How to Make Tomato Harissa

Serves: 10

Preparation time: 20 mins

Cooking time: 1 hour

Ingredients needed to make Tomato Harissa:

• 350 gm ripe tomatoes, halved
• 4 garlic cloves, unpeeled
• Handful rose petals, rinsed
• 200 gm fresh red chillies
• 2 tbsp caster sugar
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 1 tsp coriander seeds
• 2 tsp cumin seeds
• Splash of red wine vinegar
• 3 tbsp rose water
• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• Olive oil, as required
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Cooking instructions for Tomato Harissa:

• Warm up your oven to 300 degrees F.
• Arrange a layer of tomato halves, across the base of a roasting, with their skin side facing down.
• Top it up with a layer of chillies and scatter the garlic cloves over it.
• Sprinkle a dash of salt and fair amount of black pepper to season and drizzle a good lug of olive oil.
• Roast them in the hot oven for an hour, shaking the pan several times midway between cooking.
• Take it out of the oven and set aside until it is cool enough to handle.
• Cover your hands in gloves and chop off the stalks of the chillies as well as remove the seeds.
• Remove the skins from the roasted garlic and toss them into your food processor, along with the chillies.
• Blitz them briefly until they are coarsely chopped and throw in the whole spices as well as paprika.
• Sprinkle a dash of seasonings into it and blitz them once again until well combined.
• Dump the tomatoes into it, along with the sugar as well as rose petals.
• Add a splash of rose water and pulse them into a grainy paste, with visible chunks of rose petals and tomatoes.
• Spoon it into a bowl and whisk in a bout of red wine vinegar and drizzle a lashing of extra virgin olive oil.
• Stir them all together until they blend thoroughly into a uniform mixture.
• Taste and adjust the seasonings using either the vinegar, paprika or even the rose petals.
• Transfer it into an air-tight jar, seal and store it in the refrigerator for as long as a month.
• It makes a yummy dip or spread.

 Image credit: Wikimedia Commons