Greek Inspired Harissa-style Hot Chilli Sauce To Go With Olives

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Greek Inspired Harissa-style Hot Chilli Sauce To Go With Olives
Link to my newest and old recipes, click:

https://kitchenbaroness.wordpress.com/

If you like olives and wished it could be spiced up to taste more exciting, this fresh tasting sauce is the one to try! It is a simple mix of tomatoes, red bell pepper, fresh chillies with a touch of spices but it works wonderfully to complement salty savoury olives.

Whilst holidaying at the picturesque island of Santorini, we ensconced ourselves at the Grace Santorini's, 'The Villa'. 

Screen shot of 'The Villa' taken from Grace Santorini's website. Stay here
and everything you see, the pool, extended balcony with more loungers 
plus even more pampering facilities are for your exclusive use. Coupled
with an amazing crew who will bend over backwards to take 
care of every need, you won't want to leave.

We had our own wait staff, the most capable Christina. So eager was she to attend to us, she refused to let us even refill our own wine glasses. And, if you ever motioned towards the kitchen, she would say earnestly, "Please, I am here to serve you. Tell me what you need". She is endearing. 

One evening, while we were all seated down for dinner and having animated conversions amongst ourselves, everyone of us suddenly fell unexpectedly silent. Why? 

Our eyes had caught sight of a fiery red coloured chilli sauce that was dressed over black olives. Christina was just about to set it on the table. We all knew it was going to be good even if it looked ridiculously simple. You have to understand, everyone at that table loves food and we know good food when we see it. 

Grace Santorini's black olives dressed with their fantastic Greek style harissa.

This hot chilli pepper dressing had an almost loose viscosity. The texture was in between a sauce and a dressing. The flavours were fresh. It was not over spiced and the heat level was just right. Besides the chillies, I could taste tomatoes and there was some underlying herbs which I just could not make out then. It went very well with the salty savoury olives. 

The chef was summoned and quizzed. Unfortunately, I could not quite understand him. He said it was like a harissa. I was able to gather that there were tomatoes, red peppers, chillies, coriander and that's about all I understood. Chef Spyros, I am patiently waiting for your recipe and the one for that lovely black bread of yours.

Grace Santorini's breads are filled with the most unusual mix of grains and
cereals. Not only are they always flavourful, they are invariably soft and delicate.
I particularly like the 'black bread' although I haven't a clue what it is made from.
I am waiting for Chef Spyros to tell me the secret! 

The recipe below comes pretty close to what we enjoyed that evening.  As it has a dip/dressing/sauce-like consistency, I can think of multiple uses for it. Enjoyed as a dip. Over grilled fish. I am going to try it on some linguini soon and serve them in tiny, tiny portions as a cold starter.

This is the first in a series of 10 meze recipes that were inspired by my recent holiday in Greece. Click here, Greek Meze, Another Selection Of Wonderful Little Bites. For your easy reference, scroll down to the end of the post and you will find a table spread of all the 10 meze, the names of the meze and links to recipes that I have already posted.

GREEK INSPIRED HARISSA-LIKE HOT CHILLI SAUCE TO GO WITH OLIVES

Prep:	~ 10 minutes
Cook:	10 minutes
Inactive:	-
Level:	Easy
Makes:	3/4 cup
Oven Temperature:	-
Can recipe be doubled?	Yes
Make ahead?	Keep well up to 5 days refrigerated.

Just the ingredients ~ 2 medium size (14.10oz)(400g) ripest tomatoes  1.5" strip of (0.98oz)(28g) red bell pepper ~ 3 fresh (0.98oz)(28g) red chillies  1 clove garlic  1/8 teaspoon coriander powder Pinch of cinnamon powder 1/4 teaspoon sugar 1/4 +1/8 teaspoon salt 1/4 +1/8 teaspoon white wine vinegar Extra virgin olive oil

Ingredients

~ 2 medium size (14.10oz)(400g) ripest tomatoes 

1.5" strip of (0.98oz)(28g) red bell pepper

~ 3 fresh (0.98oz)(28g) red chillies 
1 clove garlic 

1/8 teaspoon coriander powder
Scroll down to 'Tips' to find out what else you could cook to help use up the bottle of coriander powder
Pinch of cinnamon powder
1/4 teaspoon sugar

1/4 +1/8 teaspoon salt

1/4 +1/8 teaspoon white wine vinegar

Extra virgin olive oil

Method 

Get a kettle of water boiling.

