Food, Home & Lifestyle
Main Courses: Roasted Cauliflower With Harissa Chili Oil
Lesson time 23:10 min
Cauliflower is a humble vegetable capable of an intense sweetness and depth. Yotam prepares another spicy condiment, harissa, then shows you how to get the most flavor possible into and out of your cauliflower.
Students give MasterClass an average rating of 4.7 out of 5 stars
Topics include: Rose Harissa • Making the Cauliflower
Teaches Modern Middle Eastern Cooking
James Beard Award–winning chef Yotam Ottolenghi teaches you his recipes for delicious Middle Eastern platters layered with color and flavor.
Sign UpPreview
[00:00:09.07] - This is one intense cauliflower dish. The cauliflower is doused with harissa, with chiles, with onion. It's certainly not shy on flavors. [00:00:30.51] I'm going to make harissa, which is a North African, specifically Tunisian, chile paste. It's wonderful as a condiment. But it's actually really good in stews. I add it into fish stews. I put it into soups, into lamb stews. It is one of the most renowned and most delicious chile pastes in the world. [00:00:53.80] You can buy them in jars, but it's not half as fun as it is to make it your own. And I'll tell you more about it as I cook it. But I'm going to start by toasting lots of chiles and some garlic. So I've got some of these chiles. [00:01:09.30] The pan is really hot. These are just plain what they call Middle Eastern chiles. I like to use Kashmiri chiles. You can use guajillo chiles as well. As long as they're not super hot, that's what you want. [00:01:26.98] And I've got ancho chiles there as well. And the ancho will give it depth and that kind of sweet, tobacco-y flavor. And those other chilies are going to give you a bit of the heat and the color. That's what we're doing. [00:01:40.77] So I traveled to Tunisia a few years ago, and to Cape Bon, which is where harrisa, the chiles are grown and the harissa is made. And I went to see a couple of sisters that made their own harissa. And as soon as I saw the process, which involved drying chiles in the sun and then rehydrating them and then cooking them-- and they cooked it in a meat mincer to get a particular texture-- I knew I fell in love. [00:02:07.08] That is the kind of condiment you want to make. And I'm kind of emulating it here now with quite a few shortcuts. But still, I'm doing my best to do it as they do in Tunisia. [00:02:20.73] So I'm going to take all my chiles now that have been nice and toasted. And I'm kind of tasting them and smelling them, which is the right sign. And they're also starting to change color. [00:02:31.97] The garlic cloves I'm just going to pick out at this stage, because I'm going to rehydrate my chiles and the garlic doesn't need rehydration, and all the chiles go into this bowl. And this-- all this smoke that comes out is just wonderful, because it really smells of chiles. [00:02:55.70] These chiles are here. They're nice and toasted. And I'm just going to cover them with some boiling water to rehydrate them just enough to cover. [00:03:08.45] And then once you've got that, I'm going to weigh it down with a plate. And the plate just holds the chiles under the water and allow them to draw all this moisture in. And really, dried chiles are just concentrated with flavor. All these flavors will come to life now. [00:03:29.54] I've got some coriander seeds that I'm toasting, cumin seeds, and caraway seeds. You can just do it in the same pan in which you've toasted your chiles. And this is a very hot pan. So they're actually starting to dance straight away. I call them the dancing spic...
About the Instructor
One of the most influential chefs working today, Yotam Ottolenghi creates dishes that layer color and flavor for maximum impact. Now the James Beard Award winner teaches you simple steps for making and mixing Middle Eastern–inspired recipes. Learn how to make generous platters—mezze and brunch spreads to homemade condiments, stunning stand-alones, and delicious vegetables—so you can entertain with ease.
Featured MasterClass Instructor
Yotam Ottolenghi
James Beard Award–winning chef Yotam Ottolenghi teaches you his recipes for delicious Middle Eastern platters layered with color and flavor.
Explore the Class