Pork Harissa - Solar Baked

If offset with just a touch of sweetness, hot peppers are much easier to enjoy. Remember the string of peppers I put up, last summer? Well, they turned bright red and then dried to perfection on their strings. It was time to do something with them. So, Googling for dried peppers brought up harissa sauce, a North African hot pepper sauce that will kill anything living in your stomach! Next step was to look for homemade recipes before spending time and money, and found lots. It was the spice combinations that helped me make a choice and then turned it into one of my own by adding other herbs and spices I thought might be fun.  It didn't take long to make and there's plenty left for another day. Check out my harissa recipe, below. I thought I had removed sirloin tips from the freezer; but, when the frost cleared, turned out it was a package of country style pork ribs! Lord knows where my mind was but I forged ahead. I cubed the meat into one-inch pieces, dried them, and then seared them over high heat on all sides before placing them on the bottom of my 3-quart roasting pan.  Solar oven was set up and preheating.

Pork Harissa

1 lb pork ribs, country-style

2 Tbsps olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

4 garlic cloves, minced

2 Tbsps light brown sugar

2 Tbsps soy sauce

1 Tbsps thyme leaves

2 tspsns harissa sauce (store-bought or my recipe below)

1. After meat is removed from pan, add olive oil and saute onion until just softened; add garlic and cook until just beginning to turn brown. Add light brown sugar, soy sauce, thyme leaves, and harissa sauce.

2. Blend all ingredients and cook for an additional one or two minutes; pour over cubed pork, cover, and place in solar oven for approximately 70 minutes. Remove meat from pan. Pour pan drippings into medium saucepan or large measuring cup for use in microwave.

3. Make a flour roux in separate cup of 2 Tablespoon flour and 2 Tablespoons hot water; add to pan drippings. Stir in saucepan until mixture thickens, or, add to drippings for microwave and zap for one minute intervals, stirring in between, until mixture thickens.

5. Serve pork cubes over pasta, rice (my choice), or potatoes; drizzle sauce over pork cubes.

Enjoy. This is good.

Most recipes suggested using the harissa sauce for a marinade but I decided to use it for cooking. Although you can use the drippings as a gravy, I think you'd find it tastier if thickened with flour to make a gravy. Otherwise, the drippings are just a little too oily for my tastes.

Sharlene's Homemade Harissa Sauce
12 - 15 dried chili peppers
5 cloves garlic
1/2 tsp salt
2 Tbspns olive oil
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp caraway seeds
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground mace
1/2 tsp ground juniper berries
1/2 tsp chipotle pepper (optional)

1. Soak dried peppers for about 30 minutes, then remove seeds (leave some if you want it hotter), chop coarsely; place in food processor with garlic, salt, and olive oil. Thoroughly chop.
2. Add rest of ingredients and blend to a smooth paste.
3. Place in jar; use as needed. Will keep in refrigerator for at least a month.