Score the bottom of the tomatoes with an "X".  Place the tomatoes, the strip of red pepper, chillies and peeled garlic in a deep bowl. Pour boiling water over them to cover.

After 5 minutes, drain off the water. Peel and discard the tomato skins and cut tomatoes into chunks. Dice up the red pepper. Either leave the chillies whole if you want your sauce to be on the spicy side or cut and remove the seeds for a milder tasting sauce.

Puree the tomatoes, red pepper, chillies and garlic and decant into a pot for frying.

Place the pot over medium high heat and bring to a boil, stirring on occasions to prevent the sauce from burning. Stir in the salt, sugar, coriander and cinnamon powder and reduce the sauce until most of the liquid has evaporated. It should look similar to the sauce below. It takes me about 10 minutes. 

Taste and adjust seasoning. Now, add the white wine vinegar and taste. You may need more or less vinegar depending on how sour or sweet the tomatoes are.

To begin with, the sauce should be fresh tasting. It should be sufficiently spicy hot, more sour than sweet and you should not be able to taste the garlic, coriander or cinnamon powder. The star of this harissa-like sauce are the tomatoes, chillies and red pepper.

To serve, drizzle a little extra virgin olive oil, on your serving vessel. Add a little of the harissa-like sauce, place the olives on it and drizzle with a little more sauce. 

Watch your guests' eyes widened with interest as you serve this to them.

Tips

• Here are 2 recipes that you could try out to help use up the bottle of coriander powder

Beef Kafta - Lebanese Meatballs
Tired of dry and hard meat balls? Try my recipe for these well flavoured, soft and moist meatballs.

Crispy Gluten and Egg Free Corn Fritters
If like fresh corn but I like these crispy corn fritters better. See those whole nuggets of corn? Once you bite into the fritters, those corn nuggets taste like little burst of creamy sugar!

WHAT'S COMING UP NEXT?                             

Tomato Balls! These are very popular in Santorini, Greece where the tomatoes grown are famous for being small, thick skinned and sweet.

My table of Greek inspired meze!

First row. Left to right: Slow Cooked Octopus In A Sherry Vinegar Garlic Marinade, Moussaka - Baked Casserole Of Eggplants, Tomatoey Meat Topped With A Creamy White Sauce, Santorini Fava A Delicious Yellow Split Peas Dip, Marinated Grilled Peppers With Fig Balsamic Cream

Second row. Left to right: Greek Inspired Harissa-style Hot Chilli Sauce To Go With Olives, 5 Minutes Grilled Cheese Meze, Santorini Tomatoey Tomato Balls/Fritters

Third row. Left to right: Crispy Whitebait And Sweet Onions Disk, Pork Souvlaki Kebabs Skewers, Tzatziki A Cucumber Yogurt Dip,  Oh So Soft Pita Bread

Tomato Chutney, Tomato Dip

Hi! I'm now working from Wordpress. I've spent a great deal of time editing and reorganising this post on Wordpress and it is so much friendlier to read & follow my recipe from there. Click on this link to take you directly to the recipe:

Tomato Chutney, Tomato Dip

Link to my newest and old recipes, click:

https://kitchenbaroness.wordpress.com/

I will be serving this tomato chutney often now that I have rediscovered it. Lost in the back archives of my brain, I recalled it while typing the recipes for my two previous blog entries on chutneys/dips, Coconut Chutney and Mint Chutney. 

I could eat not just spoonfuls but bowlfuls of this.  I don't need anything with it, just give me a spoon and let me slurp away. 

If you have been following my blog, you would know that this recipe for Tomato Chutney is the last in my series for chutneys/dips to go with my interpretation of the gluten-free, savoury Indian snack, Vadai. I have an unconventional approach to making them. I make the batter with a shrimp base stock instead of the convetional water base. Vadais are soft on the inside with a slight crispy crunch on the outside. 

Curious? Click on this link, Vadai, Gluten Free Savoury Snack to read more on it. 

Here are all three dips,  Mint Chutney, Tomato Chutney and Coconut Chutney with Vadais and tortilla chips. I serve the Vadais not so much as snacks as it is often done in Indian homes but as pre-dinner party nibbles. It is always popular with my guests.

As I mentioned in my previous blog posts, if you have no time or the desire to make Vadais, open a bag of tortilla chips or pretty much any other bag of vegetable chips to dip them in the Tomato Chutney. 

Look under 'Tips' at the bottom of this blog post to find out how else you could use this scrumptious dip. I really do like it by the spoonfuls.

