Harissa

You are probably most familiar with harissa in its liquid or paste form as a ready-to-use condiment, but we also sell harissa as a dry spice blend. Either of those products is a wonderful way to inject both heat and depth into a dish, and I tend to use them in tandem to create layers of flavor. We toast, mix, and grind our own harissa spices at the warehouse in Brooklyn, and its fans are so devoted, we sell more than a hundred pounds each week. The mixture combines five types of chiles (including guajillo and ancho) and whole caraway, cumin, and coriander seeds, all of which we toast separately and then grind together into a not-too-fine mixture that is finally seasoned with garlic, paprika, and salt and pepper. It’s a labor-intensive process, but the resulting spice blend is heady, complex, and just fiery enough.