Serves: n/a
Approx cost: €2
Approx calories (per tsp): ~15
Approx preparation and cooking time: 20 mins
If you love a bit of kick in your food you’re going to love harissa. I find the ready-made harissa you can buy in cans good, but they use the traditional type of chillies, which I find results in a dish which is brutally spicy – it’s literally a big ol’ pile of “heat” and nothing else. I like spicy things, but I find that it’s a little too much for me. As such, when I make harissa I tend to use habanero chillies – slightly sweeter and still very strong – perfectly capable of wrecking your day if you rub your eyes while chopping them. The thing I love most about them though is they have a beautiful fragrance. If you’ve got a tub of harissa made with habanero chillies sitting in your refrigerator you’ll know about it, that’s for sure. Every time you open the door you’ll be met with a beautiful fragrance which is just enticing you to eat more!
Eat with bread or cheese or work into meat, fish and vegetables, before roasting or grilling! Give it a try and tell me what you think!
Ingredients
- ~150g Antillean Habanero Chillies (if unavailable, substitute with similar spicy red chilli)
- ~140g Tomato Concentrate
- 3-4 cloves Garlic
- 2tsps Ground Cumin
- 2tsps Caraway Seeds
- 2tsps Salt
- 200ml Olive Oil
You’ll also need
- A Pestle and Mortar
- A Food Processor
Instructions
- Start by washing and cutting the tops away from the chillies. Cut each chilli in half lengthways and carefully remove all the seeds – you might want to try and wear gloves for this part!
- Set aside while place the caraway seeds into the Pestle and Mortar and grind. You won’t be able to crush them completely but do your best to smash them up a bit and release the flavours.
- Peel the garlic and place with the chillies, caraway seeds, salt flakes, cumin, tomato concentrate and 2 decilitres of Olive Oil in the Blender (or Food Processor) and blend until you have obtained a smooth paste – You may need to periodically stop and remove the lid and push any chunks down back towards the blades again to ensure even blending.
- When done, transfer to a suitable sized bowl or container. Pour the other 1 decilitre of Olive Oil on top so that the harissa is well covered. This will serve to keep out the air, thus making it last longer. Cover with foil or film and store in the refrigerator when not being used. You can use this for many things – spreading on bread, rubbing into meats, fish, vegetables such as aubergine, or even eating it with cheese! Enjoy!
This looks great. A worrying pile of chillies though. As in very large and scary looking.
I have found the best way to remove chilli heat from hands is not to bother with gloves, but to just IMMEDIATELY wash my hands with fairy washing up liquid after chopping the chillies. It seems to work. No idea why. I discovered it by accident. Clearly much more like paint stripper than normal soap…
Haha, I tried this… I tried a lot actually. Someone said rub lemon juice over your hands to get it off… so I did. Olive Oil, lemon juice, salt, washing, tried it all and it never seems to work for me 🙁 Although we can't get Fairy Liquid here, so I tried other brands. Maybe it's something specific to Fairy though!
Don't worry about the chillies… the good thing is, as long as the harissa is well covered with a layer of oil it keeps for ages in the fridge and only improves as the days go by!
Sorry Charles, forgot to add that you then refrain from touching anything for 24 hours, especially face, eyes, other sensitive areas. This ensures that you don't find out that the fairy liquid trick doesn't in fact work.
That’s such a pretty photo; the pepper looks like a flower, floating next to the harissa!
<3 Well, I'm convinced I make the best harissa in the world... just need other people to discover it now ;)
I’ve been curious about harissa since I saw someone making a Turkish menu and including the harissa in some buns to eat with a tagine. I’ll keep this recipe in mind though I have to look for the appropriate chilis.
Hi A_ – traditionally it’s not made with these chillies, but like I mentioned, I think these are by far the best chillies for this because they end up tasting so darn good. Thinly spread this on some good baguette, top with some brie cheese… totally awesome!
Being a Tunisian myself, I must say that it’s an interesting idea to use habaneros (500k SHU) while the hottest chilli we cook is no stronger than cayenne (30k).
Another difference with your recipe is we lightly steam chillies so that they become tender and easily crushed by mortar.
Also we never add tomatoes to harissa as it makes it spoil faster and gives it a sour taste after a week or so, is there any reason for using tomato?
Where can you find habaneros for less than €2?
Thank you
Mm, my father-in-law (from Tunisia) thinks it’s quite funny that I use tomato. I should note though that it’s tomato concentrate I’m using – not quite the same as fresh tomatoes. Concentrate is actually quite a common ingredient in commercial harissas sold in Europe so I worked from there.
As for “why” I used it… you don’t really taste the tomato at all once it’s combined with the chilli, and when mixed with habanero chillies, it gives the harissa a really nice flavour and aroma. I find “regular” harissa just too much otherwise. Brutal heat and mouth-burning, but this makes it very nice.
It won’t spoil (or taste sour) as long as its kept under oil in the refrigerator. The oil layer keeps out all the nasties and it will keep for a long time, but it will also freeze well!
I think harissa in Tunisia is made with dried chillies, hence the steaming… possibly not necessary when using fresh although I never tried.
Finally – I used to live in France where habaneros could be bought quite cheaply… I could buy a good bag for €1.50 or so, though they’re not really as cheap in the country I live in now 🙁