Friday, September 14, 2018

Harissa #2

 

My friend Jack, brought me 2 pounds of Super Cayenne chiles. They were kept overnight in the 'frig and the next morning, in my propane bbq, fire roasted, most for 10-12 minutes, a few that didn't get the flame first for another 4-5 minutes.

In total that was 

964 grams of Super Cayenne (raw weight before roasting)
950 grams -- after roasting

After removing the burnt skins, removing the stem they weighed: 476 grams.

That's quite a loss of product, but I'm not unhappy. The 2 pounds was but $10.00 (US dollars in September 2018).

Here are the remaining quantities of ingredients.

Salt 8 grams
Brown Mustard seeds 20 grams
Caraway seeds 25 grams
Cumin (powder) 15 grams
Garlic, fresh 8 grams (paper husk removed)
Garlic, granulated, 5 grams
Pickled Lemon 25 grams
Mint, leaves, fresh 10 grams
Rosewater 4 grams
Lemon juice with it's zest, 43 grams
Olive oil, as needed to make a paste.
Sodium Benzoate .7 grams (700 milligrams)

Sorry, I don't have these in ounces and 1/10 of ounces.

Wearing gloves, I peeled the skins and de-stemmed the chiles. Into the food processor bowl with metal blade went the chiles. Over that the mint leaves and fresh garlic, left whole.

In a spice grinder went the salt, caraway, mustard, and cumin. That was reduced to a fine powder and poured over the mint and garlic. Next the juice and zest of the lemon were tipped in.

About 30 pulses got the mass to a fine enough puree to allow the processor to run continuously until the ingredients blended and pulled into a mass. While the machine ran, extra virgin olive oil was added. I eyeball this. It's not hard to see how much olive oil is needed.

Next, the bowl with it's ingredients not fully blended was weighed and the sodium benzoate weighed on a scale that can resolve (weigh accurately) tenths of a gram. As only seven/tenths of a gram of benzoate salt is needed, it must be an accurate weight. After it was added, the processor bowl was replaced and the mass mixed a few more times.

Refrigerate after standing on the countertop a few hours to allow the flavors to meld.