schug

aka s’chug, shough, zhoug
Boris Mann 6th May 2023 at 3:24pm

I had schug along with harissa at The Exchange for the first time.

Green Schug Middle Eastern Hot Sauce

Unlike hot sauces, which are primarily designed to add heat, schug is a very fresh and brightly flavored sauce. The combination of herbs, spices, and lemon give it an extraordinary flavor

  • 4 large jalapeño peppers
  • 4 cloves garlic
  • 1/2 cup coarsely chopped fresh parsley
  • 1/2 cup coarsely chopped fresh cilantro
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
  • 1/2 cup olive oil

Schug Secret Weapon Recipe

  • 1 cup parsley
  • 1 cup cilantro
  • 2 tablespoons lemon juice
  • 1 tablespoon ground coriander
  • 1 tablespoon ground cardamom
  • 1 tablespoon kosher salt
  • 20 serrano chiles, stems removed
  • 4 garlic cloves
  • 1 cup canola oil

“The thing about schug that’s awesome,” chef Michael Solomonov of Philadelphia’s Zahav begins, “is that you find it alongside harissa on every table in Israel.” The fiery green chile sauce hails from the Yemenites who brought it to the region in the 1950s, contrasting the roasted red chile harif (hot sauce) from North Africa. “I think that’s interesting from a sociological point of view; that flavor has popped in from everywhere.”

Tasting Table, Pour Some Schug on Me

I made this with very minor modifications. I used 5 jalapenos, all seeds removed, and I used grape seed oil rather than canola oil. I also didn't have any ground coriander so I ground some coriander seeds that I had. Not very spicy, nice and tangy, and I like the saltiness of this.

May 12, 2019

Made this again, this time with 2 jalapenos and one Thai red chilli. I did have canola oil, but once again used fresh ground coriander seeds. I'm not sure that my ground cardamom is really coming through in the flavours.

I also made a small second batch with just the stems of the parsley and cilantro, 2 garlic cloves, 2 red chillis, and juice of 3 fresh lemons, and a tablespoon or 2 of canola oil. This ended up more like a chimichurri sauce and very liquid.

June 23, 2019

I decided to see if I could make this with a smaller quantity. And, I actually found the serrano chiles.

Since I was making a sort of half portion, I just used a bunch of cilantro. I was using up some peeled garlic cloves, so that ended up being 8 - 12. Lime juice instead of lemon juice. I'm not convinced that the particular ground cardamom I use really does add any flavour, but I did use it. Finally, previously I had seeded the jalapenos I used, but other than cutting off the stem, I just roughly chopped the serranos and put them straight in. Well, it turns out when you massively increase the raw garlic and don't seed the chiles – this becomes a really spicy sauce. It's still very tasty, and I now feel comfortable riffing on this base recipe.