This is often labeled as Ras el hanout, and the mixture is one of personal choice. You can buy a blend of course, but it’s lots of fun to make your own, then you can add and subtract according to your own liking.
There are a number of spices the blend almost always contains, such as cumin, paprika, cinnamon, turmeric, ginger, and coriander, but the spice road is long and well-traveled, so options are aplenty! I do not add cayenne here because I want to control the heat of the spices for any particular recipe, same with salt. Add that later. I liked the idea of using my very smoky paprika for another little layer of interest, and it was perfect here. The anise seed was tossed in because I simply love it. Here’s my take, at least for right now. I measured these out for the recipe, but on most days, I would just scoop the spices together using a regular teaspoon!
Mix together:
- 2 tsp. ground cumin
- 2 tsp. smoked paprika
- 2 tsp. ground coriander seed
- 2 tsp. turmeric
- 2 tsp. cardamom
- 1 tsp. allspice
- 1 tsp. ginger
- 1 tsp. cinnamon
- 1 tsp. anise seed
- ½ tsp. ground cloves
- About 15 grinds of black pepper
Use what you need, and store the rest as you would any other spice. It’s delicious on a wide variety of foods.