TOMATO CHUTNEY, TOMATO DIP                                      

Prep:	15 minutes
Cook:	30 minutes
Inactive:	-
Level:	Intermediate
Serves:	6 as a dip
Oven Temperature:	-
Can recipe be doubled?	Yes
Make ahead?	Yes, up to 2 days.

Ingredients

For grinding

4 large tomatoes diced (4 cups)

1 and 1/3 cup diced purple onions

Use purple onions and not yellow as purple onions are more often than not the onion of choice to be used in Indian cooking.

1 teaspoons diced ginger

2 red chilli, seeds removed roughy diced

For frying

4 Tablespoon oil

1 teaspoons urud dal, also known as black gram/lentils and sometimes labelled as white gram/lentils

These can be purchased from Indian grocers. The lentils you want to buy are actually off white in colour. The black husks have been removed revealing the inner off white colour of the lentils. You will also find on the grocer's shelves, black gram lentils with husks still attached so they are black in colour. Remember to buy the off whites ones. 

Half a pinch (that's half of a 1/8 teaspoon) of asafoetida (optional)

Asafoetida is the resin derived from the herbaceous ferula family. You can buy this greyish brownish coloured powdered spice at your Indian grocer. I use this for its anti-flatulence properties. It is an ingredient used as far as I am aware, primarily in Indian cooking. Its use has not transcended borders as much as other spices associated with Indian cooking. Perhaps because it smells dangerously sulphuric. The smell might just shock you enough to send you reeling back a few steps. I keep the plastic container where it comes stored in when I buy it, in a plastic bag and then in a glass jar. That is how pungent it smells.

Add too much of it in your food and it overwhelms the dish. I am very conservative with the amount I add. I cannot accurately tell you the flavour it imparts as it is a totally different spice. All I know is if I add it to my lentil/bean dishes, my tummy feels a whole lot better. If I really have to describe the taste it imparts, I would say it is a mix of onion, fennel and garlic. 

Omit if you cannot bring yourself to buy or use it.

I do use it in my recipes for Vadai, Gluten Free Savoury Snack and Coconut Chutney, Coconut Dip.

The ground up ingredients as listed above (tomatoes, onions, ginger, chillies)

1 and 1/4 teaspoons salt

2 teaspoons sugar

Depending on the tomatoes you use, you might have to use +/- 1 to 2 teaspoons of sugar. Adjust to suit your taste.

For tempering

To put it simply, in Indian cooking 'tempering' refers to heating up of spices in hot oil to draw out its flavours. That means tempering can be done in the initial stages of cooking a dish, after which other ingredients, for instance, onions and vegetables are added and cooking continues. 

Tempering is also done to finish off an otherwise cooked dish. Oil is heated, spices are thrown in often in separate succession, to maximise its potency. The flavoured oil and spices are strewn over the dish which can be a chutney as in my Coconut Chutney and this Tomato Chutney recipe or in other dishes such as in lentils or beans meals. 

Tempering to complete a dish adds a lot more flavour to what could be a mediocre dish. Taste the Tomato Chutney before and after you add the tempered ingredients and you will understand what I mean.

2 Tablespoon oil

1/2 teaspoons black mustard seeds

These can be purchased from Indian grocery stores.

16 curry leaves

Directions

In a blender, grind up the tomatoes, onions, ginger and chillies. Grinding it up helps you to cook down the vegetables faster. Set aside.

Heat up 4 Tablespoons of oil in a pot. When oil is hot, add urud dal and shake the pan around until the urud dal turns a light golden colour. This takes a few seconds. Add the asafoetida, let it sizzle 5 seconds, add the ground up vegetables, sugar and salt. Bring to a boil, lower the heat to medium and boil it down for 30 minutes or until it thickens and is no longer runny.

There will be a lot of bubbling, spluttering and splattering. The chutney does make a bit of a mess to the area surrounding the pot. When I see little funnels on the chutney, like those in the photograph below, I turn off the burner. Leave it on the burner.

Next thing to be done is tempering.

Heat 2 Tablespoons of oil in a small pot. I use my 4" pot as the deep sides and narrow diameter will protect me from the spitting oil. You be careful. When the oil is hot, add the black mustard seeds and curry leaves and shake the pot to move things around for 5 seconds. Not more. Mustard seeds burn super easily. It should smell heady. Pour this directly into the Tomato Chutney and stir to incorporate. Reheat the tomato chutney, let it simmer for 3 to 5 minutes, adjust seasoning for sugar and salt.

