2 Heads of garlic sliced
6 Shallots sliced
Heaping handful dried chilies
Ground up dried shrimp (chinese, not korean)
2 Cups peanut oil
Fry all ingredients by themselves
Fry 1/2 cup of dried shrimp fried
1/2 cup palm sugar
1.5 tbsp tamarind paste
.5 cup fish sauce
Blend and mix
Category: Sauces
Harissa
The base of Tunisian cuisine, harissa is a spicy, savory, sour, umami-rich flavor bomb. It’s made mainly out of different peppers so I figured it should be made with the best, Mexican peppers.
Ingredients
– 1 red bell pepper
– 1 dried ancho pepper
– 5 dried guajillo pepper
– 15 dried arbol pepper
– 4 cloves of garlic
– Half a white onion
– 1 tablespoon tomato paste
– 2 tablespoons lemon juice
– 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
– 2 teaspoons cumin seeds
– 2 teaspoons coriander seed
– 1 tablespoon smoked paprika
– 1 teaspoon black pepper
– Half cup to 1 cup olive oil
– Salt to taste
Blister the red pepper on direct flame until the skin turns black, place it a plastic bag for it to “steam”. This is done so the skin can be peeled easily. While you wait 15ish minutes for that, boil some water and pour over the dried peppers in a bowl to get hydrated. This should also take 15-20 minutes.
In a dry skillet, toast the cumin, coriander, and black pepper until fragrant. Once toasted, grind with a mortar and pestle. 
Peel off the skin from the bell pepper and take seeds out of all the peppers. Add everything but the olive oil in a food processor and blend. Once incorporated, drizzle half a cup of olive oil while blending. The consistency should be smooth, not pasty. Add olive oil accordingly. 
After doing this a few times, I have realized it’s easiest to seed the dried peppers before hydrating and to salt at the end. 
Peanut Sauce
There was a time when I first started cooking that I thought peanut sauce was the same as pad thai sauce. Just to be clear, it is not the same thing but if you’re craving that peanut flavor and you want to make a broke down version of pad thai, this will do in a pinch. Just make the sauce and mix it into some instant noodles, top with a fried egg. Always top with a fried egg. This is a dipping sauce, by the way.
1 inch knob fresh ginger (peeled) [see note]
1 clove garlic (peeled) [see note]
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon Sriracha
1⁄2 cup peanut butter
1⁄4 cup soy sauce
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
1 tablespoon fish sauce
Scallions (for garnish)
Put everything in a blender or just in a bowl and mix. All you need to make sure is that the ginger and garlic are properly mixed, smashed, or chopped.
[Note] If you’ve made some of the fermented ginger and garlic mixture, use that instead, it’s a thousand times better than using the regular stuff.
Chimichurri
In Argentina, everyone and their mother have a “secret” chimichurri recipe passed down from generation to the next. Lucky for me, I have not been tied down to one recipe and have played around plenty with many types of chimichurri. Sometimes you have to go far from the recipe to make it better, in this case Mexican oregano. It’s hands down the best oregano out there, I don’t know if it’s a different species of plant or if it’s the terroir but it’s simply better.
Ingredients
– 2 cups flat leaf parsley (One bunch / 55 grams)
– 1 cup dried Mexican oregano
– Half cup dried red pepper flakes (use less if you can’t handle heat well)
– 3 big cloves of garlic
– 1 cup cane vinegar (white vinegar will do fine)
– 3 cups olive oil (use some good stuff)
– Salt
– Pepper
Chop up parsley and oregano, place in a big bowl. Smash up the garlic and add everything else into the bowl. Salt and pepper to taste. Let it sit for a day and voila! It’s a simple recipe so it’s easy to discern the difference between quality ingredients and shitty stuff, so use the good stuff. If you want it to be spicy, use dry piquin peppers as well, their flavor goes well with this.
Garlic Honey
Garlic fermented in honey has been one of those things that has stuck with me since I discovered it from Brad Leone’s many fermentation recipes. It goes so well with Korean food that I have had to make jar after jar of it. Korean food uses a lot of sugar and a lot of garlic, most times together, so why not? It’s as easy as peeling some garlic, sticking it in a jar, and covering it in your favorite honey.
A few points of interest. Not all honey is created equal. There’s stuff that comes from China that is tainted with different syrups and is not really honey, so shop local. After making a few different batches of this stuff, I have realized you get a different end product depending on if you crush your garlic or not. I don’t mean completely smashing the garlic, just a light crush to activate that allicin. When you do crush it, the garlic turns into this gummy-candy textured nugget and when you leave it intact, it’s this crunchy clove of sweet garlic.
My taste buds are not powerful enough to tell you the difference between different types of garlic but I’m sure there is something to play with there. Most of the jars I have made have just been the regular garlic that comes from the supermarket, except for the one I made with elephant garlic. It’s definitely milder, but that’s as far as I can describe it.
The longer it goes, the better. I have a three year old jar that has turned the honey into this black liquid that tastes like fermented black garlic (figures, I know). When you first submerge the garlic in honey, it’ll take about a week or two to release a bunch of garlicky gases that will stink up your kitchen in the best way possible. Hence, why the lid should not be closed all the way unless you want to “burp it” (open it every day). I would say the optimal time to let it sit before consuming it is at least two months. It’s a long time to wait, but that’s just my suggestion. I know I have had a few spoonfuls of honey at different times of fermentation.
Ingredients:
– Garlic (peeled)
– Honey
Place peeled garlic in jar, cover in honey. Done. If you so desire, and I recommend it, crush the garlic cloves slightly with the flat part of a knife before placing in jar.