Food, Home & Lifestyle
Homemade Condiments: Rose Harissa
Lesson time 10:25 min
Learn how to make this renowned Tunisian chili paste.
Students give MasterClass an average rating of 4.7 out of 5 stars
Topics include: Rose Harissa
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.
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[00:00:00.00] [MUSIC PLAYING] [00:00:06.15] - I'm going to make harissa, which is a North African, specifically Tunisian, chili paste. It's wonderful as a condiment. But it's actually really good in stews. [00:00:18.99] I add it into fish stews. I put it into soups, into lamb stews. It is one of the most renowned and most delicious chili paste in the world. [00:00:29.47] 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 chilies and some garlic. [00:00:41.67] So I've got some of these chilies. The pan is really hot. These are just plain what they call Middle Eastern chilies. I like to use Kashmiri chilies. You can use guajillo chilies as well. [00:00:57.75] As long as they're not super hot, that's what you want. And I've got some ancho chilis 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. [00:01:16.44] So I travel to Tunisia a few years ago. And , which is where harissa-- the chilies are grown and the harissa is made. And I went to see a couple of sisters that made their own harissa. [00:01:28.93] And, as soon as I saw the process, which involves drying chilies 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. That is the kind of condiment you want to make. [00:01:45.30] 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. So I'm going to take all my chilies, now, that have been nice and toasted. [00:02:00.09] And I'm kind of tasting them and smelling them, which is the right sign. And they're also starting to change color. The garlic cloves, I'm just going to pick out at this stage because I'm going to rehydrate my chilies. And the garlic doesn't need rehydration. [00:02:18.54] And all the chilies go into this bowl. And there's all this smoke that comes out is just wonderful because it really smells of chilies. The chilies are here. They're nice and toasted. [00:02:34.67] And I'm just going to cover them with some boiling water to rehydrate them, just enough to cover. And then, once you've got that, I'm going to weight it down with a plate. And the plate just holds the chilies under the water and allow them to draw all this moisture in. [00:02:58.25] And, really, dried chilies are just concentrated with flavor. All these flavors will come to life now. 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 toasted your chilies. [00:03:19.85] And this is a very hot pan, so they're actually starting to dance straight away. I call them the dancing spices. And the amazing thing is that, as soon as they come into contact wi...
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.
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Yotam Ottolenghi
James Beard Award–winning chef Yotam Ottolenghi teaches you his recipes for delicious Middle Eastern platters layered with color and flavor.
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