Rose Harissa Paste Recipes

ROSE HARISSA PASTE

Steps:

• In a mortar & pestle or food processor, pound or pulse the roasted red peppers into a paste-like consistency and transfer to a bowl.
• Add Rose Harissa spice, tomato paste, olive oil and rosewater. Mix well. Taste for seasoning and add salt if desired.
• Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to one month.
• Recipe makes approximately 1 cup.

HARISSA

Steps:

• Wear rubber gloves to seed the chilies. Take the stems off and remove the seeds. Place in a bowl and cover with hot or boiling water. Place a small plate or a lid over the chilies to keep them submerged in the water. Soak for 1 hour, and drain.
• Turn on a food processor fitted with the steel blade and drop in the garlic. When it is all chopped and adhering to the sides of the bowl, stop the machine and scrape down. Add the drained chilies, the spices and the salt. Process until everything is chopped. Stop the machine and scrape down the sides. Turn on again, and with the machine running add 2 tablespoons water and the olive oil. Process until the mixture is smooth, stopping to scrape down the sides if necessary.
• Transfer the sauce to a jar. Wipe the inside edges of the jar with a paper towel, then pour on a film of olive oil to cover the harissa. Top with a lid and refrigerate. The harissa will keep for 6 weeks in the refrigerator if you top it up with olive oil after each use.

HARISSA PASTE

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
• Remove stems from chili peppers and cut them in half. Remove all or some of the seeds if you want a milder harissa.
• Heat 1 teaspoon olive oil in a small frying pan over medium heat. Add caraway, cumin, and coriander and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir so the spices won't burn.
• Toss chili peppers, spices, 1/4 cup olive oil, and garlic in a baking dish large enough to fit chili peppers in one layer.
• Bake in the preheated oven until chili peppers are very soft but not burned, about 1 hour. Stir a few times to ensure even cooking. Let cool.
• Transfer to a food processor and puree until paste-like but still a little chunky. Season with salt.
• Spoon into a sterilized glass jar and level the top. Add enough olive oil so the surface is covered and the harissa won't dry out. Seal and refrigerate.

HOMEMADE ROSE HARISSA PASTE

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 220 °C (430 °F) for a non-fan oven. Reduce the heat accordingly if using a fan oven.
• Take your garlic bulb - or select 6 large cloves if you want it less garlicky - and remove some of the loose skins. But do not unpeel it all the way. Rub with olive oil and wrap it in foil.
• Cut the red peppers in half. Remove and discard the cores, veins and seeds. Then place the peppers skin-side up on a baking tray lined with parchment paper. Add the foil-covered garlic.
• Leave any small chillies whole for roasting. And cut large chillies in half if you want to scrape out the seeds and membranes for a milder harissa paste - or roast them whole too. Add the chillies to the tray containing the red peppers and garlic.
• Place the tray in the hot oven for 25 to 30 minutes until the red pepper skin is wrinkly and charred in places. Remove any small chillies, if using, after 15 minutes of roasting and rotate the tray before returning it to the oven.
• If you are using dried chillies, add them to a heatproof bowl and completely cover them with boiling water. Leave for 20 minutes to rehydrate. Once rehydrated, drain the soaking water, pull out the stems and remove the seeds of the large chillies - like ancho. Wear gloves if you are using your hands to remove the seeds! Roughly chop the flesh and set aside until needed.
• Once roasted, pile the peppers on a plate and cover with an upside-down heatproof mixing bowl, or use cling film. You want them to steam a little while they cool down so that the skins are easier to peel off. Leave aside until cool enough to handle.
• Place a large pan on medium-high heat and, once hot, toast the spices until fragrant and popping - about 3 minutes. This pan should be sufficiently large - at least 28 cm (11 inches) - and high sided. You will reuse it to reduce the red pepper paste. Shake the pan from time to time for even toasting. Tip the toasted spices into a spice grinder (or mortar and pestle) and blitz until ground.
• Once the roasted peppers are cool enough to handle, remove their skins. Most of the skin should come off without effort. You can leave the small stubborn pieces. Open the foil parcel - be mindful of steam when hot - and pop out the garlic cloves. They won't be completely soft, but they will already be sweeter. Pick 6 to 8 large garlic cloves and store the rest in the fridge for quick weeknight flavour boosters. Or - if you are feeling particularly garlicky - use all the cloves.
• Roughly chop the garlic, peeled peppers and chillies. Add them to a food processor with the rehydrated chillies, spices and a tablespoon of lemon juice. Blitz everything together into a coarse paste, scraping down the sides if needed.
• Place 5 tablespoons of olive oil in the large pan you used for toasting spices. Add the red pepper mixture from the food processor and place the pan on medium heat. Add the rose petals and half of the rose water. Stir until the paste and oil are combined and bring to a simmer. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer, uncovered. Cook for 30 to 40 minutes, stirring occasionally. The paste is ready once the mixture is darker and there is no more liquid from the peppers, only the wonderfully flavoured red oil seeping from the paste. Add 1 teaspoon of salt and the remaining rose water. Taste and season with more salt if necessary. Don't be alarmed, the spiciness will subside a touch once it cools down!
• Transfer the paste to a sterilised glass jar and cover it with olive oil. The olive oil helps to preserve the paste. Store the sealed container in the fridge for a month. You can also freeze the paste in an ice cube tray for quick pops of flavour.

PANFRIED SEA BASS WITH HARISSA & ROSE

Steps:

• First marinate the fish. Mix together the harissa paste, the ground cumin, and 1/2 teaspoon salt in a small bowl. Rub the paste all over the fish fillets and leave them to marinate for 2 hours in the fridge.
• Dust the fillets with a little flour and shake off the excess. Heat the olive oil in a wide frying pan over medium-high-heat and fry the fillets for 2 minutes on each side. You may need to do this in two batches. Set the fish aside, leave the oil in the pan, and add the onions. Stir as you cook for about 8 minutes, until the onions are golden.
• Add the remaining harissa, the vinegar, the cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and plenty of black pepper. Pour in the water, lower the heat, and let the sauce simmer gently for 10 to 15 minutes, until quite thick.
• Add the honey and rose water to the pan along with the currants, if using, and simmer gently for a couple more minutes. Taste and adjust the seasoning and then return the fish fillets to the pan; you can slightly overlap them if they don't quite fit. Spoon the sauce over the fish and leave them to warm up in the simmering sauce for 3 minutes; you may need to add a few tablespoons of water if the sauce is very thick. Serve warm for at room temperature, sprinkled with the cilantro, if using, and the rose petals.