Homemade Harissa (Spicy Red Pepper Paste)

Homemade Harissa (Spicy Red Pepper Paste)

Adapted from The New York Times

Note. Wear rubber gloves to stem and seed the chiles. Be also very careful not to touch your eyes or sensitive skin while you're dealing with chiles.

Ingredients

Yields about 1 cup

2 oz / 57 gr dried guajillo chiles, stemmed and seeded*

2 oz / 57 gr dried Anaheim chiles (or pasilla chiles) stemmed and seeded*

5 garlic cloves

½ teaspoon ground caraway seeds

¼ teaspoon ground coriander seeds

¼ teaspoon ground cumin seeds

1 teaspoon dried mint

1 teaspoon vinegar

1 ½ teaspoons fine grain salt

3 tablespoons olive oil, plus additional for topping

*if you can’t find these specific chiles use whatever hot dried chiles you can find.

Directions

Place chiles in a bowl and cover with hot (or boiling water). Place a small plate (or a lid) over the chiles to keep them submerged in the water.

Soak for 30 minutes, up to one hour, and drain.

In the bowl of a food processor add garlic cloves. Process until it is all chopped and adhering to the sides of the bowl. Stop and with a spatula scrape down the sides.

Add chiles, ground caraway seeds, coriander, cumin, dried mint, vinegar and salt. Process until everything is chopped and scrape down the sides.

Process again, and with the machine running add 2 tablespoons of water and the olive oil.

Process until the mixture is smooth, stopping to scrape down the sides if necessary.

Transfer paste to a jar. Wipe the inside edges of the jar with a paper towel and cover the harissa with a film of olive oil.

Refrigerate, topping off with more oil after each use. The harissa will keep up to 6 weeks in the refrigerator.