My homemade harissa

I used to write off harissa as just another firey hot paste, until I made my own and realized how many fragrant spices and herbs are used in its confection. As you can imagine, there are as many harissa recipes as there are cooks, so don’t worry if you don’t have the right peppers or spices. Some folks add rose petals, others tomatoes and many add smoked dry peppers that they rehydrate in hot water. Below is my basic recipe where I am quite generous with coriander seeds and also add red bell pepper to tone down the heat, making it a little easier for everyone to eat.

You can serve harissa on the side of a traditional North African tagine stew but it is also an original way of giving your roast vegetables, meats and poultry an exotic twist like I did here with sweet potatoes and here with eggplant.

Ingredients

• 4 or 5 medium red hot peppers  (Baklouti, fresno, red jalapeno, whatever medium-sized hot pepper you have on hand)
• 1 or 2 red bell peppers
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 cloves garlic
• 3 tbsp coriander seeds
• 1 tbsp cumin seeds
• 1 tsp caraway seeds
• 3 or 4 tbsp olive oil

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 350F
2. Place the hot and bell peppers on a baking sheet in the oven until they are slightly charred on all sides, turning them regularly. This should take around 30 to 40 minutes.
3. Take the peppers out of the oven and let rest until they are cool enough to handle but still warm
4. With your hands, take off the tops, seeds and skin of the bell peppers. Discard the seeds.
5. Take off the tops of the hot peppers and set the seeds aside for later.
6. Toast all your seeds on a pan on medium heat for a few minutes and let cool. When cooled, grind them using a spice grinder or smash them as finely as possible with a mortar and pestle.
7. Place all the peppers, garlic, half the hot pepper seeds, salt and olive oil in a blender and blitz for 30 seconds or until it resembles a smooth paste. Taste and test whether or not you want it to be spicier. If so, adjust the seasoning by adding more hot pepper seeds and blitzing it for another few seconds.
8. Store the harissa in an airtight container until you are ready to serve. It keeps for around a week.