Remove from burner, cool and serve.

Tips

How else can you serve Tomato Chutney?

• Over a simple Mozzarella Salad. How simple?

This is what you would need. No cooking required.

1. Mozzarella ball, preferably buffalo as it is the creamiest and the softest.
2. Tomato Chutney.
3. Basil leaves, shredded. If you do not have it, leave it out.
4. Extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper.

Slice the mozzarella ball or tear it up into smaller pieces and arrange on a serving plate. Dollop the Tomato Chutney over it. Drizzle extra virgin olive oil, pepper and salt to taste. Strewn basil over.

I like this for dinner with country bread. So simple and satisfying.

• With a sunny side up egg

Serve Tomato Chutney over fried egg and bread. Drizzle extra virgin olive oil. Pepper and salt to taste. This is even better with a side of sliced avocados! Another easy and delicious light meal.

• Topped over grilled fish

I am sure that with time, I will be able to come up with more ways to serve my Tomato Chutney. It is so versatile and I so like it! That was my dinner. Yum yum yum.

I grilled a fillet of white fish, Barramundi (sea bass) with sea salt and topped it with Tomato Chutney. The green vegetable I served it with was inspired by a gracious Sri Lankan lady who lived across me some time back. She used to share some of her dinner with me and they were always delicious. 

The vegetable is chinese broccoli (kai lan). I diced up the stems, shredded the leaves and diced up some onions. In hot oil, I crackled mustard seeds, sauteed onions, added dried Maldive fish flakes, diced green chillies and the chinese broccoli. After which, in went some tumeric powder, garam masala and 1/4 cup of fresh/frozen grated coconut and salt. So good.

Maldive fish (tuna) flakes are difficult to find. I bought my supply when I was in Sri Lanka. You could try looking for it in an Indian grocery shop but I really have not been able to find it locally. A good substitute is bonito (tuna) flakes, the Japanese equivalent. Tumeric powder and garam masala (a spice mix) can be bought easily in almost any supermarket.

Finally, the last food item on my plate is just a potato! It is soft on the inside and crispy on the outside. I microwaved a peeled whole potato until it was cooked through. Then, I heated some olive oil till it was very hot. I plopped in the whole cooked potato, seasoned it with salt and pepper, flattened it with the back of my frying slice and held it there for about 2 minutes until it was golden brown and crispy. I did the same for the other side of the potato. Eat it hot as like french fries, it will lose its crispiness when cooled. The potato complements the stronger tasting grilled fish with Tomato Chutney and Fried Chinese Broccoli with Spices.

Let me know if you come up with any other ideas to serve this Tomato Chutney! I would love to try it!

WHAT'S COMING UP NEXT?                                                

What do you think of this cake? It is a shimmery beauty! It is a Mirror Jelly Cake. Perhaps I should call it a Mirror Jelly Slice as they are just over 1" (2.5cm) high. 

The bottom layer is made of crushed digestive biscuits, the middle is a marshmallow layer and the top layer is raspberry flavoured Jell-O! It does not lasts more than a day in my house. If I serve it as a dessert at a party, it lasts all of 10 minutes.

If you like biscuit based cakes, marshmallows and Jell-O, look out for my next blog post!

Mint Chutney, Mint Dip

Hi! I'm now working from Wordpress. I've spent a great deal of time editing and reorganising this post on Wordpress and it is so much friendlier to read & follow my recipe from there. Click on this link to take you directly to the recipe:

Mint Chutney, Mint Dip

Link to my newest and old recipes, click:

https://kitchenbaroness.wordpress.com/

This is the most refreshing tasting chutney I know. I tend to think of this more as a dip. There is no spice, no oil and no cooking involved.  It is made from fresh ingredients whizzed up in a blender. Clean tasting, slightly tangy from the lemon juice. It is a guilt free dip.

I serve my mint chutney with the Indian snack, vadai, pictured below. Click on the link for the recipe to my unconventional interpretation of this toothsome, gluten free morsel. The fresh mint chutney goes well with the savouriness of the vadai. 

If I need a quick and easy pre-dinner party snack, this is one of my favourite dips to fix because it requires hardly any fixing. 

I can prepare the minty chutney up to 6 hours ahead and refrigerate it. If I know my dinner menu is going to require me to spend more time in the kitchen, I simplify my pre-dinner snacks further. 

I do not serve vadais with the mint chutney.  Instead, when my guests arrive, I snip open a bag of tortilla chips. I can tell from the looks on their faces that everyone is more than pleased to not have to face yet another salsa, avocado or dairy based dip and they are quite enthralled by the more than pleasant mint chutney. 

