Moroccan Spiced Tempeh Pitas with Harissa and Preserved Lemon Cream

If you checked out the post on Harissa, you’ll know that mine came out spicy enough that I decided to use it only sparingly, not piling it on everything like I imagined I wanted to. I still have dreams of harissa marinated lamb chops and chicken wings but I haven't permanently numbed my tongue enough to use mine as anything more than a background note for now.

Anyway, I successfully used the Harissa on these sandwiches and didn't die. The idea for these was born after I made this preserved lemon cashew cream, which is freaking amazing but the recipe made a ton. Here's my thought process after realizing how much cashew cream I was left with:

Hmm, I didn’t really use that much on my fries.
How long does this stuff keep? I'd better use it up soon.
But, preserved lemon. Am I really going to want to put that on everything?
…let me try it on this black bean burger.
Nope.
Ok, new plan.
Preserved lemon. Preserved lemon. Preserved lemon…
Moroccan!
Moroccan sandwich! With lamb! Wait but it’s cashew cream, vegan, ok, what’s vegan? Tempeh!
Morrocan spiced tempeh! Ooh on a pita with this and harissa! I’ll make harissa!

That chain of thought is pretty much Exhibit A of why I felt the need to start a food blog.

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Moroccan Spiced Tempeh Pitas with Harissa and Preserved Lemon Cream

• 1 package tempeh

• Olive oil (enough to coat)

• Moroccan spice mix (I used at least a tablespoon but add it to your taste)

• Baby spinach

• Harissa

• Preserved Lemon Cream

• Pickled Red Onions (how-to below)

• 2 pitas

Pickled Red Onions

½ red onion, thinly sliced
1/2 cup unseasoned rice vinegar
1 tsp sugar (or more if you want sweeter pickles)

1. Heat the vinegar in a small saucepan on medium heat and stir in the sugar until dissolved. Pour over onions and set aside at least 30 min or until needed. Store in the refrigerator.

Once you have all your components, the sandwiches are super easy and quick to assemble. 

1. Cut the tempeh into wedges and toss with a little olive oil and the spice mix. Then pan fry the tempeh wedges on both sides until golden.

2. Stuff in a pita with baby spinach leaves, harissa, preserved lemon cashew cream, and pickled red onions. Enjoy while hot! If your harissa is as spicy as mine, add more cashew cream as you go, as needed.

I made these vegan, but if you’re a committed carnivore I think these would be just as excellent with lamb or chicken. If cashew cream frightens you, preserved lemon blended with greek yogurt would be a good substitute.

Harissa

In October I took a road trip with my Dad to Santa Fe. A little more than an hour from El Paso, the brown scrubby landscape gave way to green fields.   We had reached Hatch, NM, a chile Mecca disguised as a tiny, dusty and unremarkable town in the middle of nowhere.  We pulled over into the first store we came across right off the highway, just in time for that day’s chile roasting to begin. The smell was amazing, a pungent mix of sweet pepper and spice mixed with smoke from the charred pepper skins.

I excitedly stocked up on dried chiles, and a few days after I got home to SF, I got a box in the mail filled with my loot: green chile flakes, chipotle chile flakes, and two bags of dried chiles, one marked “medium” and one marked “hot.” I divided everything and gave half to my sister when I went to visit her in Boston a few weeks later. She was so excited and grateful for my generous gift that she promptly used some of the chile flakes in a huevos rancheros sauce so spicy it made me cry, as sweat poured out of me and my tongue went numb. Meanwhile, I still had a huge pile of dried chiles I had no idea what to do with. 

After the warning shot fired by the chile flakes, I was understandably wary of using the actual dried chiles, scared of what I might unleash on unsuspecting friends. I finally used the “medium” chiles in a Texas chili I made for the super bowl. It was spicier than I planned, but not unbearable when topped with a generous garnish of fritos. It was hard to know whether the culprit was my New Mexico chiles or the six jalapenos also in the pot, so I optimistically started making plans for my “hot” peppers. 

I decided on Harissa, since I found several recipes online calling for New Mexico chiles. After some research, I came up with a recipe I hoped wouldn't be inedibly spicy. I thought combining the New Mexico chiles with some smoky dried chipotles I also had lying around would temper the heat a bit and make for a nice flavor.

The end result was indeed nicely smoky. It is also definitely best used sparingly as a condiment and not eaten right off the tasting spoon, a lesson I learned the hard way.

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Harissa

A search on the internet for Harissa yielded plenty of results; my recipe wound up a blend of the Smitten Kitchen and Saveur recipes.  Both recipes called for the same spices and I adjusted amounts to my taste, same with the garlic, and I kept the lemon juice from the Saveur recipe and omitted the mint. The Smitten Kitchen recipe interestingly called for roasted red bell pepper and sun dried tomatoes. I skipped the bell pepper but kept the sun-dried tomato. 

