The Older Bolder Life Friday Feast: Texas Red Jalapeño and Chipotle Harissa

A couple of months ago I was given the pleasure of writing a short piece for a fly fishing magazine based out of South Africa – The Mission – detailing a version of this Texas Red Jalapeño and Chipotle Harissa we’ve been playing with for a while.

I shared with The Mission team –

Exceptional sauces and salsas are some of life’s simplest and most valuable additions to the table, making good foods great as they deliver layers of flavor and spice, most often as the best supporting actor and not stealing the scene from the star of the show.

Texas offers a fascinating and eclectic food culture, melding influences from early settlers hailing from across the world, but leaning heavily on Mexican, Germanic, and Irish roots, with a healthy scoop of Vietnamese and Asian influences thrown into the mix as well over the past several decades.

Distracted for years by delicious salsa verdes, fresh table salsas, and more guacamoles than I can count, of late we’ve been playing with different harissa recipes, including this one featuring a pepper unique to these parts – the Dulce Mediterraneo, for which you can readily substitute with a red bell pepper.

Harissa, a Tunisian hot chili paste, makes just about everything better, from the morning’s scrambled or fried eggs, to seafood, lamb, pork, beef, or wild game hot from the grill.

‘Nuff said.

2 large red dulce Mediterraneo peppers
1/4 pound red jalapeño chiles
1-2 dried chipotle pepper(s), soaked for 10-15 minutes

1 tablespoon coriander seeds, whole
2 teaspoons cumin seeds, whole
2 teaspoons caraway seeds, whole
4 large cloves garlic

2 tablespoons organic tomato paste
1/2-1 teaspoon salt
1/4 to 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil (additional for storage)

Blacken the skins of the dulce mediterraneo peppers (over an open flame, under a broiler, etc), place in a paper or plastic bag and let steam for 20 minutes or so. When cooled, stem, seed, peel, and place in a blender.

Stem the jalapeños (Fresno or green jalapeños in a pinch) and place in the blender.

Toast the coriander, cumin, and caraway seeds in a dry nonstick skillet over medium heat for 4-5 minutes until fragrant, then coarsely grind in a mortar and pestle and add to the blender. Toast the whole garlic cloves in the same pan until browned (lightly), then add to blender.

Finally add the roasted peppers, tomato paste, soaked chipotles, 1/2 tsp salt and 1/4 cup olive oil to the blender, then blend until roughly pureed (you want some texture in the sauce). Add olive oil if needed to thin, and adjust for salt.

Pour into a glass pint jar and top with a thin layer of olive oil to store in the fridge.

Enjoy.