Читать книгу Traditional Moroccan Cooking - Madame Guinaudeau - Страница 10

‘The head’ or ‘the top’ of the shop is the name given to a synthesis of spices, rosebuds and cinnamon together with pimento and black pepper. The metallic glint of the cantharide is mingled with the grey stalks of ginger and more than two dozen spices are needed to complete the intoxicating aroma in which the nomad warrior has combined all the scents of the countries he has passed through.

Ras el hanout is the spice used at Eid el Kebir, for mrouzia, for certain winter dishes which heat the blood and always in the cooking of game. And if it is used rather less nowadays, old men when feeling chilly in the winter still put it into majoun, a preparation which is supposed to warm them and restore virility.

SPICES IN RAS EL HANOUT

Cardamom: qaqulla, seeds from the ginger tree; from Malabar and Ceylon.

Mace: bsiba, the outer layer of nutmeg; from Java and Sumatra.

Gallingale: khdenjal, stalk of the ginger tree, cultivated and wild, from China and the Far East.

Guinea pepper: gouza sahraouia, an aphrodisiac from the Ivory Coast.

Nutmeg: gouza ettzab, from Sumatra and Java.

Four spices: nouioura, pimento from the West Indies. Very different from other pimentos in spite of the name.

Cantharides: debbal el hand or ‘Spanish fly’.

Cinnamon: qarfou, the bark of the tree; from India, the Maldives and Ceylon.

Cyparacée: tara soudania, a strong-smelling stalk from Sudan.

Long pepper: dar felfla, fruit from the piper longum; from India and Malaya.

Cloves: oud el nouar, the bud of the clove tree, from Zanzibar.

Curcuma: orgoub, yellow root of the ginger tree; from India and other tropical countries.

Ginger: sknjbir, the root of the ginger tree.

Orris root: oud el amber, found in the high Atlas Mountains.

Black pepper: elbezar, fruit of the pepper tree.

Lavender: kzama.

Rosebuds: rous el word, the rose of Damascus brought from Persia by the Arabs; cultivated in the Dades, Todra and Ferkla valleys.

Ceylon cinnamon: dar el cini, the bark of the tree; from tropical Asia.

Ash berries: lissan ettir, imported from Europe as an aphrodisiac.

Belladonna berries: Zbibet el laidour, dried berries gathered in Chichouen. Very few are needed.

Fennel flowers: habet el soudane, seeds cultivated in Morocco.

Gouza el asnab.

White ginger: finer than the grey variety; from Japan.

Asclepiadic fruit: hilel abachi.

Cubebe pepper: kabbaba, grey scented pepper from Malaya and Borneo.

Monk’s pepper: kheroua, an aphrodisiac; from Morocco.