What Took You So Long?

so easy to make

At one point in my life I carried a tube of store-bought harissa with me all the time, in my purse. At restaurants I would covertly pull it out of my bag, like in those fat-free salad dressing advertisements, and add it to whatever I thought needed it.

Recently I bought a jar of harissa at the Oakville Grocery, and while I have been using it, I find it overly salty, probably because the manufacturers use preserved lemon in the recipe. So, I thought I'd make my own maybe to hand out as favors at Thanksgiving to eat all by myself. (Organic heirloom turkey has been ordered. Phew.)

My cousin R., tells me that when our grandfather Pepe Henri used to make harissa, he used a meat grinder, which is something that I remember my great-grandmother doing as well. I decided I'd try out my meat grinder with an eye to making a chunky harissa.

The result: total disaster. My Kenwood has finally let me down. Maybe it grinds meat well though; I'll have to try making sausage one of these days. Mmmm: lamb, mint and harissa sausage.

The final product was made in a food processor but if you must go all old school, you could do it in a mortar or a molcajete. I tried to keep mine fairly coarse, and it's one of the most delicious things I think I've ever made. What took me so long?

Harissa Inspired by Pepe ("Grandfather") Henri

Ingredients

8 oz of dried red chiles (I used Mojave's Hot New Mexico peppers, which you can find in most supermarkets in California; there was a fair amount of peppers left over so I reconstituted them and I'm freezing them for the next batch)
Appx 8 cups of boiled, or nearly boiled, water
3 anaheim peppers, sliced any way and seeded
2 bunches of cilantro
peeled cloves from two heads of garlic (or less. or more. up to you.)
3 tsp of ground, roasted cumin
2 tsp of ground roasted coriander seeds
1/2 - 3/4 cup of olive oil (or more, to taste)
Juice of one lemon (or more, depending on taste)
Salt
Optional: Mint

Put the dried peppers in a large bowl and cover with hot water for about 30 minutes; when done, put gloves on and remove the peppers from the water. Remove stems from all of the peppers; leave seeds in or, if you want to cut some of the heat, remove some of the seeds. Toast and grind the coriander and cumin seeds separately. Put all of the ingredients except salt, lemon juice and olive oil into a food processor; grind until semi-coarse; add salt, lemon juice and oil to taste. Refrigerate. Share, if you have to.


Upcoming, beside turkey and the fixings: peanut butter sandwich cookies.