benazir's blog

My Ras El Hanout

I remember this restuarant named Tasili here in Chicago. It was over 9 years ago I used to go over there and eat their wonderful Algerian food. I would go there to eat after I got off of work except during Ramadan because during this month it was closed during the day.

The Algerians later sold the place to a Moroccan man and a Somali woman. The food was ok but the people that they bought the place from was gone. I combed the internet looking for ways on how to duplicate the flavor of this food so I ended up looking up recipes on how to make this yummy food. As you guessed that I am hooked on this type of cuisine and it is very yummy. What else can I say is that I am a foodie.

This is a recipe that came out of a few pins on my pinterest page that inspired me on how to make my own to use in my own food. So now I am ready to give you my recipe.

This spice is known to be used in many tagine dishes except for fish. We already covered chermoula and and preserved lemon. Now it is time to tell you how I made ras el hanout. This is made for making chicken, beef lamb, goat, and veal dishes.

So enough chatter and get down to business. I took out a small bowl and added 1 pinch each of turmeric, red chili powder, paprika, dried mint, white pepper and ground cinnamon. You can also use a broken piece of a cinnamon stick and grind it with a mortar and pestle in case you do not have the ground cinnamon handy but freshly ground is always the best. I also grated some nutmeg that is equivilant to 1 pinch.

In a mortar and pestle I added 3 cloves, 3 allspice berries, 2 green cardamoms, 1 pinch of Shai zeera (caraway seeds), a strand of mace, 1 small broken piece of star anise, 1 pinch each of celery seeds, cumin seeds, fenugreek seeds, kaloonji, saffron, coriander seeds, black peppercorns, mustard seeds, fennel seeds, or mustard powder if you do not have mustard seeds on hand, rose pettles or if you don’t have the rose pettles handy add 1 drop of rose essence which whould do nicely. Only if you have dried lavender flowers and orris root on hand then add 1 pinch. Amazon has them.

If you are using mustard powder, cinnamon powder and rose essence; add these to the bowl when you add your powdered spices. This is for only if you do not have the whole spice on hand. If you do then grind them in a mortar and pestle until it is a coarse powder and set aside. Add 1 small piece of ginger that is washed peeled and grind it in my mortar and pestle and add to the bowl.

Bear in mind I do this every night that I grind my own spices as always and this is enough for one time only while you are cooking. It is now time to see you in the next recipe and see you there.

Go back