Cumin, We Need to Talk
Have you ever done something in your life for years, again and again, aware that something was not quite right but continuing anyway because it was not exactly wrong either? For me, that habit is cooking with cumin and tomato and onion.
I had a recent revelation right after I tried Asma Khan’s khagheena (spicy scrambled eggs) one Sunday morning, as a little detour from my usual menemen, a staple of Turkish breakfast, something you may know as shakshuka (not exactly the same, but it will give you the idea). For years, I have made this dish with cumin. Asma’s version simply uses turmeric instead of cumin, and oh my god. Can one single spice make such a huge difference? The dish went from a four to a ten. And see this lovely, sunny orange color!
I’m looking back at all the dishes where I use a huge amount of cumin, and I’m now suspecting it was too overpowering to begin with. But now I’m wondering whether the combination of cumin and tomato was bothering me all along and whether using so much cumin only made it worse. I don’t know, but I’m determined to get to the bottom of this cumin situation.