Semiserious Chefs

This is absolutely my new favorite sauce. For two reasons: I LOVE roasted red peppers (if you can’t tell by my many uses of them in recipes) and I LOVE hotsauce! (Well three because I love tomato juice as well.) I want to put this stuff on EVERYTHING! On sandwiches, in soups, on noodles, in my hummus, on an omelet, on crackers with meat, on meat with meat! …I’m going to have to make huge batches monthly just to keep up with myself.

Statue of Our Lady of Harissa

So what is Harissa, (besides a terrible name choice for your firstborn)? The name is the same as a mountain village in Lebannon. The sauce, however, is common all over northern Africa, namely Tunisia, and varies as widely as it ranges. The basic ingredients are roasted red pepper, sarrano or other hot peppers, oil, garlic, and spices. These can include everything from cumin, or paprika, to coriander, caraway, or lemon.

My first introduction to Harissa was a sample table at our wonderful, locally owned Summit Spice and Tea. Immediately, (after taking a few more “samples” of it) I wrote down the ingredients. Which included tomato. It isn’t very often that I can remember a flavor in my mouth that I have only had a little sample of, but this was TOTALLY hanging around my mind. I was very excited then when I found that a local house of bread, The House of Bread, also sold it, though a different brand. Sure, now wielding a gift card, I will certainly by this 9 dollar bottle of sauce. This time I did not look at the ingredients. I did not write them down.

Now, when I mentioned earlier that it is well known [to everyone else] that the flavors in harissa vary from region to region, and that some people (the wrong ones) like to use cumin in their recipe… Yes, well they do. And these ‘people’ did. And if anyone wants the rest of that bottle I will gladly hand it over… along with a jar of my harissa which does NOT include cumin!

Now don’t get me wrong. I love cumin… in tacos and chili. Things that come from this hemisphere (…and perhaps in some curries), but I do not, apparently, like it in harissa.

Long story short I absolutely loved making this recipe. It includes several of my personal favorite ingredients, and has just a little spin making it my own. It’s quite easy to make, especially if you buy roasted red peppers in a jar, and can be used in practically anything.