Easy Harissa Recipe ***

Basically, harissa is a hot, fiery paste, or sauce, that is popular in North African cooking, especially in Tunisia, Algeria and Morroco, and, every household will, more than likely, have its own particular recipe for harissa.

The main ingredients of any harissa recipe are chilli peppers, garlic, cumin and coriander which are combined with oil to give a fiery paste which can be used as a condiment, dip or stirred into dishes such as Moroccan Tagines and couscous to give them an aromatic and distinctive chilli flavor.

Of course you can buy harissa ready made, but the recipe is easy to follow and, I think, satisfying to make your own.

Ingredients for the harissa paste:

• 8 whole dried red chillies (deseeded)
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• 4 tablespoons olive oil

First of all you need to soften the dried chillies so put them into a bowl, cover them with hot water and leave them soaking for around an hour. Then tip away the water and squeeze the chillies to remove any excess water.

Now, you have two choices, you can either:

Grind the chillies, garlic and salt, to make a paste, using a pestle and mortar

or the really easy way

Put the chillies, garlic and salt into a mini chopper and whizz until you have a paste.

To finish off the harissa, stir in the ground cumin and coriander and mix the paste together with the olive oil.

Store the harissa in a sealed jar, in the refrigerator, and it should keep for about a month.

Once you have made your basic harissa paste you can either leave it as it is, or, you can add other ingredients to suit your taste. In the past I have altered the recipe just by adding one of the following ingredients to the basic harissa paste:

• 1 teaspoon of fennel seeds
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh coriander
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh mint

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