There is a like a bazillion recipes for everything you want to cook, the challenge is how to sift through all those recipes for a "good" one! Here are some guidelines I go through when researching a recipe.
Currently I am looking for a fairly simple recipe: Harissa.
Harrisa is a ground spice blend originating in the north African region of the world. Specifically, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco. It is used to flavor meat, stews, couscous, tagines, shwarmas and a multitude of other uses that I love to experiment with in my cooking.
Step one is to gather recipes and possible unique ingredients. I search in three to five of the major cooking sites I like, and for me that's, in no particle order, https://www.epicurus.com/ (everything food), https://forums.egullet.org/ (researching techniques and more), https://www.foodnetwork.com/ (recipes in general), https://www.vahrehvah.com/ (for Indian recipes), https://www.food.com/ (formerly geniuskitchen.com) and also use google search to search another 3-5 sites that pop up, which I sometimes choose based on the "image" search:
https://www.daringgourmet.com/harissa-tunisian-chile-paste/
https://www.thespruceeats.com/what-is-harissa-2355473
https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/homemade-harissa
https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/104403/tunisian-harissa/
https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/harissa-51185010
I notice in many of the Harissa recipes they use 2 kinds of peppers, coriander, cumin and caraway, garlic and in some there's lemon juice. I look on Wikipedia to see if there's anything culturally unique about the Harissa recipe, which tells me, they traditionally use a pepper called Baklouti or Serrano peppers. That's handy as I always have Serranos in my fridge as it is a great spice level for my taste buds. Also learn that in Tunisia they add lemon juice, Algeria, Morocco and Israel they do not. I like the idea of lemon juice and from the harissa's I have had in the past I want my recipe to have it also.
I also look on YouTube and see a guy has a video describing the Baklouti pepper. So I watch to see if there's any additional flavor profile that I could adapt my Serranos to mimic. I learn the pepper is sweet and juicy. It also has a Scoville Heat Units of 1,000 to 5,000 SHU where as the Serrano has 5,000 to 23,000 SHU. Which tells me I should probably deseed my Serrano peppers.
So for sure my recipe is going to have the following:
Serrano peppers, deseeded
Dried Guajillo peppers, reconstituted (for the sweetness I'm missing from authentic Baklouti peppers)
coriander seeds, toasted (toasting the seeds of most spices releases their oils, thus a more pronounced flavor)
cumin seeds, toasted
caraway seeds, toasted
olive oil
lemon juice
garlic
salt
Now to adjust the actual amounts I am going to first make my test batch of Harissa with amounts from an already published recipe that is close to my ingredients.
Right away from the 5 sites above I notice they vary on their amounts spice wise, at allrecipes.com I notice a typo, 2 cups of caraway seeds? What!! Can't be right. I decide, equal amounts of each spice and 3 cloves of garlic. along with a 10 Serranos and 5 Guajillos.
So now my preliminary recipe looks like this:
10 Serrano peppers, deseeded
5 Dried Guajillo peppers, reconstituted
1 tsp coriander seeds, toasted
1 tsp cumin seeds, toasted
1 tsp caraway seeds, toasted
2 tblsp lemon juice
2 tblsp extra virgin olive oil
3 cloves garlic
1/2 tsp salt
I looked on my jar of Harissa spice mix from WholeSpices.com and because it is a dry mix they had citric acid, which would be the substitute for lemon juice, that sour puckering flavor. So if you want something for your spice drawer you make it with citric acid and granulated garlic instead of lemon juice and garlic.
I will report back after the first batch is finished and eaten with any changes to be posted!
I had originally made, without any research at all, what I was calling Harissa, which was ground up chilies with olive oil. Oh boy here comes the flavor train, watch out Guy, passing through flavor town at breakneck speeds!
Thanks for reading,
Robert