Harissa

The peppers are roasted and peeled before they are ground, and caraway is what makes it taste of this and not of chilli sauce.

Vegan.

Ingredients

• 300 g dried red chillies, stemmed and deseeded
• 200 g red peppers
• 8 cloves garlic
• 2 tablespoons caraway seeds
• 1 tablespoon coriander seeds
• 2 teaspoons cumin seeds
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 150 ml olive oil
• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

Method

1. THE PEPPERS ARE ROASTED AND PEELED BEFORE THEY ARE GROUND, and caraway is what makes it taste of this and not of chilli sauce. Two separate points, both load-bearing. The fresh red peppers go under a hot grill until the skins are blackened and blistered, then into a covered bowl to steam and the skins slip off -- which removes the papery bitterness and concentrates the flesh. And caraway, two tablespoons of it, is the dominant spice: it is slightly bitter and aniseed-like and it is the single thing that distinguishes this paste from every other ground-chilli condiment. Made with cumin alone, or with no whole spice at all, the result is hot and red and anonymous.
2. THE DRIED CHILLIES ARE SOAKED AND THEIR WATER THROWN AWAY. Stemmed, deseeded, covered in hot water for thirty minutes until pliable, then drained and squeezed. The soaking water is bitter and tannic -- it is not stock and it does not go in.
3. THE SEEDS ARE REMOVED FROM THE DRIED CHILLIES. All of them, by hand, which takes twenty minutes for three hundred grams. Seeds are bitter rather than hot and they also stay as hard specks that will not grind out.
4. THE WHOLE SPICES ARE TOASTED AND GROUND FRESH. Caraway, coriander and cumin in a dry pan until they smell, then cooled and ground. Pre-ground spice from a jar has lost most of its oil and the paste tastes dusty rather than aromatic.
5. IT IS POUNDED OR PULSED, NOT BLENDED SMOOTH. A mortar, or a processor in bursts, to a thick coarse paste with some texture left. Blended to a purée it goes slack and slightly frothy and loses the body that lets it sit on a spoon.
6. IT IS STORED UNDER A LAYER OF OIL AND THE LAYER IS TOPPED UP. Packed into a sterilised jar, pressed down to expel air, and covered with a centimetre of olive oil. The oil excludes air; anything above it will go mouldy. Topped up each time some is taken, with a dry spoon.
7. IT IS USED FRESH AND IS NOT A FERMENT. Three weeks in the fridge under oil. The fermented Tunisian chilli preserve is a different thing with its own page here, and the two are not substitutes -- this one is bright and sharp, that one is deep and sour.
8. The dried chillies stemmed and the SEEDS REMOVED by hand.
9. Soaked in hot water 30 MINUTES, then DRAINED and SQUEEZED. The soaking water THROWN AWAY.
10. The fresh red peppers grilled until the skins are BLACKENED, then covered in a bowl 10 MINUTES and the SKINS PEELED OFF.
11. The caraway, coriander and cumin seeds DRY-TOASTED until fragrant, cooled, and GROUND.
12. The chillies, peeled peppers, garlic, ground spices and salt POUNDED or pulsed to a THICK COARSE paste.
13. The olive oil and vinegar worked in.
14. Packed into a sterilised jar, PRESSED DOWN to expel air, and covered with 1 cm of olive oil.
15. TESTED: it should taste clearly of caraway as well as chilli. If it tastes only hot, the spices were stale or short.
16. Keeps 3 weeks in the fridge. The oil layer TOPPED UP and a DRY spoon every time.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

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