Southern vegetable staple okra is everywhere this time of year at Bay Area farmers markets, and it's perfect in everything from Summer skillet stir-fries to soothing, slow-cooked tagines like this one.
The key to this tender vegetable braise is lots of patience and a fiery, full-bodied garlic and pepper paste known as harissa. Use it to add layers of savory complexity to this slow-cooked vegetable stew. For the recipe, keep reading.
A while back, I showed you how to make your own version of harissa, a North African chili paste, from scratch. Although it tastes great in everything from couscous to pasta to grilled meats, I'd just come back from three days of all-out feasting and was craving nutritious, vegetable-forward meal. In this riff on a North African tagine, a little bit of spicy, smoky chili paste goes a long way. Make the best of harissa when you read more
Any gourmand with a hankering for something spicy would be right at home in my kitchen, where the fridge is stocked with scorching sauces from every corner of the world. From Tabasco to Sambal Oelek and Sriracha, I'm extremely well-supplied in the store-bought specialties department.
I recently came to the conclusion, however, that I'm lacking somewhat in the homemade hot sauce category. Enter harissa, a fiery garlic and chili paste that hails from Tunisia and is used in stews, pasta sauces, grilled meats, and couscous. Although the chili paste is sold in tubes and jars at many supermarkets, it's easy — and much more fulfilling — to make from scratch yourself. See how I did so when you read more
