Ingredient

Harissa

Harissa is a North African paste of chilli, garlic, spice and oil — Tunisian in origin, though versions are made across the Maghreb. It is warm rather than searing, aromatic from caraway and coriander, and it is one of the most versatile things you can keep in a fridge.

What is in it

Dried red chillies, rehydrated and pounded, with garlic, salt and olive oil as the base. What makes it recognisably harissa rather than a generic chilli paste is the spice: caraway above all, plus coriander seed and often cumin. Caraway is the note that identifies it and the one most missing from imitations.

Tunisian harissa is typically made with a specific dried chilli, is fairly hot, and is quite dry and dense — a paste you scoop rather than pour. Many jarred versions sold in Britain are milder, wetter and sweeter, sometimes with tomato or red pepper bulking them out, which is not wrong but is a different product.

Rose harissa adds dried rose petals, which give a floral note and a slightly sweeter, rounder character. It is a genuine variant rather than a marketing invention, and it is excellent, but it is not the default.

How to use it

• Stirred into stews, soups and tagines at the beginning, so the spices have time to open out.
• In a marinade for chicken, lamb or fish, loosened with oil and lemon.
• On roasted vegetables — carrots, cauliflower, aubergine, squash — thinned with oil before tossing.
• Whisked into yoghurt for a dip or a dressing, where the dairy softens the heat considerably.
• Through couscous, or stirred into the broth that goes over it.
• In shakshuka, added to the tomato base.
• On eggs, in a sandwich, through mayonnaise, on a burger — it works far outside North African cooking.
• Fried briefly in oil before liquid goes in, like any spice paste, which improves it noticeably.
• Thinned before it goes on anything. Neat harissa is dense and salty and distributes badly.

Harissa against the other pastes

Harissa

North African. Chilli, garlic, caraway, coriander, oil. Warm, aromatic, moderately hot, oily. Not sweet, not fermented.

Gochujang

Korean. Fermented, sweet, thick, deeply savoury. Different in almost every respect.

Sriracha

Thai-American. Thin, vinegary, garlicky, sweet. A sauce rather than a paste.

Sambal oelek

Indonesian. Chilli and salt, sometimes vinegar. Simple, hot, no spice blend. Closest to a pure chilli paste.

Chilli crisp

Chinese. Oil-based with crisp fried aromatics. Textural, savoury, a condiment rather than a cooking paste.

Substituting

For harissa: chilli paste plus ground caraway, coriander, garlic and olive oil. The caraway is the part you cannot skip.

Making your own

Better than most jars, keeps for weeks, and the only real work is soaking the chillies.

1. Choose dried red chillies with some fruitiness rather than pure heat — a mixture is good. Remove the stems and most of the seeds.
2. Cover them with boiling water and leave for twenty to thirty minutes until soft and pliable. Keep a little of the soaking water.
3. Toast caraway, coriander and cumin seeds in a dry pan until fragrant, then grind them. Caraway is the one that makes it harissa rather than a generic chilli paste.
4. Blitz or pound the drained chillies with the ground spices, garlic, salt and a good glug of olive oil, adding soaking water until it moves.
5. Taste and adjust. It should be salty, aromatic and warm rather than simply hot.
6. Pack into a clean jar and cover the surface with a film of olive oil, which keeps air off. Refrigerated, it keeps for weeks — top up the oil each time you take some out.

Common questions