- Paula WolfertPaula Wolfert
- Alan Petrillo Some of the ingredients for "real" ras el hanout are simply unavailable in North America. Such as Spanish Fly. Yes, _that_ Spanish Fly.
- Jay Ashworth It wants yohimbe? really?
- Alan Petrillo No, not yohimbe. Yohimbe is a plant. Spanish fly is an actual insect.
- Jay Ashworth [ Looks on the friggin' internet ] So it is.
en.wikipedia.orgSpanish fly - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaSpanish fly - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia- Jon Singer Ras el Hannut rocks. Paula Wolfert rocks. IIRC, Rafih Benjelloun once said that there are occasional recipes with far more than just 40 ingredients; but I'd think it would get into "diminishing returns" after a certain point.
Here's a recipe for ras el hanout, adjusted to be fairly easy to make in North America, from Paula Wolfert's book /Couscous And Other Good Food From Morocco/:
4 whole nutmegs
10 rosebuds
12 cinnamon sticks
12 blades mace
1 teaspoon aniseed
8 pieces dried turmeric (or 1 ounce of turmeric powder)
2 small pieces orris root
2 dried cayenne peppers
1/2 teaspoon lavender
1 tablespoon white peppercorns
2 pieces galingale
2 tablespoons ginger root
6 cloves
24 allspice berries
20 white or green cardamom pods
4 wild (black) cardamom pods
Put it into a blender or food processor and grind it into powder.
If you can't find the whole ingredients then the appropriate amount of powdered or ground equivalents will do. If you can't find all of the ingredients in your area that's fine, just do the best you can. Formulas for this mix vary, and every spice shop in Morocco has its own blend. Some of them have as many as 40 ingredients some of which are very hard to get in North America.
Ras el hanout translates as "top of the shop". Looking at the list of ingredients it would better translate as "a little of everything in the shop".
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