Harissa

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Harissa is a North African sauce/condiment/seasoning most commonly associated with Moroccan food.  I looked through my cookbooks, found 3 recipes and they're all fairly different.  Sure, they all seem to use dried red peppers, coriander seed, oil and garlic but, after that, it's wide open.  Caraway, bell peppers, mint, cumin, lemon, it's pretty wild. 

This is Marcus Samuelsson's recipe from The Soul of a New Cuisine.  I've discussed the book in the past.  If you want to read those posts, click here.   

INGREDIENTS
3/4 cup olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon ground caraway
1 cup mild chili powder (I was skeptical about using chili powder but it makes a lot of sense if you think about it...chili powder already has ground cumin, onion powder, garlic etc in it...saves you a step, imo)
1 tablespoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons chopped mint

1.  Heat oil in a small pan.  When oil shimmers, add garlic and saute until golden.  (This step takes a few minutes so be patient.)

2.  Turn off heat.  Add the rest of the ingredients.  Let cool.  Store in refrigerator for  up to 2 weeks.

So whaddya do with this stuff?  So far, I've used it as a rub for lamb and for fish.  I also introduced some hummus into my standard hummus recipe.  I'm going to spend the majority of the next two weeks cooking Moroccan/North African food so we'll see where else I go with this stuff. 

Time- 5 minutes, if even that much.

Food Cost- More than I would've liked. 
Chili Powder- $3.79
Caraway Seeds- ~$0.20
Incidentals- About a buck? 
Total- $5.00.  Servings--unknown.  Alot.  You'll probably have more than you can use.  I probably should've made a half recipe.  Next time.  :)

Moroccan Lentil Soup

Part two of the Soup Trilogy.

Here I go again with the lentils. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I love 'em. I just finished a bowl of this soup for lunch and am thinking of heading back for more. In this recipe, the lentils themselves don't offer much in the way of flavor. Instead, the majority of the taste comes from ras-el-hanout. For this recipe, I freshly ground my own but I'm sure you can find some in an upscale grocery store. If not, here's a great source for mail order spices: The Spice House.

This recipe is adapted from Essence. As usual, I made a giant vat of soup but have given instructions for a smaller amount. The pictures show my cooking process and might not reflect yours.

Rough chop a carrot, an onion and a few cloves of garlic:
Rinse and drain 2 cups of lentils. Feel free to use split yellow peas or, as I used here, mung dal.

Melt 3/4 stick of butter in a pot. This seems excessive, I know, but the recipe called for twice that amount. Gotta love restaurant cooking, right?
Toss in the carrots/onion/garlic and saute until the onions are soft:
Add 2-3 tablespoons of ras-el-hanout to the pot. Give it a good stir and cook for a minute or two until quite fragrant. The mingling aroma of butter and fragrant spices is quite nice.
Add the lentils, give everything a good stir and cook for a few minutes:
At this point, add 8 cups of water and bring to a boil. lower heat to a simmer and allow the soup to cook. Feel free to add more water during the cooking process if the pot starts to look dry. Total cooking time depends on the type of legume. For mung dal, it's only about 40 minutes until it's a soupy mess. For split yellow peas, it'll be much longer. As usual, just taste every 25 minutes until the legumes are nice and soft.
When cooked, take an immersion blender (or regular blender) and puree the whole thing. Add extra water to adjust the consistency of the soup. Taste, adjust seasoning and you're done. Super easy.

Time- 1-1.5 hours, much of it unsupervised.
Food Cost-
Lentils- $1.50
Incidentals- $1.50
Total- $3.00
Should make enough for four, side dish servings. About $0.75 per serving.