The spices and herbs of the Moroccan kitchen

Inseparable from the Oriental cuisine to intense cooking, spices and aromatic herbs enhance the flavors of food in a scholarly association with the flower of Orange, honey and olive oil. Famous for their refinement, Moroccan recipes are spices and aromatic herbs use measured to flavor and color pleasing dishes.

Saffron

Spice of choice of Moroccan recipes, Saffron is used for its powerful taste, bittersweet, and the sought-after orange yellow color that gives the dish. Excerpt from the crocus flower, preferably used its filaments that carafe in the broth of the dish, rather than packaging powder. Luxury product, Saffron can be replaced by the association of turmeric and paprika.

Turmeric

In lieu of Saffron often too expensive, powdered turmeric does give the dish the indispensable yellow color to which it attached great importance. On the other hand, its pepper and musk scent sets it apart from saffron. Turmeric is originally a rhizome cut into pieces, dried and powdered.

Paprika or pepper Moroccan

There is a variety of pepper or sweet pepper, dried and powdered who strives for its sweet, slightly peppery taste and its coloring properties that tend towards orange.

Spicy Moroccan spice

Grown in the Morocco, this red pepper is a constant in the North African recipes, but strangely, it is not a pillar of the Moroccan kitchen that use very little. He works sparingly on the grill, and can accompany the tagines and couscous. Pretty hot, it is especially tasty.

Ginger

Part of a rhizome, Ginger is used commonly in powder but it is also used to cool in him grating. Its Lemony and tangy taste is required in many sweet and salty preparations.

Cumin

Cumin is a herbaceous plant which it collects the oblong seeds, which are then dried and powdered. Flagship of Oriental cuisine, he helped compose several mixtures of spices around the world, including the mass in India and ras-el-hanout in North Africa. Called kamoun, its strong and anise taste is often associated with the ginger and lemon.

Ras-el-hanout

In french "head to the grocery store", the ras-el-hanout on principle is a mixture of 24 to 27 spices. The more trained taste buds distinguish maybe cumin, cloves, ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg but more difficult to the iris, lavender and roses buttons. Although pepper, this complex mixture does not sting and subtly underscores the meat of a Tagine.

Cinnamon

Cinnamon sticks are pieces of the inner bark of the cannelier, a tree that is mainly cultivated in Sri Lanka and Madagascar. Used in powder, it is a base of Moroccan cuisine. Her sublime stews, salads and desserts. His palette of aromas both sweet and intense gives it to cumin, honey and orange blossom flower.

Aromatic herbs

Added after cooking, finely chiseled fresh herbs are essentially in the coriander, parsley and basil.

A place apart is attributed to the mint which subtly peppery and sweet aromas are involved not only in refresh salads and give a certain density to the desserts. It is at the heart of the preparation of tea, a symbol of hospitality art.