This made almost a full cup, but can easily be halved or doubled.

2 oz. dried chile (New Mexico, guajillo, chipotle, or ancho ; I used a 50/50 mix of New Mexico and chipotle)
2 sun dried tomatoes (packed in oil or dry-packed; if using dry-packed soak with chiles)
2 cloves garlic, peeled
¼ tsp caraway seeds
¼ tsp coriander seeds
¼ tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Juice of ½ lemon

1. Pour boiling water over dried chiles in a bowl or pot and soak for 20 minutes. If they try to float place a small plate or pot lid in the water to keep them submerged.

2. Meanwhile, toast your spices in a small skillet over medium heat for a few minutes, until fragrant. Grind in a spice mill or mortar and pestle until powdery.

3. When chiles have soaked drain off liquid and stem and seed chiles as necessary. The more seeds you leave in the spicier your harissa will be.

4. In a food processor or blender, combine chiles, sun dried tomatoes, garlic, spices, salt, olive oil, and lemon juice. Pulse to combine until very smooth.

5. Transfer to a glass jar or container and top with about ½ inch olive oil and refrigerate. Harissa will keep for a few weeks. After each use, top off with more oil, if needed.

Tea and fog and a rainbow (Salad)

As a transplant from the  East Coast, part of me feels like I will never get used to the squirrely  weather here in SF.   Autumn doesn't exist at all, summer arrives like clockwork in September, roses bloom in mid-October, and I find myself wondering whether it's OK to wear a pea coat and boots in July.* I've long since stopped being surprised, but I haven't stopped noticing the strangeness of it all. This year, our "winter" weather feels especially disorienting as I see my friends and family in Boston posting pictures of snow days  and frigid weather forecasts while here, in SF, the drought seems to be yo-yoing us between 70 degree temperatures and deluges where we get our annual supply of rain in two days. December was one of the wettest on record, and last month was the first January in the SF history that didn't get any rain at all. Even by the standard of weird weather here, that's far outside of normal for a place so associated with rain and fog in the winter that my father insists on a buying me a new raincoat every time I go visit him in Arizona.  

*Yes, yes it is. Between May and August you can find me rocking my winter wear and pointing and laughing at the tourists in shorts and sundresses.

But then, this past weekend, it rained! Actual water fell from the sky for a sustained period of time, and not it a way that made me wish I knew how to build an ark. Yesterday, we had an entire morning of soft showers, the kind that suggested curling up on the couch with my giant yellow mug of tea and a good book would be the only way to spend my Sunday. 

After a morning of laying on the couch and reading about what kind of girl Lena** is, I made myself one of my favorite salads. I was so happy as I ate this, looking out at a rainbow over the bay with a rainbow of vegetables on my plate. The prospect of today being Monday didn't even bother me, because I was so excited to take the leftovers to work.  

*Yeah, I'm gonna pretend we're on a first-name basis. Taylor too.

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Rainbow Salad with Turkey Burger Patties

This salad is inspired by the Farmer's Market Salad at Roam Burger, which has become one of my go-to take-out meals. It was pretty easy to identify what the ingredients were, since it's uh, a salad, and doesn't really require a recipe, but here is how I make it. The amounts below will make about 2 servings, if it's a full meal, but you can add or subtract amounts for each or make substitutions. 

You'll need:
Salad greens, amount to your preference (I usually use a spring mix but butter lettuce is great here too)
1/2 cup Cherry tomatoes, cut in halves
1/2 cup Rainbow Carrots, thinly sliced (regular are fine if you can't find the rainbow ones, but not as pretty)
1/2 cup Watermelon radishes, thinly sliced (red radishes are fine and I used them because that's what I had, but again, not as pretty)
1/4 cup Pumpkin seeds, toasted
1/8 cup Chives, chopped
1/4 cup Cotija cheese, crumbled
1 avocado, thinly sliced
1/2 lb. ground turkey breast
1/2 tsp. Dijon mustard
salt and pepper, to taste

Red Wine Vinaigrette:
1/3 cup olive oil 
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar 
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
salt and pepper, to taste

You'll have leftover dressing, but it will keep in the refrigerator and it's always something I like to make larger quantities of and have on hand.

I would recommend a mandoline for the carrots and radishes, but it's not mandatory if you don't care about super-thin slices. All vegetable amounts are variable, I usually do about a 1/4 cup of each if I'm making one serving, and crumble on the cheese until I feel like it's enough.

1. Toss the salad greens and all the mix-ins except dressing in a large bowl.

2. Mix ground turkey with dijon mustard and salt and pepper. Form into 6 equal patties. Cook in a hot skillet over medium high heat for a few minutes on each side until golden and cooked through (If you are using a skewer make sure to soak it in water first so it doesn't burn!)

3. Toss the salad with dressing and pile on a plate, top with turkey patties and enjoy!