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Ras al Hanout ~ Posh Spice!



This might say Ras al Hanout!
~  Menu  ~

Trout & Avocado Salad with Ras al Hanout Mayonnaise
Vicky’s Bread
White Wine Spritzer

A week or so ago I was in Truro where, lo and behold, Ally from Nature Kitchen was there with a stall selling her spices.  She had some tasters one of which was a dip made from ras al hanout – it was so good I felt like testing the whole lot!  

I didn’t get any spices at the time because I was distracted by a handmade jumper on the next stall so yesterday I popped into St. A and got myself a small modicum of the stuff.

Ras al Hanout 

spice-mix
Nice one for Pinterest!

A Moroccan spice blend whose name translates as head or top of the shop or as we would similarly say “top shelf”, so pretty special (posh spice!), made up of a large and variable range of spices including in some cases hashish and Spanish fly!  I asked Ally if her mix contained such delights and she said …

“No those herbs (hashish and Spanish fly), although much sort after, are too expensive to add to the ras. 26 spices altogether in this deeply secret blend. ….. No two ras al hanouts should be the same as they are the individual spicer’s personal recipe.” 

Whatever Ally puts in her ras is fine with me, it’s delicious; a kind of floral garam marsala, a bit like curry but not, if you see what I mean.

Having tasted Ally’s delicious dip I tried mixing the ras with mayonnaise (delish), with Greek yogurt (delish) and with both (delish) – so there you have it!

I then had three bowls of ras al hanout-ish dips so mixed some leftover cooked trout and half a perfectly ripe avocado in with the mayo one – and hey presto; my sudden lunch.

spicy leftover trout salad

My friend Debs lived in Morocco for a year or so and she tells me that Ras al Hanout is good in rice dishes, as a rub on chicken, in lamb tagine, with cous cous, chickpeas and that sort of thing.  

I think I shall try it soon as a rub on fish before pan frying because it certainly went well with the trout.  I also imagine it would be good in lentil or split pea soup.  In fact I have so many ideas I want to try I think I'll get a great big modicum next time!

When I was at the little market in Truro I also saw a stand selling some pretty impressive looking pork products.  I didn’t buy any as I wasn’t going home for ages and I didn’t get any info but I think the company was called Cornish Black Pig.  Anyhoo, here’s a photo of their stuff.

Cornish pork products

Hasn’t the weather been fab, here in Cornwall at least, considering how late in the year it is?  We went for a drive, fish ‘n’ chips and a pint yesterday lunchtime and saw people with no shirts on, kite surfers (you can just make one out in this quick pic I took from the moving car), flowers still flowering and sun-bathers still sun bathing.


Cornish beach






3 comments:

Marmaduke Scarlet said...

I discovered Seasoned Pioneers ras el hanout a few years ago - it has rose petals and lavender in it - perfect in a lamb tagine! But now you've got me wondering if it would work in some spice biscuits :)

Suzy - Sudden Lunch said...

Ooh - good idea!

Marmaduke Scarlet said...

Well . . . have just made some ginger biscuits with garam masala and they were rather good :)