Moroccan Spice Rub (Ras el Hanout) for Lamb & Goat

Why I Love This Recipe

In the late 1980s, I meet a beautiful man from Tabuk, Saudi Arabia who introduced me to North African cuisine, primarily goat meat. Ras el Hanout is the stuff of legend, with blends claiming to be made of up to 40 - 100 different spices. "Authentic versions of ras el hanout can include both common and fairly unusual ingredients as dried rosebuds, dried lavender, fennel flowers, European ash berries, Japanese white ginger, orrisroot, mace blades, caraway, fenugreek, galangal, nigella seeds, chufa nuts, belladonna berries, cantharides (the green beetle called “Spanish fly,” which is now banned in Morocco), and a variety of pungent peppers such as monk’s pepper (chaste berries), cubeb pepper, long-pepper, and grains of paradise (malegueta pepper)." However, no single ingredient should stand out more than any other; it is not heavy handed.

Ingredients You'll Need

2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons ground coriander
2 teaspoons ground cardamom seeds
2 teaspoons ground cayenne or chipotle pepper
2 teaspoons ground nutmeg
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon turmeric
optional: 1 teaspoon sea salt

Questions, Comments & Reviews