N. African spices for salads

Press, 16 August 1988, Page 16

N. African spices for salads

Food & Fable

by

David Burton

Almost every Eastern country seems to have its favourite spice mixture. In China it is the anisedominated Five Spices, Japan has the chilli and sesame scented sishimitogarashi; in Malaysia the fabled Seven Seas Spice; in Yemen zhug; in India, the entire cuisine is centred on innumerable masalas which we in the West grind up and package as curry powder. Right across North Africa, from Libya and Tunisia through Algeria to Morocco, the clear favourite is harissa, a fiery mixture based on chilli, with the addition of carraway, cumin, coriander, and garlic.

I first encountered harissa in the Grand Socco of Tangiers, a confusion of market stalls and shops lining the steep streets of that port city. There it was being sold ready-made in jars and tins, but it is a relatively simple matter to make it up yourself at home:

Harissa To 5T chilli powder (or even better, dried chillis which have been soaked for an hour in water and then pounded) add 1 clove crushed garlic, 2t ground carraway, and It each of ground cumin and coriander.

If making harissa in large quantities, work on the principle of 15 parts ground chilli to two parts carraway, and one each of coriander, cumin and garlic. Add salt to taste. Store the paste in a clean jar and cover with a layer of olive oil.

Apart from the chilli, which is an import from South America, it is easy to see why this particular

mixture should have come into being: coriander grows wild in Morocco, cumin is grown there commercially, and carraway is native to the nearby Middle East.

There are innumerable uses for this mixture. It can be added to soups for extra zest, or thinned down with oil and water for a sauce to accompany couscous, the famous

Moroccan disn ot crushed and reconstituted wheat cooked with stock and meat or vegetables.

Mixed with tomato puree and olive oil, it becomes a spread for bread. It is also very good with fish. Spicy Moroccan Salad Break half a small head of cauliflower into flowerettes and steam for five minutes. Boil or steam 2 medium potatoes and cut into cubes. Cut 1 carrot into matchstick lengths, and quarter 8 radishes. Mix It harissa with y 2 t ground cumin, 5T olive oil, the juice and grated rind of 1 lemon, 2t chopped parsley and it chopped fresh coriander. Toss the vegetables in this mixture until well coated.

Orange and

Olive Salad

Although very popular in Morocco, the Greeks also claim this as a national dish.

Break 4 large oranges into segments and cut each segment into three pieces. Slice 1 small onion very thinly into rings. Place these ingredi-

ents into a bowl with 20 black olives, a pinch of salt, l / 2 t ground cumin and i/ 2 t harissa, diluted with It lemon juice and It olive oil. Toss thoroughly and if time permits, refrigerate before serving.

Cauliflower with Anchovies

This dish, like the previous one, is excellent as a starter. It can be served either hot or cold. Break 1 small head of cauliflower into flowerettes and 3 medium potatoes into quarters. Steam both until cooked. Meanwhile, heat 3t oil in a pan, add 3 cloves crushed garlic, It harissa, l / 2 t salt, It ground carraway and the juice of 1 lemon. From a small tin of fillets of an-

chovy, reserve six and add the rest, finely chopped, to the pan. Stir the mixture for several minutes longer.

Pour this mixture over the cooked vegetables in a serving dish and toss well. Garnish with the remaining six whole anchovy fillets arranged over the top in a lattice pattern.

Even more arcane than harissa is another North African spice mixture known as ras-el-hanout (literally “head of the shop”). There are well over 25 ingredients for this mixture, including all the better known spices and not a few bizarre items as well. These include belladonna berries, almond husks, the roots of the lesser galemgale, and wall bromegrass from Sudan, reputedly an aphrodisiac.