Set fire to the rain....

Really, normally I am not the complaining type but..... when it is July and supposed to be warm and sunny it is already raining for 2 weeks and looking at the weather forecast it is not likely to stop soon. That's why I already started to make summery things like lemon batido and ice cream but it is not really helping...... However, when I read the newspaper this morning I came across the recipe of something that might actually help.... we all know that fire and water don't go together so by starting making chili based recipes.... we might be able to fight this rain.

The recipe is for the North African chili paste called Harissa. Like the Chinese use sambal, the North African people use harissa. It is hot with a slight sweet undertone. If you don't like it very hot, than you just simply don't use the seeds and use less hot chili's or leave out a few...

I like my harissa on almost everything, it just spices things up a bit. It is especially delicious when eaten in combination with a cous-cous dish like Tajine (the general word for stews from North Africa, they are prepared in a special pot called a Tajine)

I could just simpy place a link here to the recipe, but since it is in Dutch I translated it for you: 

You need: 

- 1 red pepper
- 1 small tablespoon cumin seeds
- 7 red chili peppers
- 2 cloves of garlic, pealed
- a pinch of sea salt
- 1-2 table spoons of lemon juice
- 50 ml olive oil

Place the pepper above a flame and turn it around so that all skin turns black. Then place the pepper in a bowl and seal it with plastic film.
Roast the cumin seeds in a pan until you can smell them. Clean the chili's and remove the seeds, the more you remove the less 'hot' the paste will be. Cut them in chunks and place them together with the cumin seeds, salt, and garlic in a food processor making it a nice puree.

Take the red pepper and remove the blackened skin. Slice it open and remove the seeds. Cut it up in chunks and add to the puree, puree it one more time. Add a table spoon of lemon juice and then while mixing add the olive oil. It is now finished but you can tweek it to your own taste.. adding some more lemon juice, or black pepper or......

This recipe is enough for 2 small jars and it will last about 2 weeks..... I hope this will be enough to scare the rain away!!!!!!

For this blogpost I used THIS recipe