If there is anything that depicts the richness and diversity of the Moroccan cuisine, its Ras el Hanout!
The very aromatic and colorful North African spice blend shows how Morocco’s historical and cultural background has impacted its cuisine as well. The majority of the spices used in this blend don’t originally come from Morocco. Just like the cuisine itself, also its worldwide famous spice blend is a melange of various influences and flavors. Some recipes might include dried lavender and rosebuds and others some more exotic ingredients such as long pepper and galangal.
There is no hard and fast rule to make Ras el Hanout. The name loosely means “top of the shelf”, which makes the choice of spices vary from shop to shop or family to family depending on whats the best they have.
Ready-made ras el hanout is usually available from Middle Eastern, Moroccan and specialty spice stores if you don’t have the time to make it yourself but making it from scratch is definitely worth the effort.
The exotic spice blend may contain up to 100 spices, including several unusual spices not commonly found in your part of the world. The following recipe is a great guideline to start off with the experimentation. Feel free to customize your Ras el hanout by adding or subtracting spices that you like. However, try sticking to the basic African staples like coriander, cumin, turmeric, paprika, ground ginger, cinnamon, black pepper etc.
