If you want to spice up your food, fill your house with amazing aromas and create two versatile, ultra-flavourful ingredients, prepare harissa and dukkah.
The Oxford Companion to Food says harissa is a spicy red paste of chilies used throughout North Africa. It’s now also popular in North America. It’s often made with dried peppers, which are soaked and reconstituted, but can also be made with fresh peppers, as I prepared it.
Harissa has been made for eons and what gets blended with the peppers can vary from cook to cook. I have a number of Middle Eastern cookbooks that have recipes for harissa and no two were the same. But items added can include toasted spices, onion and garlic, lemon and olive oil.
Harissa is traditionally served alongside bread, stews and dishes made with couscous, but in modern kitchens, it can be used in many other ways.
For example, make a dip by mixing harissa with yogurt, mayonnaise or hummus. Flavour chicken wings or legs, fish fillets or vegetables by coating them with harissa before roasting. Coat and marinate lamb roasts with harissa before cooking. Kick up the flavour of a pizza, burger, sandwich, omelette, soup, salad or pasta by topping, tossing or flavouring them with harissa.
The New Food Lover’s Companion says dukkah, pronounced “DOO-kah,” is an Egyptian spice blend comprising toasted seeds and nuts. As with harissa, how dukkah is made can vary. My version blends toasted and chopped hazelnuts and pistachios with sesame seeds, toasted and ground spices, salt and pepper.
It’s a very tasty mixture that’s traditionally served as a snack/side-dish with olive oil and bread. You dip pieces of the bread in the oil, dip the bread in the dukkah and then devour it. You can also do the same with raw vegetables.
Dukkah can also be sprinkled on, or mixed into, hummus or salads. You can also sprinkle it on steamed or roasted vegetables, stews, eggs, soup or any other suitable dish after cooking to bolster their flavour.
To make the eye-appealing appetizer platter shown in the photo above, I served harissa and dukkah with bread, olive oil, olives and labneh, an easy-to-make fresh cheese made with strained yogurt. Today’s recipe was made with Vancouver Island water buffalo yogurt, which yields labneh that has an incredibly smooth and creamy texture.
Harissa
This North African-style mixture is boldly flavoured and can be used as a condiment or flavouring. See page C3 for suggestions. This recipe could be doubled.
Preparation time: 25 minutes, plus cooling time
Cooking time: 45 to 47 minutes
Makes: about 1 cup
1 large red bell pepper
3/4 tsp cumin seeds
3/4 tsp coriander seeds
3 Tbsp olive oil (divided), plus more if needed
1/2 cup diced onion
3 large garlic cloves, sliced
1 to 3 small (about 2 1/2 inch long), slender, hot, fresh red chili peppers, stems removed, flesh sliced (see Note)
2 tsp tomato paste
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1/2 tsp salt
Preheat oven to 450 F. Set the bell pepper in a shallow baking dish. Roast, turning a few times during cooking, until pepper begins to char and blister, about 30 minutes. Cover pan with foil and let pepper cool 25 minutes. Now peel the skin off the pepper. Cut pepper in half and remove and discard the seeds.
Place cumin and coriander seeds in a skillet set over medium heat. Heat the seeds a few minutes until lightly toasted and aromatic. Grind those seeds to a powder in a spice grinder or with a mortar and pestle.
Place 2 Tbsp of the olive oil in the skillet you toasted the seeds in and set over medium heat. Add onion, garlic and chilies and cook 10 minutes, until onions are browned and almost caramelized.
Place onion, garlic and chilies, remaining 1 Tbsp oil, ground spices, roasted bell pepper, tomato paste, lemon juice, paprika and salt in a food processor or blender and pulse until smooth. Add a bit more oil, if mixture is too thick. Cool harissa to room temperature. Transfer to a jar, cover and refrigerate for up to two weeks.
Note: Fresh red chilies, such as serrano or Thai chilies, are sold at many supermarkets. Adding one to the harissa will make it medium in spice level. Adding three will give it a nice, spicy kick.
Dukkah
Serve this nut/spice blend with olive oil and bread for dipping, or use to flavour other foods. See story for suggestions.
Preparation time: 20 minutes, plus cooling time
Cooking time: about 28 minutes
Makes: about 1 1/2 cups
1/2 cup hazelnuts
2 Tbsp cumin seeds
2 Tbsp coriander seed
1/3 cup shelled, unsalted pistachios (see Note)
1/3 cup sesame seeds
2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp flaked sea salt
Preheat oven top 350 F. Place hazelnuts in a single layer in a baking pan. Bake 20 minutes, or until skins start to slightly crack. Tightly cover pan with foil and leave at room temperature 30 minutes.
Uncover hazelnuts. Loosen and remove skins by firmly rubbing the nuts together in your hands (don’t worry if a few bits of skin remain on the hazelnuts.)
Place pistachios in a skillet and set over medium heat. Heat a few minutes, until lightly toasted. Place pistachios and skinned hazelnuts in a food processor and pulse until coarsely chopped. Transfer nuts to a medium bowl.
Place sesame seeds in the skillet you toasted the pistachios in, set over medium heat and heat the seeds a few minutes, until lightly toasted. Add sesame seeds to the bowl with the nuts.
Place cumin and coriander seeds in skillet the sesame seeds were toasted in and set over medium heat. Heat the seeds a few minutes, until lightly toasted. Grind seeds in a spice grinder or with a mortar and pestle to a powder that still has tiny bits of coriander seeds still visible.
Add the ground spices, pepper and salt to the nuts and sesame seeds and toss to combine. Cool mixture to room temperature. Transfer to a jar, cover and store at cool temperature until need. Dukkah will keep at least a month.
Note: Shelled pistachios are sold in the bulk food section of some supermarkets and bulk food stores. I bought them at Thrifty Foods.
Vancouver Island Water Buffalo Labneh
Labneh is thick yogurt that has been strained, creating a fresh cheese. I used Vancouver Island-made McClintock’s Farm water buffalo yogurt in this recipe. For a list of outlets selling it, go mcclintocksfarm.ca, click on water-buffalo dairy and then on distribution list.
Preparation time: 10 minutes, plus draining time
Cooking time: None
Makes: one (about 3 1/2-inch diameter) ball of cheese
1 1/2 cups McClintock’s Farm Water Buffalo yogurt (see Note)
• extra virgin olive oil, lemon zest, flaked sea salt, chopped fresh herbs and/or freshly ground black pepper, to taste (optional)
Set a fine sieve over a bowl. Line sieve with two, foot long sheets of cheesecloth. Spoon yogurt into the sieve. Grab and pull up the edges of the cheesecloth and tie them together at the top with a string.
Cover sieve and bowl with plastic wrap, refrigerate and let the yogurt drain 18 to 24 hours, until like a soft cheese in texture.
Remove labneh from cheesecloth and set on a plate or platter, domed-side up. Serve as is or dress up labneh by drizzling and sprinkling with olive oil, lemon zest, herbs, salt and/or pepper.
Eric Akis is the author of eight cookbooks. His columns appear in the Life section Wednesday and Sunday.
