I can't speak to that particular recipe or any other, since I've never actually made Djaj Bi Summak, only enjoyed it -- a lot.  The picture looks right...

I'm willing to bet that Kiwi has a recipe that includes sumac....he cooks a lot of exotic dishes with wonderful spice blends. Trouble is...we haven't seen him around lately

 

Sumac, by itself, is an integral part of Mid-Eastern cooking, and is one of the ingredients in the spice blend Za'atar; a mixture of hyssop or thyme, sesame seeds, and sumac berries. Za'atar goes especially well with fish and chicken dishes, and as a topping for flatbreads. I included it in my own Chicken Zohar recipe, for instance, a dish I originated years ago to celebrate the birth of the daughter of some Israeli friends.

 

 

 

Sumac berries look much like red peppercorns when dry, and are used in the same manner. That is, depending on application, whole, cracked, or ground.

 

 I don't know how they harvest them in the Mid-East but I just wait until the berry clusters of Staghorn Sumac dry on the plant, and gather them then.

 

The plant za'atar is in the same family as wild marjoram and oregano, and is actually a wild thyme. Biblically it got translated as hyssop, but is not the same hyssop we're familiar with.  Za'atar is, for instance, what the Hebrews used to spread lambs blood on their lintels so the angel of death would pass over.

 

Something you might want to try: Rub some pita with olive oil and sprinkle it with a little crushed sumac and dried thyme. Pop it in the oven to warm through.