Attarine souk.
Berbers smelling of mutton and cloves gaze with envy at the glittering beads, the bright materials, the motley trimmings. I stop there, drunk with the scent, colour and noise, and lean against the narrow edge of a shop between a sack of scarlet pimentos and a basket of rosebuds.
It is here that I have gathered the spices that you will use in the dishes which follow. I will give you, briefly, the names in English and Arabic and what I know of the origin of each. Doubtless there are errors in this work – to give you absolutely accurate information one would have to be both a botanist and an etymologist but I am only … a cook.
Insects, leaves, flowers, petals, seeds, roots and galls. China, India, Java, Egypt, black Africa, the gardens and valleys of Morocco, blending perfumes foreign to our European senses. Spices violent with all the wildness of the countries where they have ripened, sweet from the loving culture of the gardens where they have flowered, here is all the fascination of your dark kitchens, the odour of your streets. Spices are the soul of Fez.
Spices and aromatic plants used in cooking which do not go to make up ras el hanout:
Absinthe: chiba, the cultivated sort can replace mint in tea.
Ambrosia: mkhinza.
Aniseed: nafaa, this can be wild or cultivated in the Tafilalet.
Basil: hbeq zhiri.
Caraway seed: karoniya, found in the region of Meknès.
Citron: laranj, the juice is used to acidify olives.
Cloves: qronfel.
Coriander: qosbour, both the leaves and seeds are used for seasoning.
Cumin: kamoun, cultivated in the region of Marrakesh.
Fennel: bsbas, the wild variety.
Green Spanish aniseed: habbt hlawa, found in the region of Meknès.
Gum mastic: mksa.
Hemp: kif or hashish is used to make majoun.
Hot red pepper: felfla soudania, found in North Africa and Senegal.
Liquorice: arqsous, this is sucked by children and also used in cooking snails.
Mint: nana or iqama, the mentha viridis used in tea, the best is grown around Zerhoun, Sefrou and Meknès.
Parsley: madnousse.
Saffron: zafrane, from Sous and Spain.
Sage: salmiya, used as an infusion in tea.
Sesame: jljlan, cultivated in Chaouia.
Sharp hot red pepper: felfla harra, from the region of Marrakesh.
Sweet marjoram: mrdeddouch, perfumes the water in which snails are cooked.
Sweet red pepper, pimento or paprika: felfla hlouwa.
Thyme: zatr, abundant and scented in the mountains.
Verbena: louiza, an infusion.
Wild mint: fliou, peppermint.
RAS EL HANOUT
‘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.
OLIVES
