Picked
I am coming to the end of my fresh chilli supply. It is a sad time of year, while I could keep the plants going over winter (and might), I am soon to lose all those fabulously bright red fruit.
I have already preserved this year's chilli glut in many ways - a sweet tomato chilli jam, a savoury chilli jam I call rocket fuel, red and green curry paste, two types of pickled chillies - one pickled with Chinese rice vinegar and one pickled with Western wine vinegar - and by freezing some. Today I made harissa a North African spice sauce.
Harissa
This is a recipe I quickly jotted down when I chanced upon a Christine Manfield mini cookbook in a cafe. I think it was a series that came free with one of the newspapers. The measurements are true to her recipe, but the method? I just made it up cause I didn't have a chance to write it down. The original recipe uses 75g dried chillies soaked, I simply replaced the dried ones with fresh ones and upped the amount a little to account for the water that would be absorbed.
100gm fresh chillies
2 teaspoons cumin seeds
1/4 teaspoon caraway seeds
2 large cloves of garlic
1 teaspoon salt
50ml tomato paste
100mls water
60 ml olive oil
Rough chop fresh chillies. Dry roast seeds and smash with a mortar and pestle. Put all ingredients, except the oil in a food processor and process.When it is a consistency you want, with the motor running, pour in oil a thin stream slowly as you would with making mayonnaise. It changes colour from a deep red to a dusky orange, strangely, exactly the same colour as my blog header...
Put in sterilised jar, cover with oil and store in fridge. I'll use this to marinate meat, add to couscous and put in a favourite carrot salad, although it may need some caution - this might be very hot.
 |
| Harissa |
- chillies
I am coming to the end of my fresh chilli supply. It is a sad time of year, while I could keep the plants going over winter (and might), I am soon to lose all those fabulously bright red fruit.
I have already preserved this year's chilli glut in many ways - a sweet tomato chilli jam, a savoury chilli jam I call rocket fuel, red and green curry paste, two types of pickled chillies - one pickled with Chinese rice vinegar and one pickled with Western wine vinegar - and by freezing some. Today I made harissa a North African spice sauce.
Harissa
This is a recipe I quickly jotted down when I chanced upon a Christine Manfield mini cookbook in a cafe. I think it was a series that came free with one of the newspapers. The measurements are true to her recipe, but the method? I just made it up cause I didn't have a chance to write it down. The original recipe uses 75g dried chillies soaked, I simply replaced the dried ones with fresh ones and upped the amount a little to account for the water that would be absorbed.
100gm fresh chillies
2 teaspoons cumin seeds
1/4 teaspoon caraway seeds
2 large cloves of garlic
1 teaspoon salt
50ml tomato paste
100mls water
60 ml olive oil
Rough chop fresh chillies. Dry roast seeds and smash with a mortar and pestle. Put all ingredients, except the oil in a food processor and process.When it is a consistency you want, with the motor running, pour in oil a thin stream slowly as you would with making mayonnaise. It changes colour from a deep red to a dusky orange, strangely, exactly the same colour as my blog header...
Put in sterilised jar, cover with oil and store in fridge. I'll use this to marinate meat, add to couscous and put in a favourite carrot salad, although it may need some caution - this might be very hot.
Yum - My next lot of chillies and I'm making this.
ReplyDeleteI had it the other night with a carrot salad, it was yummy, but it was a little too hot. I'd make the harissa the same again but when I make the carrot salad next time, I will roast a capsicum and blend it with some harissa paste to take the heat down a bit.
Delete