Last Night’s Menu:
* Marinated chicken skewers with Harissa and Hummus dipping sauces
* Root vegetable tagine served on a bed of whole wheat cous cous
* Israeli-style salad (means lots of cucumber, tomato, green onion)
* Bittersweet chocolate and pear cake, with brown butter! (recipe via Smitten Kitchen of course)
You guys, homemade Harissa is a revelation.
I’ve had goopy, too thick, too cumin-y, gross Harissas. This was none of those things:
Harissa Dipping Sauce Recipe
Adapted from Food & Wine Magazine, November 2010
*Technically, I think Harissa is traditionally more of a chili paste. This is more red pepper dip, but whatever, call it red sauce if you feel like it. I care less about the name, and more about the taste. This tastes good.
– 3 Whole Roasted Red Peppers (You can buy these in a jar or at a deli counter, but it’s easy to roast them yourself if you’re in the mood)
– 1/2 Tsp Cumin
– 1/2 Tsp Coriander
– 1/2 Tsp Caraway
– Thai Chili (I chopped up about 1/2 a tsp, but if you like spicy, go crazy)
– 1 garlic clove
– 2-3 Tablespoons Olive Oil
– Juice of 1/2 a large lemon (or to taste)
– Salt and Pepper
Food and Wine will tell you to toast whole cumin, coriander and caraway seeds, and then grind those suckers. I didn’t have a spice grinder (or coffee grinder – which is the exact same thing), so I used pre-ground (but fresh!) spices. If you’re going to grind your spices, use a whole teaspoon of each kind of spice.
Mince your chili pepper and garlic.
Use a food processor, blender, or an immersion blender and combine all the ingredients until you blend the Harissa to your liking. I’m not interested in perfectly smooth, so my Harissa wasn’t
Instead of chicken skewers, you could marinate and cook some tofu or seitan to dip in the sauce. Lamb would be delicious too. Hummus is a nice complimentary sauce to serve alongside Harissa.
The second revelation came from this Root Vegetable Tagine:
This dish is savory, but has a surprising sweetness to it. The yams and parsnips released their juices and made something incredible. It looks sort of mundane, but this dish is so delicious. Naturally sweet, filling, aromatic, autumnal, yum.
Adapted from, Bon Appetit Oct. 2010. I added parsnip, and took away one of the turnips they recommend. My chickpeas were plain, not spice roasted. I didn’t grind my spices. I added extra garlic. I omitted preserved lemon (I may reconsider this in the future). Otherwise, I followed the recipe.
To end the meal…cake!
