Sunday, May 9, 2010

Homemade Harissa

Happy Mother's Day! My mom took a shift at work today so she won't be off untill dinnertime when we will order her a pizza. Her request! She's not a fussy lady, she likes everything simple. Pizza is her favorite treat and that's what she'll have. Since I didn't have to cook for her or the family today, I had time to experiment in the kitchen. I was flipping through "The Essential Mediterranean Cookbook" today and came across a harissa recipe. Harissa is a North African chili paste that is fiery hot and flavored with things like cumin, coriander, caraway and mint. I had all the ingredients so I decided to make a jar for the fridge.


Here are all the ingredients: olive oil, red chilies which had been soaking in hot water for an hour, garlic and spices: mint, coriander, caraway and cumin. All of this gets thrown in a food processor.


I guess it depends on what kind of chilies you use to determine what the color will be. Mine was a bright orangey red and I used de arbol chilies.


I filled a little jar which had been washed in hot soapy water and dried in an oven for 20 minutes. It's kind of cool that I made my own. It cost me pennies and it'll last for about 6 months. Now I have this spicy condiment to use with dishes like couscous, soups, Moroccan stews, bean salads and pastas. Here's a good pasta recipe that uses harissa.
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5 comments:

  1. Rikki CupcakeMay 9, 2010 at 2:55 PM

    That sounds super yummy. I haven't ever tried Harissa but after seeing how it is made, I am going to give it a go! Thanks for the inspiration.

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  2. SindyMay 9, 2010 at 5:14 PM

    Looks delicious! I like the spice mix.

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  3. CantinoMay 10, 2010 at 10:47 AM

    yum! did you add the water the chiles had been soaking in as well? this reminds me of the bright orange sauce at my favorite taco cart.. arbol, garlic, a little salt and veg oil.
    curious about how you came up with "6 months". what is it about this sauce that will keep it fresh for that long?

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  4. kmouseMay 10, 2010 at 10:54 AM

    cantino,
    I did not add the water that the chilies had been soaking in. It's just the chilies, oil and spices. The recipe that I used said it would keep for 6 months in fridge as long as you top it with olive oil after every use.

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  5. CantinoMay 10, 2010 at 11:01 AM

    that's an awesome tip, thanks!

    ReplyDelete