Cookfolio

Harissa is a Tunisian hot chilli paste made with sun dried red chilli peppers. Harissa is a condiment that is eaten daily in Tunisia and accompanies almost ever hot meal. I made two versions of harissa this year and it was really easy to do. The chilli peppers are dried in the summer heat on farms and sold on a string at markets all over Tunisia.

Ingredients batch #1:
dried red chilli peppers – 50cm string (no idea how many chilli’s)
head of garlic
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp tabil spice mix
olive oil

* Ingredients batch #2:
dried red chilli peppers – 50cm string
head of garlic
1 tsp salt
1 finely diced onion
½tsp dried coriander
½tsp dried cumin
olive oil

Method:
Soak the red chilli peppers in water for at least one day. Remove the seeds and stems. Be careful when cleaning the peppers as it stings if you touch your eyes etc. Put all of the ingredients into a food processor and add heaps of olive oil. Blend the ingredients to a paste, add more oil if needed. It will keep for weeks in the fridge, I recommend adding a layer of olive oil to keep it from going off.

* Blend 2, fry off the onion in olive oil and add spices towards the end of cooking.

The Tunisian Chilli peppers are one of the key cooking ingredients. Almost everybody eats them from young to old, all ages.