The Ottolenghi Test Kitchen’s Rose Harissa
Learn to make flavour-packed rose harissa from scratch with this failsafe recipe from the Ottolenghi Test Kitchen team.
From the book
Ottolenghi Test Kitchen: Extra Good Things
Flexibility, flavour, and future-proofing your cooking
From simple midweek dinners to complex showstopper meals
Enjoy a little something extra to transform your next meal
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Introduction
We’re quite lucky in the UK to have access to perfectly delicious rose harissa on supermarket shelves. But making it yourself is also a treat, and a great way to up or lower the spices as you wish.
Ingredients
| 4 | garlic cloves, peeled |
| 40g | dried Kashmiri chillies (or another dried mild red chilli), stems and seeds discarded |
| 25g | dried ancho chillies, stems and seeds removed |
| 2 tsp | cumin seeds, roughly crushed with a pestle and mortar |
| 1 tbsp | coriander seeds, roughly crushed with a pestle and mortar |
| 1½ tsp | caraway seeds, roughly crushed with a pestle and mortar |
| 1½ tsp | Kashmiri chilli powder or paprika |
| 1 tbsp | tomato paste |
| 120ml | olive oil, plus extra to seal |
| 1½ tsp | flaked sea salt |
| 1½ tsp | caster sugar |
| 1 tbsp | dried rose petals |
| 2 tbsp | lemon juice |
| 4 tbsp | apple cider vinegar |
| 2 tsp | rose water |
Method
Ventilate your kitchen well. Place a large frying pan on a high heat and, once very hot, add the garlic and cook for 3 minutes, or until charred on the outside. Transfer to a chopping board and roughly chop. To the same pan, still on a high heat, add the chillies and toast until fragrant, about a minute, then transfer to a heatproof bowl. Pour enough boiling water over the chillies to cover and weigh them down with a small plate. Leave for 30 minutes, to soften and rehydrate, then strain through a sieve (saving the chilli water for another use). Set the pan aside to cool slightly.
Return the pan to a medium-high heat, add the crushed cumin, coriander and caraway seeds, the Kashmiri chilli, tomato paste and 2 tablespoons of the oil and cook, stirring all the while, for 2–3 minutes, until fragrant and deeply red. Transfer the mixture to a food processor along with the salt, sugar, rose petals, chopped garlic, rehydrated chillies, lemon juice, vinegar, rose water and 2 tablespoons of the oil, and pulse until you have a coarse paste, scraping down the sides of the bowl a couple of times throughout. Stir in the remaining 4 tablespoons of oil.
Transfer the mixture to a sterilised jar and refrigerate if not using right away. Top the harissa with more oil to seal (this’ll help it keep for longer).
Keep in a sealed, sterilised jar in the fridge for up to 2 months. Keep the mixture sealed with olive oil and use a clean spoon every time you dip into it. – Use in place of storebought ‘rose harissa’ for any recipe in the history of Ottolenghi books!
Reviews
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