I make batches and batches of harissa, referring back to Kellies recipe every time, but playing with different chillies and making my own slight variations. I recently ordered a selection of dried chillies from Sous Chef and have been working may way through them and discovering the slight differences in flavours, as well as heat.
I previously made some harissa with the Mulato chillies, which have a chocolatey flavour, and are therefore used in mole sauces and dishes. They rendered my harissa a brown colour and were not very spicy, so I added a few Piquin chillies, the little red ones (not in the photo) that I had….and deleted the photos!!!
In this batch, I used the Pasilla chillies..
The flavour is good, without being too spicy, and as the jars sit in my fridge, the flavours continue to develop and the taste only gets better.
I am learning more and more about the various chillies and using them; these big dry chillies can just be ripped open to remove seeds really easily, or you can pull off the stalks and pour the seeds out, just roll the chilli between your fingers to release them. Then put the chillies into a pan of boiling water and simmer until they soften up sufficienlt, each type takes different amounts of time to soften.
This is also why I recently took receipt of more spices from Just Ingredients, just to add to my ever increasing stash of spices!! I mean, can one ever really have enough spices???? (Please say no!)
Just look at those colours!!!! Recently I’ve throughly enjoyed some lunches of baked sweet potato topped with harissa and tahini sauce…my oh my, what a collection of flavours!! Just gorgeous!
Yum!!!!
I hope you like my harissa explorations 🙂 see you tomorrow with another fab ‘What would you feed me?’ guest post xx
Loving your photos here, gorgeous! The chilli experimentation sounds fun. I’ve got some beautiful ancho chillies waiting for me to play with but just not had time to give them any thought 😦 Soon I hope!
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Thank you 🙂 I’m sure you’ll have fun when you do xx
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Gorgeous color for sure! I love using peppers too and no you can never have to many spices!
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Yay!!! Thank you xx
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Gorgeous pictures! Does it bother your eyes when you make this?
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Thank you 🙂 sometimes the chilli fumes can be a bit overpowering but not often and not badly.
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Love the vibrant color:-) looks yum
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Thank you 🙂
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I’ve always wanted to make harissa myself Elaine- I’m still a harissa ‘virgin’ (lol) but I love cooking with chiles and spicy food in general, so I’m really excited to see this post. Thank you 🙂
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My pleasure, I hope you like it x
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Really loving your harissa, I’ve never made it from scratch yours looks rich and delicious,
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Thank you 🙂
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Your harissa is gorgeous and beautiful Elaine 🙂 Have a great day xx
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Thank you 🙂 and you xxx
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Yum! I love harissa! hadn’t thought about making my own, I think I need to give your recipe a go
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Yay! Do it! You’ll never go back to buying premade 🙂
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It’s looking so yummy & gorgeous
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Thank you 🙂
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I love the colours!!! xxxx
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Thank you xx
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Noo! You can never have enough spices! Or chillies! I absolutely love your harissa posts – one day … one day …
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🙂 xx
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Dunno why I’m ‘liking’ it, Elaine – just the thought makes my tongue shrivel ! [grin]
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No!!! It’s not too spicy…
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Harissa ? – I have never heard other than its taking the roof off yer palate …
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Not how I make it…when you make your own, you can control the heat and the flavour 🙂
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In which case, it looks UTTERLY YUMMY !!!!
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I think you can generate more flavour with the other ingredients too if you take out the extreme heat 🙂
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I really don’t know how harissa tastes. I use very little hot pepper paste in my cooking quite often. Do they taste a lot different?
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You can get harissa paste that is just mega chilli hot, or ones, like this rose harissa, that have less chilli heat and, for me, you get to enjoy more of the other flavours. It can be tailored to your taste basically 🙂
I’ve made the really hot ones before too and they are too hot for me and it becomes all about the heat and not the flavour, that’s why I like Kellies recipe so much x
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So glad you like the recipe xxxx
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