Mourad Lahlou first cookbook Mourad: New Moroccan (Artisan Books, Fall 2011) is filled with love and soul satisfying recipes.
He opens first chapter 'Spice is a Verb' with these words:
"It's all about the spices, right?" That's usually the first question I hear whenever i talk about Moroccan cooking. And the answer is "No, It's really all about what you do with them."
Mourad Lahlou offers his guide to making your own Ras el Hanout spice blend which rules in Morocco.
Ras el Hanout
Makes ½ cup plus 2 tablespoons (65.5 grams)
Gathering and Measuring: This is the part that might take a while, because you may have to order some of the ingredients. Start by weighing or measuring the ingredients. In case you don’t have a scale (yet), I’ve also provided teaspoon and tablespoon measures.
Whole spices to be toasted:
Weigh or measure these and put them in a medium heavy frying pan or cast-iron skillet:
3 tablespoons (11.4 grams) coriander seeds
1½ tablespoons (11.1 grams) cumin seeds
2 teaspoons (3.2 grams) dried orange peel
1¾ teaspoons (3.2 grams) fennel seeds
1 teaspoon (2 grams) grains of paradise
14 (2 grams) allspice berries
½ teaspoon (1.7 grams) caraway seeds
One 1½-inch piece (1.7 grams) cinnamon stick, crumbled
10 (1.6 grams) green cardamom pods, shelled and seeds reserved
½ teaspoon (1.5 grams) Tellicherry peppercorns
2 (1.5 grams) black cardamom pods, shelled and seeds reserved
1½ (1.3 grams) long peppers
¾ teaspoon (1.3 grams) whole mace
1 (0.6 gram) chile de árbol
8 (0.6 gram) cloves
½ (0.5 gram) star anise
Whole spices you won’t toast:
Weigh or measure these and put them in a bowl:
1¹⁄8 teaspoons (4.0 grams) yellow mustard seeds
2 teaspoons (1.9 grams) dried rosebuds
½ teaspoon (1.8 grams) brown mustard seeds
Ground spices:
Weigh or measure these and stir them together in a separate bowl:
1¾ teaspoons (5.6 grams) granulated garlic
2¼ teaspoons (4.6 grams) grated dried ginger (use a Microplane)
½ nutmeg (2.6 grams), grated (about 2½ teaspoons)
½ teaspoon (2.6 grams) citric acid
To Toast the Spices: Put a piece of parchment paper on the work surface.
Put the frying pan with the spices in it over medium heat and stir the spices with a wooden spoon or toss them. After about a minute, you will start to smell them and you’ll hear a bit of crackling. The transformation is beginning. Here’s an example: carefully pick up one of the long peppers, and you’ll notice how soft and pliable it has become as its oils heat up and are released.
Stay completely focused on the process, stirring, watching, and paying attention to the way the aromas are blooming. Remove the pan from the heat briefly if you think anything is starting to burn. The smell should be sweet, nutty, and appetizing, not acrid. Toast the spices for 3 to 4 minutes longer, until they have just started to smoke and darken slightly. Don’t let them toast past this point, or they will burn and become bitter. Err on the side of undertoasting until you get the hang of it.
Immediately pour the spices onto the parchment paper. (Don’t make the mistake of simply removing the frying pan from the heat and letting the spices cool in the pan; they’ll continue to cook, and they’ll burn.) Your house is beginning to smell like a Moroccan kitchen. Enjoy this intoxicating moment.
To Grind the Spices: Once the toasted spices have cooled, add them to the bowl of whole untoasted spices. (In this case, we’re not toasting the mustard seeds, because they pop and fly all over the place, which means you would need to toast them separately with a lid on the pan. You can do that, of course, but here it won’t make a huge flavor difference with so many other spices in the mix. And we’re not toasting the dried rosebuds, because they burn easily and toasting actually kills some of their delicate flavors.)
Stir all of the spices in the bowl to combine them, then pour them back onto the piece of parchment paper, which will make it easier to transfer them to the grinder. Pick up the parchment and pour a few tablespoons of the spices into the grinder, filling it about halfway. Always grind in small batches—overfilling the grinder means that you’ll have to grind for a longer time, and the heat of the blades can cook the spices and alter their flavor. Put the lid on the grinder, turn it on, and grind the spices to a fine, uniform powder, shaking the grinder and pulsing the motor occasionally. As you finish grinding each batch, add it to the bowl with the ground spices. When all of the spices have been ground, use a fork to stir the mixture until it is completely uniform in color.
Hold the bowl up to your nose and take a big, proud whiff of your own ras el hanout. Now, of course, you’ll want to taste it. Raw, it would taste unpleasantly intense, so you’ll need to cook it in some way. You can try any of the recipes in this book that call for it. It’s particularly good with saffron, as in the Short Rib Tangia. The Rainbow Chard (page 000) would be another great place to start.
Store the mixture in an airtight container, ideally for no longer than 1 month, but it will keep for up to 3 months.
(Excerpted from Mourad: New Moroccan by Mourad Lahlou (Artisan Books). Copyright © 2011.
Photographs by Deborah Jones.)