If you want to indulge your guests further, prepare the coconut chutney recipe that I have.  It can be made ahead as well. The rich tasting coconut chutney taste quite the opposite to the light tasting mint chutney. It's a nice taste contrast.

Try out the mint chutney recipe. It is pretty much healthy dipping. Well, depending on what you choose to dip it with.

MINT CHUTNEY                                                                      

Prep:	15 minutes
Cook:	-
Inactive:	-
Level:	Easy
Serves:	4 to 6 as a dip
Oven Temperature:	-
Can recipe be doubled?	Yes
Make ahead?	Yes, 6 hours ahead.  Place plastic wrap directly over to touch the mint chutney. This helps delay oxidisation and maintain the vibrant green colour.

Ingredients

1/2 cup cleaned, tightly packed mint leaves

1/4 cup cleaned, tightly packed cilantro/coriander leaves and young stems

1 green chilli seeds removed, cut into big chunks.

1 and 1/2 Tablespoons roughly diced purple onions
I use purple onions as these are often the onion of choice to be used in Indian cooking.

1/2 teaspoon roughly diced ginger

1/2 teaspoon roughly diced garlic

1/2 to 1 Tablespoon lemon juice, depending on how tangy you would like the mint dip

1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 water
This amount of water makes a runny dip which is the way I serve it. Cut down on the water to between 1/8 and 1/4 cup if you like it thicker.

Directions

Add all the ingredients into a blender. Blend until smooth. Adjust salt to taste.  That's it. Serve.

Tips

How else to serve mint chutney?

• It is traditionally served with Indian food and snacks like vadais, pakoras, dosas(thosais), samosas, mathris to name but a few examples

Pakoras are savoury snacks made primarily from vegetables coated in a batter of chickpea flour and sometimes a little rice flour. I might post a recipe for that sometime in the future. I tend to serve them as another easy and tasty pre-dinner party nibble.

Dosas (thosais) are huge, thin, crispy, eggless pancakes made from ground rice and urud dal also known as black gram/lentils and sometimes labelled as white lentils. I cannot make these. I frequent my favourite Indian restaurant every weekend if not every other weekend to have them. Can you tell I like Indian food?

Samosas are fried triangular shaped, savoury dumplings! I doubt anyone else will call them that though. The fillings could be all vegetarian, think fried onions, potatoes, peas with spices. Meat, more often lamb, could be added into the filling as well.

Mathris are to put it simply, fried savoury crispy crackers with spices in them. You can purchase them rather easily from Indian grocery stores.

• With tortilla chips

It is very good with tortilla chips. Tortilla chips are rather neutral tasting chips. Moreover, the chips are the right thickness and comes with the right crunch. It is the chip that goes with almost any dip.

Mint chutney does not pair off well with the more 'earthy' vegetable chips like parsnips, beetroot, sweet potatoes, yam and tapioca. The flavours clash. Go ahead and try them though and decide if you like them yourself. 

Did you notice I did not mention potato chips? For me, potato chips and dips don't get along. They are too brittle and taste best as a potato chip.

• As a mint sauce over grilled baby lamb chops

Lamb is something I do not eat often but if I have this mint chutney on hand, I will quite happily eat lamb.

To the back of the lamb chops is mashed potato with kale. I had blanched, cooled the kale in an ice bath and drained it well before working it in with potatoes, milk, butter, Parmesan cheese, pepper and salt. Not only does the kale mashed potatoes tastes good and go well with mint lamb chops, it also makes a convenient two in one carbohydrate and vegetable dish. 

• As a sandwich spread

I find this a bit odd but the lovely Indian lady from Delhi who introduced me to Indian cooking did exactly this and apparently it is quite the norm where she comes from. I use up any leftover mint chutneys on tortilla chips and baby lamb chops so I have yet to try this but I am quite sure it must be lovely in a lamb or maybe a turkey sandwich.

WHAT TO EXPECT NEXT?                                                      

In my Vadai, Gluten Free Savoury Snack post, I mentioned that I used to make this rather nice Tomato Chutney many years ago but quite forgot how to make it. Since that post, I have been mulling over whether I could recreate the recipe and if it would be worth posting.

I did manage to recreate the recipe and it is worth posting! I will be serving this at my next party! Will it be served with tortilla chips or vadais? It depends. I know it is good enough for me to eat it just as it is, with a spoon.