready).

When the roast lamb comes out of the oven and you transfer the meat to a plate, scoop up all of those onions and pile them onto the pizza. Take a little mixed lamb fat / pan juices and pour them on top of the onions. Bake another 5-10 minutes until the crust is golden brown. Slice into wedges and serve with the roast.

Wash and pat dry a 4-5 pound chicken. Quarter a lemon and pop it into the cavity. Squeeze half a lemon over the chicken and then rub a fistful of salt into the skin. Take 3 heaped tablespoons of muhammara and smother it all over the outside of the chicken. Pop the chook in the fridge overnight.

Bring it out 30 minutes before you plan to cook it. Pre-heat the oven to 425f. Take a couple of onions, peel them and slice them into 2cm rounds, place the onions on the bottom of a baking pan to create a platform for the chicken. Place the chook on top of the onions and cover it in a good drizzle of olive oil. Cover with foil and place it in the oven. Bake for 45 minutes, take the chook out and baste it, but keep it covered with foil. Bake another 20 minutes, baste and remove foil, bake another 25 minutes.

To test for 'doneness', wiggle the leg...it should move freely. Transfer to a white plate, prick with a fork in the thickest part of the thigh and let the juices run. They should be clear. The muhammara paste might add some redness to the juices.

You can serve this with all the same sides and flourishes as described above for the roast lamb!

So, we have a saucy little red...who is actually a dip, or a marinade, or a sauce. And I have another red to introduce to you. A cheeky little Spaniard known as Vina Santurnia (Rioja), 2001. Picked this one up for under $10

Of course, after a happy helping of the former, and an unhealthy helping of the latter the pronunciation of either becomes challenging.

Syllables collapse and contract; muhummara becomes muh'maa, rioja becomes ria.

muh'maa ria.

mama mia...

hmmm... I could tell you stories of Abba and my family. Like the time my sister bribed me (I was 6) to say that I liked Anna more than Frida. Then, in disgust, she snarled at me; 'Well, you know that Frida has false teeth!'

To this day, when I see an Abba video, I zero in on Frida's teeth.

Humour me. This playlist is a sentimental tour de folly. It has absolutely no relevance to the subject of this newsletter other than a quaint phonetic similarity.

(put on your pantsuit and enjoy!)

For those of you who didn't know, tomatoes (in all their glorious forms) are known as pomme d'amour...the apple of love!

Who could deny that!

I'm so excited by this trip...

Working with a brand that I grew up with, sharing recipes and being back home for a bit of wint'ry relief!

More news on where you might be seeing me in the next few days.

Till then, eat some dip, listen to some Swedes and be happy...

And let the love flow!

cheers, Mannix

mannix@thelovebite.com