Homemade Harissa

Ever since I read Marcus Samuelsson's cookbooks Yes, Chef and Marcus Off Duty, I've come to respect the preparation and style of cuisine that includes ingredients such as teff (used to make fermented injera bread) or harissa (an African spice paste made from fresh or dried chiles).

Harissa made from dried chiles is not hard to make; though if you want to live vicariously, you can de-stem and unseed the chile pods before soaking them in hot water. The suggested chili ratio comes from Smitten Kitchen. When I was collecting dried chiles for this recipe, I just got whatever the store had -and- I had to check several local stores for them. I'm not a big fan of spicy hot foods; though damp and/or humid Pacific Northwest weather is often a good combination to spice things up.

As a spicy condiment, use it where you'd use ketchup or other savory sauces.

Makes: 2.5 cups

The Foodening Blog: Making Harissa

Ingredients

2 oz dried negro chiles
1 oz dried California red chiles
1 oz dried ancho chiles
2.5 oz sun dried tomatoes (not packed in oil)
1 large red bell pepper, roasted and skinned, stem and seeds removed
2-3 garlic cloves, minced
3/4 tsp ground coriander or 1.5 tsp whole coriander seeds
1/2 tsp ground caraway or 1 tsp caraway seeds
1/2 tsp ground cumin or 1 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp kosher sea salt
1 tbsp olive oil, plus more for storage

Directions

0. Preheat oven to 350 F and roast a red bell pepper for about an hour. You could rotate the bell pepper every 15 minutes, but I've found this is a waste of time.

1. In a small cast-iron pan, toast whole coriander seeds, caraway seeds, and salt together over medium heat (1-2 minutes, or until coriander seeds become lightly browned). Transfer salt and spices to a coffee grinder and grind into a powder. Set aside until ready to use.

Don't just eyeball chiles by what you think they weigh. Use a digital scale and measure them as their dried de-stemmed weight. Then unseed the pods.

2. In a large 2-quart (or larger) metal or glass bowl, add dried tomatoes and dried chiles. Pour boiling water on top and let sit for 30 minutes or more until the items have rehydrated.

Use a colander to drain out the excess water.

3. In the bowl of a food processor, combine red bell pepper, tomatoes, chiles, spice blend, garlic and olive oil. Pulse until it looks pureed.

4. Transfer paste to a clean glass jar and top with olive oil. Store in the refrigerator until ready to use.

Kitchen Notes: Salsa

Last year I forgot to write up the ingredient ratios for salsa. It was a really tasty batch too. This year, my local produce market had vine tomatoes on sale for $0.69/lb. I haven't seen prices like that since the early 2000s in southern California. Plus, Kerr jars were on sale as well and I picked up five cases of jars. Crazy huh?

The only thing I remember from last year's ratio was that I had more tomatoes than jalapenos which was my primary deviation from Harold Shifflett's video recipe. I also halved the salt.

Also last year, I made salsa with roasted hatch chilies. It was so tasty that it never got to the canning process. I ate it all. Whoops. 

Batch #1 yield: 5 pints, one half-pint

No Knead Pizza Dough

This dough recipe comes from Jim Lahey's book My Pizza. It wasn't until the second ball of dough that I decided to take some pics and write up this recipe post. I am also still lacking basic materials to make pizza; but I have some great workarounds. No pizza stone? No problem. Use the reverse side of a heavy baking sheet as your "stone" surface. It won't take the open flame of the broiler, but that's okay because we're not using the broiler either. Pizza dough is extremely cheap and easy to make.

This batch makes 4 pizzas; each dough ball can be shaped into a 10" round.

No Knead Pizza Dough & a simple pizza

Ingredients

500 grams (by weight) all purpose flour
1/4 tsp active dry yeast
2 tsp fine sea salt
1 1/2 c filtered water

Directions

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, salt, and yeast. Add 1 1/2 cups of water and stir to combine. Cover with a plate and set the bowl in a warm place in the kitchen.

18 hours later....

Dump dough out onto a floured surface. Shape into a large boule and divide into four equal portions. With each ball, flatten the ball with the palm of your hand, then fold each side to the center, one fold at a time. Gather the pleats at the bottom and gently roll into a ball shape. Dump each folded ball into a sealable plastic bag and store in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.

For each pizza, start by putting one of the dough balls onto a floured surface. Use your knuckles to gently stretch out the dough into a 6" to 8". I have not been able to make a circle and the farthest I got was 10" by 8" rectangle.

Top with basic pizza sauce so that the sauce is within 3/4" of the edge of the dough. Add whatever ingredients you want on top.

Tomato Pie

After topping with basic pizza sauce, add fresh oregano leaves. Bake for 15 minutes at 400 F.

Margarita Pizza

2-4 oz fresh mozzarella, divided into blobs and scattered evenly on top of the dough
5 fresh basil leaves, to put on the pizza after it comes out of the oven
(optional) 1/4 c fresh Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, grated

Bake for 15 minutes at 400 F.

At 20 minutes (too long!), the mozz turns from melted to marshmallow burned (dark, crusty golden brown). But, the pizza crust has a crispy texture.

AB Guacamole

Despite how "healthy" avocados are, they are still a luxury good in my basket and I usually eat them raw with a dash of soy sauce when I do have them in stock. One batch of guacamole costs about the same as what it would at the grocery store; and the reason why I never buy it from the store is because guacamole is always laced with onions. The avocados make guacamole plenty green, so really there is no need to add cilantro, unless you like added greens to an already green dip.

Guacamole Ingredients

This ratio is adapted from Alton Brown's take on guacamole, except it lacks onions and cilantro:

Ingredients

3 ripe avocados, pits removed
2 ripe red tomatoes, cores and seeds removed, diced
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 green jalapeno, seeded and diced
1/2 tsp each: kosher salt, ground cumin, cayenne pepper
2 tbsp lime juice

Directions

1. In a large bowl, scoop out avocado pulp and mix with lime juice.

2. Add salt and spices. Mash together until avocado is all mashed up.

3. Add jalapeno and tomato. Fold into avocado mixture until well combined.

4. Let sit at room temperature for an hour before serving.

Guacamole: Ready to Eat!

Basic Tomato Sauce (for pizza)

This recipe goes with the no knead pizza dough recipe. It is so basic that you wonder why it exists at all as a recipe. This comes from Jim Lahey's book My Pizza. At the time I made the sauce, I didn't have fresh tomatoes on hand.

Ingredients

One 15 oz can of organic diced tomatoes
1/4 tsp fine sea salt
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Directions

Using your hands squish the tomatoes together. Squish! Squish! 

Stir in salt and olive oil. Set aside until ready to use.