Saturday, December 04, 2010

Easy Harissa


Because most recipes for harissa call for an array of reconstituted exotic dried peppers, I always considered it complicated and intimidating.

I decided to go the simple grocery store supply route, and used a fresh serrano pepper for a harissa I made to go with Moroccan vegetable stew (sweet potatoes, carrots, zucchini, onions, chickpeas, celery, and an array of North African spices like turmeric, coriander, ginger, clove, and cumin). It was not too overwhelmingly spicy, had a very nice color and consistency, and took about ten minutes to make.

Seed and roughly chop

1 red bell pepper
1 red serrano pepper (green ones work fine as well)

Chop up one clove of garlic and sauté it in a little olive oil. Add the peppers and cover the pan.

When the peppers are soft add

1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon crushed caraway seeds
3/4 of a teaspoon salt

and cook for a few minutes.

Mix everything up with a blender (immersion or otherwise).

1 comment:

Tom Cloyd MS MA said...

Lovely, simple recipe. Gotta try it. Like your viola d'amore, too! Thanks for sharing...