The Other Harissa

I remember vividly a time in Vermont in September 1973: I’d just returned from hitchhiking cross country, Salvador Allende was being overthrown and killed in Chile (on September 11, no less) …and I made harissa for the first – and, until recently, just about the only – time. The recipe came from “Vladimir Estragon” (a pen name for the great Geoffrey Stokes) in his Village Voice column, “Waiting for Dessert.” (People were perhaps more playful back then.)

You will think harissa is hot sauce, and you’re right. But it’s also the name of an Armenian dish (one that appears around the Middle East, also spelled ‘hareesa’) of chicken or lamb cooked with wheatberries – and not much else – until the meat melts into the wheat and the whole thing becomes what amounts to a savory porridge with just enough chew to make it interesting. The dominating flavors are extremely subtle: your meat, your wheat, maybe some Aleppo or Urfa or another mild chile, garlic, salt, and pepper.